Don't miss the launch of Stephan Moore's sixteen-channel hemispherical speaker system. ISSUE Project Room will host Moore's unit as a long-term installation designed to allow interested composers the opportunity to experiment, present and create new works specifically for these components.
This evening, participants include electronic composers Al Margolis, Stephan Moore, Scott Smallwood and Dion Workman.
"Electronic music has traditionally relied on front-firing loudspeakers to produce sound in a concert situation. Because these speakers emit sound in a highly directional manner, the sounds produced have a quality that is very different from acoustic instruments, which radiate sound in all directions and engage their environment more completely. These hemispherical speakers allow electronic instruments to take on the characteristic intimacy of acoustic instruments, changing the experience of the performer and audience, and improving the viability of hybrid performances which mix acoustic and electronic sounds. Work with these speakers began with Dan Trueman and Perry Cook at Princeton University in 1997, and continued with Curtis Bahn and myself at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute starting in 2001. We have found that spherical speaker arrays provide a complex and fruitful alternative to the traditional paradigms of sound production. As we design new performance systems and create sound installations with the speakers, we find that we are still discovering all of the implications of point-source sound radiation. As the community of artists, musicians and researchers working with the speakers expands, so will the repertory of uses."
-- Stephan Moore