technology and music.
“It’s
really
hard
to
say,
because every time I get exposed
to something new in PAT, I
gravitate towards it,” Cox said.
“Every day, what I see myself
doing in the future is different.
It’s really hard to decide what
you want to do, because every
day
music
technology
and
performance arts technology is
growing and its exponential. It’s
not going to stop.”
This year’s student showcase
will be a single example of
the expansive work that PAT
students are doing, which could
be viewed as the most recent
culmination of several years of
art and technology developing
alongside
one
another.
According
to
Department
Chair Michael Gurevich, these
developments can be boiled
down to two major factors, the
first being an immense growth
in computing power.
“When I was starting out, you
could barely kind of process and
manipulate sound on a computer
live, in real time,” Gurevich said.
“Now, your watch or your phone
can do that. So just the sheer
computing power has created
the possibility that anyone’s
phone, computer (and) lots of
mobile computing devices are
basically
powerful
recording
studios
of
powerful
simple
processes. So that means that
anyone can do it, and anyone has
the access to really sophisticated
tools.”
Gurevich has been active in
the field of performance arts
technology for about 20 years.
Another factor that has led to
an increase in innovation in this
field, he said, is the Internet.
“The second thing is the
possibility
that
using
the
internet
as
a
medium
for
music-making
has
made
so
the possibility of now not just
recording, producing one’s own
music, but distributing it online,”
Gurevich said. “But then also the
possibility of collaborating with
people in distant locations who
you’ve never met — and we can
do that live now, too. So one of
our interests in our department
at Michigan is what we call
telematics, so the possibility
of playing live with people in
distant locations.”
The PAT program at the
University
specifically
has
risen to meet the occasion.
One of the things that makes
the department here stand out
is that the program is highly
undergraduate-focused;
By
Gurevich’s estimate, as many as
98 percent of PAT students are
undergraduates.
“Music technology, which is
really what our department is
primarily about, tends to be a
field that really, in most schools,
exists primarily at the graduate
level,”
Gurevich
said.
“And
that’s because in order to work
in this field, you need to know
a lot about music, you need to
know a lot about technology and
you need to also have put some
thought into how those two
things go together … So we’re
pretty unique in that respect,
in that we start out in a really
challenging field, from day one,
with undergraduate students.”
The department is also unique
because of its sheer breadth:
There
are
nine
full-time
faculty members, with focuses
encompassing composition, film
music, visual media, recording,
sound engineering and more.
All of the faculty and their
classes share a commitment to
prioritizing creativity through a
technological lens.
“What we try to do, always,
is to keep the aesthetic and the
creative aspects of what we’re
doing front and center in all of
our classes … What we try to do
is not focus on technology for its
own sake, but instead to try to
always be asking what are the
creative consequences and the
creative or artistic possibilities
of a particular technique or
a
particular
technology,”
Gurevich said.
The classes accomplish this
often through assigning project-
based work, and assignments
where “as soon as students learn
something, they’re starting to
make music with it.” The world
of performance arts technology
is rapidly evolving, and judging
by the pace of the department
and the wide variety of projects
being undertaken by its students,
the University’s PAT program is
more than prepared to keep up.
“Historically, a lot of new
technologies
have
actually
emerged
from
artistic
motivations. At the same time,
artists have always been kind
of
voracious
consumers
of
technologies, and as soon as a
new technology emerges, artists
are using it to try to push art
forward. And I think that exists
in music, it exists in visual art,
in architecture, in almost any
creative field,” Gurevich said.
“So I think they’ve always been
intertwined, and that’ll probably
always be the case.”
2B —Thursday, March 22, 2018
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Performance Arts Technology and
the limitless potential of tech & art
Moore’s law postulates the
capabilities of technology double
every two years and will continue
to do so indefinitely. The logical
base of this projection into the
future has been disputed, but
regardless its central idea is
true: Technology does not stop.
This
characteristic
is
what
makes the School of Music,
Theatre & Dance’s Performance
Arts Technology department
so interesting, as the challenge
for students is to chase this
technological trend through art.
The
Daily
spoke
with
PAT
students
about
the
unique characteristics of the
University’s
program
that
facilitate the marriage between
art and technology as well as the
intrinsic innovation within the
major.
Fee Christoph, an interarts
performance
and
computer
science major, took both PAT
201 and PAT 498. In PAT 201,
Christoph was exposed to the
processes behind the creation
of electronic music and some
history about the genre.
“In the class itself, what I
really enjoyed was that it wasn’t
just a focus on learning (PAT)
skills, but a lot of it was also about
thinking about electronic music
and the debates it presents and
understanding
philosophically
what
it
means
for
these
different music movements to be
happening,” Christoph said.
Her PAT 498 experience was
slightly different: “PAT 201 was
a studio class where we were
making more music, and then
in PAT 498 we were learning all
about this awesome electronic
music.”
In
PAT
498,
Christoph
learned the scope of electronic
music in a social context, as
her professor revealed to the
students many artists working at
the fringe of technology-driven
music, especially women and
minorities innovating in a genre
historically dominated by white
men.
“The easiest gate into the
history of electronic music is
through a lot of white male
composers, so it was really
cool to have a class that was
like, ‘Hey, there are also a
ton of women composers and
minority composers who are
doing amazing work currently,’”
Christoph said.
Classes in PAT often examine
artistic innovation in the context
of history, a focus which has
offered its students a broader
perspective on the possibilities
that
technology
offers.
In
another interview, PAT major
and
independent
singer-
songwriter Johanna Baumann
expanded on the importance of
this innovation.
“If we’re talking about history,
going back to, let’s say, the 1900s
… people were going back to the
classical stuff, but there were
also other people who were like,
‘No, we’re not going to go there.
We’re going to do new things.
We’re going to mess around with
records and later tape, and cut
stuff up, and make crazy stuff
that doesn’t sound like music to
anyone.’ Yet. But now it sounds
like music to us,” Baumann said.
According
to
Baumann,
this
pattern
has
continued
throughout many of the major
technological advancements of
the last century, all the way up
to the present day.
“People were making music
with computers as soon as
computers started to become
a
thing,”
she
said.
“Even
before that, people were using
technology in music in creative
ways … Technology and art
develop alongside each other
and enhance each other, because
technology without art would
be super boring. And then art
without technology would be
more limited.”
As a PAT student, Baumann is
often seeking out creative ways
to explore this intersection. She
interned last year at Moogfest,
a festival focused on music and
technology, and just released
an
original
album
in
Feb.
The album, Peach, consists of
eight tracks, some of which
were recorded as projects in
PAT recording classes. Last
year, Baumann received the
Hedy
Lamarr
Achievement
Award for Emerging Leaders
in Entertainment Technology,
presented
by
the
Digital
Entertainment Group. As she
pointed out in our conversation,
she is only one example: “PAT
majors are doing big things.”
“If you just know the technical
basics, you’re not going to be
able to solve problems as well
as if you know the creative
aspects,” Baumann said. “Say
you’re helping a musician, and
they have some kind of problem
… You know the technology of
what’s going to work, and then
you also know, aesthetically
and musically, what’s going to
sound good. So I think having
the creative experience really
enhances being an engineer.
Because you’re an artist, too, so
you can help the artist.”
Baumann’s
newest
project
is her senior thesis, a sound
installation to be put up in the
Chip Davis Technology Studio
of the Earl V. Moore Building.
The
student
showcase
day
for all senior theses will take
place April 13. Baumann’s own
installation, Mood Room, will
be a curtained-off section of
the room with stations that
generate music algorithmically
using participants’ heart rate,
temperature and conductance.
“I’m
trying
to
estimate
people’s moods and play music
that reflects the mood of the
room, and then also have colored
lights and stuff. It’s like a mood
ring, but a room,” Baumann said.
Ryan
Cox,
a
Daily
Arts
Writer and former saxophone
performance major, explained
his initial draw to PAT was the
program’s diversity of interests
and lack of rigidity that mirrored
the limitlessness of technology.
“One of the things that I really
liked about the PAT program
here especially was how diverse
is actually was,” Cox said. “They
didn’t have a specific focus, but
it was kind of what you made
of it. I’ve had friends graduate
here who are now recording
engineers in L.A. I’ve had
friends graduate here who are
now working for digital audio
workstations and coding for
them. It’s really as technical or
as creative as you want it to be.”
For example, Cox mentioned
that for his PAT application, he
was asked to rearrange a Bach
fugue with the objective to “be
as weird and creative as you can
be.” He merged the fugue with
“Back to the Future” themes,
titling his piece, “Bach to the
Future,”
checking
both
the
weird and creative boxes.
Cox
also
spoke
on
the
controversy
regarding
the
combination
of
music
and
technology in general. While
there is certainly merit to the
claim
technology’s
influence
in music has the potential
to
transform
warm,
analog
sounds into digital, inauthentic
computations, Cox sided with
the computers. To him, the
influx of technology in art
opens up many more doors than
it closes, especially when the
proper balance between natural
and artificial is struck.
