Composer Jarosław Kapuściński will be visiting De Montfort University Thursday, Nov 7, 2024, to present his VR work Point-Line-Piano, a collaboration with the OpenEndedGroup.
PACE Building, Studio 1 (ground floor)
14:00 - 15:00 Lecture: Composing Intermedia: from Audiovisual Piano to VR
15:00 - 17:00 Opportunities for those who attended the lecture to experience Point-Line-Piano for themselves (circa 10-minutes each). A signup sheet for slots will circulate during the lecture.
17:00 - 18:00 Pre-signup slots will be available for others who want to experience the project. Email Prof Bret Battey (bbattey@dmu.ac.uk) to request a slot. This time slot may be extended if there is need.
More information:
Talk: Composing Intermedia: from Audiovisual Piano to VR.
Composer Jarosław Kapuściński specializes in creating audiovisual works across various media. Many of his compositions are interactive, often involving musicians—particularly pianists—who control visual content, or more recently, general audiences who paint audiovisual worlds in VR. Whether animating fruits (Juicy), typewritten poetry (Oli’s Dream), or the traces of music reflected in the faces of listeners from around the world (Where is Chopin), his works form highly intricate yet playful systems interweaving music, visuals, meaning, and performer actions. In this presentation, Kapuściński will discuss his work, as well as demonstrate a recent VR collaboration with the OpenEndedGroup, Point Line Piano.
VR experience: Point-Line-Piano
Point-Line-Piano is a VR project that reimagines the composition, performance, and
reception of piano music by fusing its modes of creating, playing, and
listening. As you interact with it, your ears, eyes, and hands act in concert.
You start by drawing lines freely in the space around you, sparking musical
notes that are notched as points on the lines as you draw them. These notes
quickly accumulate, forming distinct melodic phrases and rhythms, while the
computer generates an intricate audiovisual dance all around you. The work
enables a spatial and full-body experience of abstraction not found in any
other medium. In a live concert setting it can also be used as an audiovisual
instrument. Point-Line-Piano received support from the European Research Council Digi-Score Project: https://digiscore.github.io/ .
Biographies
Jarosław Kapuściński is an Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, where he
is affiliated also with the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.
His research focuses on intermedia composition, performance, and Japanese
traditional aesthetics.
Kapuściński has received grants and commissions from numerous international organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Governor General of Canada, and Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) in France. His works have been awarded prizes at festivals in Canada, France, Switzerland, and the United States, and have been presented at venues such as New York MOMA, Spoleto USA, EMPAC NY, Logan Center in Chicago, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, Media Biennale Wroclaw, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Creative Media Center in Hong Kong, Benz Arena in Shanghai, and National Art Centre in Ottawa.
In addition to his artistic work,
Kapuściński has collaborated on scholarly websites about Japanese Gagaku music
(gagaku.stanford.edu) and Noh Theater (noh.stanford.edu).
https://jaroslawkapuscinski.com/
Marc Downie and Paul Kaiser have collaborated as OpenEndedGroup since 2001. Working in a broad variety of media and venues:, they make art for façade, gallery, dance, stage, 3D cinema, print, and virtual reality. Their works respond to a wide range of materials — drawing, film, motion capture, photography, music, and architecture. They frequently combine three signature elements: non-photorealistic 3D rendering; the incorporation of body movement by motion-capture and other means; and the autonomy of artworks directed or assisted by artificial intelligence. OpenEndedGroup’s films, installations, stage works, and VR pieces have premiered in such venues as MoMA, Lincoln Center, the Barbican, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Hayward Gallery, Sadler’s Wells, and the Berlin, New York, and Rome film festivals. Eight of their 3D digital films were the first of their kind to enter MoMA’s permanent collection.
