soundcloud global meetup

if you haven't used soundcloud and you are a sound creator or listener, you are missing tons. soundcloud is a social platform to share sound, music, and any type of audio. you can record, upload, and share any sounds you capture from your surrounding to your musical creations or even if you want to have your own alternative radio, or even if you want to share a conversation. what i love about soundcloud is that the sound creators are not promoted depending on their recording label or sound studio, instead it's a social network that people listen to what ever sound they are more interested in from all over the world. if you are interested in adding your own features, soundcloud also has a fantastic api that you can add up your own plug-ins or apps.
good news for the users and non-users of soundcloud is that there will be a global soundcloud day this coming wednesday and there are soundcloud events all over the globe on that day. i helped with a fantastic group of soundclouders in san francisco to have one in our city. if you like to hear more about soundcloud or share your experience with it and meet some people who love sharing sounds or using soundcloud api, join us on wednesday october 5th 2011 7pm-10pm @ the summit, 780 valencia.

we will feature soundcloud user instillations and apps using the soundcloud api, and will be online on twitter under the #SCMeetupSF hash-tag, so you can join us even if you're not at the summit.

the poster of the event is generously created by max poynton.

transitions 2011

don't miss these two great concerts at ccrma. every year when new students come there's a transition concert to welcome them and let them hear what kind of sounds are made at ccrma and what are all the possibilities. bring your blankets and hang out in the ccrma courtyard in these two evenings of electronic music. there will be sixteen loudspeakers, four subwoofers, and twenty seven squirrels that live under the lawn.


TRANSITIONS 2011 - night 1: soundscapes under the stars
Wednesday, 9/28, 8pm, CCRMA courtyard
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/events/transitions-2011-night-1-acousmatic
Acousmatic music by John Chowning, Gilles Gobeil, Jonty Harrison,
Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, Ake Parmerud, Hans Tutschku, and Unknown!

TRANSITIONS 2011 - night 2: live electronic music
Thursday, 9/29, 8pm, CCRMA courtyard
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/events/transitions-2011-night-2-live-electronic-music
Music by Chris Carlson, Bjoern Erlach, Mark Applebaum, John Granzow&
Hongchan Choi, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, Mike Rotondo&  Nick Kruge, Luke
Dahl, Locky, Cloud Veins.

sfemf 2011

the 12th annual san francisco electronic music festival took place on september 8 -11 in sfmoma and brava theater. it was the first time that sfmoma hosted one of the nights and it was amazing to have some amazing sounds in that space. 


one of the highlights of this year's festival was a tribute to max mathews. as you may already know we lost the father of computer music earlier this year. in sfemf marielle jakobsons and diane douglas played improv for olympiad using max's phaser filters.  max mathews' phaser filters create tuned resonances within any sound played through them., the way that a room can amplify certain frequencies depending on its shape. max loved to play these filters melodically to constantly shift the resonant space. he was also interested in harmonics for example, changing the tuning of his filters to quarter tones or complex chords.


from other new composers and media artists i was most fascinated by the music of cadet kuhne. her piece stora bioern is a collaboration with visual artist alba corral. the piece is  based on great bear constellation using a recursive algorithm to compose dynamics and structures. corral used processing to create visuals. since i am a fan of open source software, processing, i really enjoyed what she has done with it.  there are regularly processing workshops at gaffta if you are interested in learning more about the software. also cadets pulsing sound progressing in sync with the visuals were very fascinating. 

rose is a rose is a rose is a rose

i'm not a literature expert to talk about getrude stein's writings, but i like them rhythmically and enjoy how she plays with phrases. also i respect her work as being a contemporary art collector. there are two amazing exhibits in san francisco now on her life, one at sfmoma, and one at contemporary jewish museum. in these exhibits, her works in literature and art, life and relationships, and even works of artists about her are exhibited.

one of my very favorite art works on these exhibits is deborah sperber's after picasso. this work is based on picasso's portrait of getrude stein which is at metropolitan museum of art in new york. what sperber has done with several classic pieces is amazing. she has recreated these classic art works by using thousands of spools of colored thread arranged in abstract patterns that pulled into focus when viewed through a circular device resampling a crystal ball. from a few feet away they look like vague, pixilated color but through the optical device you see the perfect reproduction of the painting of picasso.

another interesting installation in this exhibit is terry berlier's human tuning fork #4. i really enjoyed her pan lid gamelan when she exhibited it with us at somaarts. that was a very interactive piece that you could play gamelan on an array of pan lids mounted on the wall. the human tuning fork is less interactive but very interesting. there are circles of tiny speakers mounted on the wall, each representing one country in the world. each speaker is wired parallel to the other which means the whole system either works all together or not at all. a sound recording of getrude stein text is played by the speakers which is translated into several languages.