“I’m all for the incorporation
of
technology
in
music,”
Cox said. “I think it’s really
important because of how many
boundaries it alleviates. It’s
really cool to have a combination
of analog sounds and more
digital, abstract sounds that
you wouldn’t be able to actually
create. I think that’s stimulating
for the listener because they’ll
hear these things that are man-
made, and then they’ll hear
these things that aren’t natural.”
Cox posited this stimulating
blend of electronic and organic
sounds is what drives pop
and hip-hop music today, as
electronically engineered beats
are often paired with a natural,
familiar voice.
Sticking with the topic of the
benefits technology brings to art,
our conversation shifted toward
the music industry. Today, with
the advent of label-less streaming
services like SoundCloud and
Bandcamp, amateur musicians
can independently make the
leap into the professional world
with simply a microphone, a
digital audio workstation and
a computer. This progression
not only makes the creation and
promotion of music infinitely
easier for the artist, but it also
exposes so much art to the
listener that would go either
uncreated
or
undiscovered
without technology.
When
asked
about
his
focus
and
future
in
PAT,
Cox gave a response in line
with
the
information
he’d
already
provided
about
the
ever-changing
landscape
of
LAURA DZUBAY
Daily Arts Writer
&
MIKE WATKINS
Daily Arts Writer
DARBY STRIPE / DAILY
Johanna Bauman discusses the PAT program.
From developing car parts to
making sculptures, 3D printing
and scanning technologies are
changing the way we create.
The
Groundworks
Fabrication
Studio,
located
in
the
Duderstadt
Center,
offers students the chance
to work with 3D printing
and
scanning
technologies.
Staff at Groundworks assist
students with the printing of
their projects, giving advice
on which specific printer to
use and helping create the
file.
Stephanie
O’Malley,
Interactive
Imaging
and
Production
Specialist
at
Groundworks, creates content
for a variety of grant funded
projects across the schools
associated with the University.
“These grants can involve
3D content for augmented
or virtual reality platforms,
animation
or
illustrations
and span very diverse fields,
from medical or engineering
to
art
and
architecture,”
O’Malley wrote in an email
interview
with
The
Daily.
“Because Groundworks at the
Duderstadt Center is an open
resource to all of the University
of Michigan, we see a lot of
cross-pollination
between
students from different fields
which can lead to some very
interesting projects.”
O’Malley has seen many
student projects, and some
of the most interesting to
her have been when students
3D scan themselves to print
miniatures or to paper craft
armatures. Others use the
data to CNC route (a computer
controlled cutter) to cut large
foam statues.
“I think the most intriguing
art projects that utilize 3D
printing are those that make
smart use of the technology
to do things that haven’t been
done before or can’t be done
with
traditional
means
of
fabricating,” O’Malley wrote.
“I am also always excited to
see other technologies feed
into the 3D printing process.”
However,
O’Malley
has
noticed some restrictions with
the 3D printers, especially
because
they
require
that
the artist have the technical
knowledge
that
goes
into
making the CAD (computer
aided design program) model
of the project they want to
print.
“I would like to see these
technologies
become
more
artist-friendly,”
O’Malley
wrote.
“3D
printers
are
restricted in many ways that
artists have to design around.
A lot of people have the
expectation that a 3D printer
should work as seamlessly
as a paper printer, and I see
a lot of companies trying to
progress
toward
achieving
that experience.”
O’Malley herself started out
in the video game industry,
working
on
cross-platform
game development for XBox,
Playstation and Wii. She now
finds working at the University
to be a way to blend her
background with her interest
in cutting edge technologies
and virtual reality platforms.
When O’Malley looks to the
future of 3D technologies and
art, she hopes for improvement
from both the artistic side
as well as the technical side,
because while 3D technology
is used to create art, art skills
are used to transform science
and engineering projects from
an idea to reality.
“In 3D visualization we
see a lot of rough diagrams
and other visuals that are
constructed by scientists or
engineers,
and
they
often
lack the aesthetic to make
them look professional but
also the visual cues that tell
the viewer what is important
or how to travel coherently
through the data,” O’Malley
wrote. “It takes a very skilled
artist
to
reinterpret
this
kind of complicated data in a
more coherent way. I would
like to see artists that are
more adaptive to this visual
language,
but
also
more
people seeking visualizations
who realize the importance
of a strong aesthetic when
communicating their ideas.”
Groundworks at the Dude:
art intersects with 3D tech
LOCAL SPOTLIGHT
NITYA GUPTA
Daily Arts Writer
BSIDE LEAD
The Daily spoke
with PAT students
about the unique
characteristics of
the University’s
program that
facilitate the
marriage
between art and
technology as well
as the intrinsic
innovation within
the major