UI Composers Concert
Sunday, March 6, 2022 at 7:30pm, Stark Opera Studio
University of Iowa Student Chapter of The Society of Composers, Inc.
Program
Manifest, for Vocoder, Tape Loops, Electronics |
M DENNEY |
| "How is it possible, with all that is possible, that the same form is repeated again and again? How does the openness of the future get closed down into so little in the present?" – Sara Ahmed, Queer Phenomenology |
Improvisation |
Matt MASON and Greg EVANS |
| Matt Mason, accordion Gregory Rowland Evans, cello |
Status of Pietà, video |
Nima BAHREMAND and Ramin ROSHANDEL |
| Status of Pietà is a video-sound art collaboration between Nima Bahrehmand and Ramin Roshandel; it examines the notion of machine vision in the context of the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East. On one level, across the region, networks of decentralized wars have ebbed and flowed, determining what the region should and can be. On the other hand, the lives of its people are under surveillance 24/7 by mechanical eyes - drones and satellites - that capture them from a distance. So, how can a Machine/AI read, process, and represent the shattered and repressed bodies and lives of people in the middle east? In this project, images of the Syrian war were imported into a pre-trained AI called BigBiGAN. The machine then generated similar images based on the given input, in which war victims embraced other human beings as they fled the bombing. The machine vision outcome is a collection of abstract and pixelated images with a low-frequency movement, seeing through the eyes of the machine. |
The Water Will Come |
M DENNEY & Lex LETOURNEAU |
| Lex Letourneau, flute & voice M Denney, prepared guitar |
| The Water Will Come is a reflection on natural processes, especially the ways in which the actions of humans are extensions of those processes. It also works as an exploration of ensemble dynamics and cohesion in an environment where performers are given significant interpretive liberty and choice. |
Walking on Sol, video |
Nima BAHREMAND and Ramin ROSHANDEL |
| What happens when disregarded belief and repressed regions are recalled and thought of in different ways? Can these forgotten remnants of the past be whisperings of the future? What aspects of the future can be imagined and constructed by technology? |
Letter #1, 2022, Typewriter, Electronics |
Matt MASON |