Orford Sound Art Workshop - Montreal

PhD Composer at NOVARS, Manuella Blackburn has completed a two-week residency at the Orford Sound Art Workshop, Montreal, Canada. This workshop provided the opportunity to work with guest composers Hans Tutschku, Gilles Gobeil, John Oswald, Robert Normandeau and Jean Francois Laporte.
Projects and sessions were lead by Yves Daoust and Alexandre Burton.
Activities included diffusion practice, microphone and recording techniques, improvisation sessions with instrumentalists, electroacoustic music concerts and one-to-one lessons for work in progress.
During the two weeks Manuella realised an improvisation project for oboe, double bass and laptop.
Manuella's PhD is funded by the AHRC

For more about the Orford Art Centre, please visit their web

Pictured above, the orford centre. Photo by Manuella

Ho / Cipher - Do 27 August 09/ 18-21 Uhr Projecttraum schwarz - Neukölln, Berlin

POND LIFE II audiovisual laboratory at ICMC 09, Montreal. A collaborative work by Sam Salem and Patrick Sanan

PondLife II. An audiovisual laboratory. This is an ever-evolving environment which you are invited to experiment with. Adjust the light and nutrient levels to promote or destroy creatures. Watch the system grow and evolve, or stick your hand in to stir things up!

The work combines a wide range of technologies and aesthetics to create a unique and captivating environment. Fluid simulation, sound and motion sensing, genetic algorithms, a unique setup, and carefully crafted sounds and visual elements come together to create a piece which allows the audience to watch and intervene in the evolution of a small society of abstract microbes which grow, hunt, mutate, and crossbreed to generate subtle and surprising variations on the visual and aural scene.
Pondlife is a collaborative work between current PhD digital media composer at NOVARS, Sam Salen and Patrick Sanan (Physical Scientist in Residence at NOVARS), currently pursuing a PhD in Mathematics in the California after completing a MusM in EA Composition at NOVARS.