CHIMEFest 2020 Brings Together Electronics Performers and Improvisers Working with Audio Feedback

CHIMEFest logo

CHICAGO (Hyde Park) – The CHIME (Chicago Integrated Media Experimental) Studio at the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition (CCCC) and the Art, Science & Culture Initiative present the 2020 CHIMEFest, a two-day live electronics symposium held on Friday, February 28 and Saturday, February 29 at the Logan Center for the Arts. 

The 2020 CHIMEFest, titled CIRCULATIONS, gathers artists and researchers working with live audio feedback in art from around the world, featuring a keynote address by Dr. Cathy van Eck, professor at the University of the Arts in Bern, Switzerland, and author of Between Air and Electricity – Microphones and Loudspeakers as Musical Instruments. The symposium offers paper presentations, sound installations, and a variety of performances. 

The CHIME Studio is a vital creative space at the University of Chicago. Directed by composer, improviser, and sound artist Sam Pluta, the studio is focused on creativity in the many realms of electronic music and its integration with other media.

Guest artists participating in CHIMEFest this year include Chris Hadley, Kristopher Bendrick, Joo Won Park, Viola Yip, Scott L. Miller, Brett Masteller, Olvier Hickman, Hunter Brown & Dominic Coles, Marcel Zaes, Paula Matthusen, Olivia Valentine, Barry Moon, Doug Nottingham, and Alejandro Acierto.

Papers will be presented by Florian Hollerweger, Ted Gordon, Sam Pluta, Ted Moore, Alexandria Smith, Daniel Belgrad, Volker Straebel, and Lauren Hayes.

CHIMEFest presents three exhibition pieces in collaboration with Commiserate Chicago, an inaugural new media arts festival at the University of Chicago’s MADD Center. Highlighted exhibitions include works by Jason Charney, Sean Russell Hallowell, and Pétur Eggerts.

All events are free and do not require tickets. For a complete schedule and more information, visit cccc.uchicago.edu.

 

Friday, February 28 / Logan Center Performance Penthouse (915 East 60th Street)

9 AM – 10 AM              Check in & coffee

10 AM – 12 PM             Paper Session 1: Feedback in Context

  • Michael Johnsen - Livelier Live-Electronics: David Tudor’s Pioneer Approach to Home-brew Instruments
  • Florian Hollerweger - Applications of feedback: From audio accident to musical paradigm
  • Ted Gordon - No Idea But In Things: Cybernetics and Materiality in Alvin 

1:15 PM – 3:15 PM       Paper Session 2: Feedback in Practice

  • Sam Pluta - Multi-mapped Neural Networks for Control of Multidimensional Crossfeedback Synthesis Systems
  • Ted Moore - Ergonomics and performance practice of a feedback wind instrument
  • Alexandria Smith - Chaos and Compromise: Experimentations with Flugelhorn

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM       Keynote Address by Cathy van Eck - From Mistake to Music: Composing with Acoustic Feedback

7:00 PM                       Concert 1

  • Chris Hadley touch network
  • Kristopher Bendrick Semi-Human//Semi-Sentient
  • Joo Won Park Large Intestine
  • Viola Yip Lazy Studies
  • Scott L. Miller This Strange Fine-Tuning of Our Universe II

All events are free and open to the public.

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Saturday, February 29 / Logan Center Performance Penthouse (915 East 60th Street)

11 AM                          Concert 2

  • Brett Masteller Warren unsound
  • Oliver Hickman Sonorous Noise
  • Hunter Brown & Dominic Coles improvisation
  • Marcel Zaes Setting #x

1:30 PM – 3:30 PM       Paper Session 3: Ecological Feedback

  • Daniel Belgrad - Ecological Implications of Live Audio Feedback
  • Volker Straebel - When acoustic feedback left the stage
  • Lauren Hayes - Sounding Out Spaces

5:30 PM – 7:30 PM         between systems and ground (Logan Center 802)

                                      Durational performance by Paula Matthusen and Olivia Valentine

6 PM                              Pre-concert reception with refreshments

7:30 PM                         Concert 3

  • Cathy van Eck empty chairs
  • Michael Johnsen improvisation
  • Barry Moon & Doug Nottingham Castaway
  • Alejandro Acierto Our proximities are tethered with time

All events are free and open to the public.