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On September 16, 2000, I participated in a wonderful
event that brought together a large number
of people interested in experimental (mostly technology-driven) music.
The event was called Woodstockhausen 2000. This was the third year
it was being held, and the location was deep in the woods near
Boulder Creek, in the Santa Cruz mountains. It was organized by
Wayne Jackson and a lot of other very dedicated and talented people.
The participants were mostly from the Silicon Valley area, though
Eric Lyon came all the way from Dartmouth - he stayed at my house
during that weekend.
The extensive program describes all the pieces that were
performed during a very long (but entertaining) night.
About half of them were performed live,
and half were pre-recorded.
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I performed a live piece called "21st Century Caffeine-Based Life Form".
Here are the program notes for it:
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"21st Century Caffeine-Based Life Form" is a live improvisation, making use of an L-systems fractal algorithm called Expresso. The algorithm processes KeyKit expressions, starting with the single variable X, and applying 12 simple rules iteratively to generate huge expressions, which then produce a wide variety of musical material when you substitute a single note or phrase for the variable X. An interactive interface allows the algorithm to be controlled by the performer in real time, using both the computer and MIDI keyboards as input devices.
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Here's a picture showing what my PC screen looked like while I performed the piece:
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Click on the image
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The picture shows the eight instances of the "Expresso" tool that
I was manipulating during the piece - four of them were for
melodic stuff and four were for drums. Also on the screen
are four "Grab Bag" tools - two were for drums, and two
are for patch change wandering. There's also a 16-channel
volume slider, and in the upper-left is the "timer" I used
to judge where I was within the 10-minute duration of the piece.
Here are some pictures of me during the performance:
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Click on the image
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All during the event, there were incredible graphics
being displayed on a screen behind the stage. You can see a bit of it
in this picture:
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Click on the image
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Someone (Scott Angel) even made some mpeg movies! Here's a couple taken
during my performance:
