Digitalis through the Roof, featuring Matmos
- Tuesday, May 4, 2010
- Old Cabell Hall
- 8:00pm
- Free
On Tuesday May 4, 2010, Digitalis, the annual computer music festival at the University of Virginia, will feature performances by Matmos and the 250-person MICE Human-Computer Orchestra, with music by Matmos, Aurie Hsu, Alex Wallace, Grove Miller, the Emergence Collective, the Interactive Media Research Group (IMRG), Sarah O’Halloran, Erik DeLuca, Peter Traub and MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble). Visuals created the ARAD-3559 Digital Arts class will bring a cosmic focus to Digitalis Through the Roof.
Electronic music collage artists, Matmos, create impressive sound art from a dizzying diversity of sources such as contact microphones on human hair, rat cages, tanks of helium, violas, human skulls, nose flutes, chin implant surgery, tubas, cards shuffling, liposuction surgery and amplified synapse from crayfish nerve tissue to name a few. Matmos created the music for Bjork’s Vespertine and have performed and collaborated with artists world-wide.
From humble beginnings in 2001 as a small ensemble of sound hackers at the University of Virginia, MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) has grown into a 250-person human/computer orchestra, the largest laptop orchestra in the world. MICE recently completed a massive world tour performing in Thailand, Japan, South Africa, Namibia, India, China, the US and other locations. The group was created by director Matthew Burtner.
The Digitalis concert will also feature the premiere of NOMADS (Network-Operational Mobile Applied Digital System) created by the IMRG. NOMADS is a unique system for human-computer interaction. Audience members are highly encouraged to bring a wireless-enabled laptop and join in the performance. No special software is required and all operating systems are supported.
A dynamic collaborative effort between the MUSI-2350 Technosonics class and George Sampson’s ARAD-3559 Digital Arts class culminates in an exciting new multimedia composition co-created by the two classes for this occasion.
The performance will take place in Old Cabell Hall of the University of Virginia. Presented by the McIntire Department of Music and Virginia Center for Computer Music, the event is being produced by the VCCM, the IMRG, and the MUSI-2350 Technosonics class.