GPuRe: Room 320H Prentis Hall, Columbia University
(12/7/2010)
We were extremely fortunate at the CMC this past semester to have
Miller Puckette
as a visiting professor. In addition to teaching a terrific
seminar on interactive music, Miller has been working on a snazzy project
using various tiles (ceramic) and small metal plates as controllers
for music performance. By happy coincidence, violin virtuouso
and improviser
Todd Reynolds
has been teaching a class at the Manhattan School of Music on computer-music
technology just a few blocks away from us at Prentis Hall. Todd had arranged
for his class to come by the CMC to see some of our historical gear and
recent work, but the first time we set it up my brain completely disengaged
and I missed the appointment! Aaaaugh! I was staring right at my calendar
the very day of the tour, and my cognitive apparatus totally dysfunctioned.
So we rescheduled, and Todd mentioned that he had also spoken to Miller
about possibly presenting his (Miller's) work to the class. I thought
it might be fun to combine all of this into One Big Extravaganza (well,
maybe a Sort-Of Smallish Extravaganza) with Miller and I talking about
what we did after a tour of the facilities, and ending with a kick-out-the-jams
session with Miller, me, Todd.
Actually it was this last thing that really drove it for me. I have
tremendous respect for both Todd and Miller, and the chance to do some
fun music with them together was just too tempting. So we did!
My laptop role is a bit more minimal than usual. I had to reinstall
a bunch of software just before we started paying (I did it during Miller's
portion of the "class presentations"), and I wasn't sure everything was
working. Not a bad little piece though, for a total pick-up group of
three people who have never done this together before. I like it!
Todd Reynolds -- violin
Brad Garton -- laptop
Miller Puckette -- tile controllers
more photos:
