The synthesis and composition workshop is designed to reflect the tools and methods of sound synthesis, electronic music composition, and performance in the context of our student’s artistic work and contemporary developments in music, art, and media technology. Each session comprises a three-hour synthesis workshop and a three-hour composition workshop. Individual mentoring sessions are part of the workshop to meet all students’ individual needs and questions. Attendees will analyze and enhance their technical setup, workflows, and aesthetic methodologies in exchange with the tutors and each other for a comprehensive reflection of their work and a profound contextualization of the workshop material to their practices. The workshop is suitable for artists and researchers with intermediate to established practice in sound and electronic music, musicians / composers who intend to extend their repertoire into the electronic / electro-acoustic and computer-aided domain, prospective and alumni students of related academic courses, sound designers for film and media, sound artists and performance artists with any level of experience.
Synthesis Workshop
Benjamin Flesser
The synthesis workshop is designed to convey the knowledge and skills to effectively work with analog and digital audio synthesis in environments such as modular synthesizers and hardware and software synthesizers, digital audio workstations, in the studio, and for performances. Practical exercises will supplement the theoretical tutorials with first-hand experiences in working with small and larger ensembles of electronic music instruments. Preliminary knowledge is not necessarily required as the workshop begins with fundamentals in audio synthesis and basic knowledge about electronics and electronic music instruments. The material advances at an intermediate pace and will be elaborated in detail to eventually exceed well beyond the basic repertoire. Beginners will have the opportunity to approach audio synthesis in a supportive environment thanks to our small-sized groups, and intermediate to advanced students are provided with material that helps solidify their fundamentals as well as adopt and develop sophisticated methods and techniques.
Composition Workshop
Gabriel Lemos
The composition workshop is designed for individuals interested in contemporary electronic music creation and development. It delves into the compositional craft, offering techniques and exercises for structuring your own creative methods in dialogue with electronic music theory, psychoacoustics, semiotics, philosophy of language, information theory, and cybernetics. Lectures integrate critical listening, repertoire analysis, and reading material to contextualize discussions in relation to techniques learned in the synthesis workshop. The composition sessions respond to key material organizing strategies and aesthetics in the field, offering insights from diverse artists, musicians, and composers. During the course, participants will engage in compositional exercises and apply learned concepts in their own work.
Mornings:
Synthesis Workshop - Benjamin Flesser
WSS1 - Studio and Stage Basics for Electronic Music
WSS2 - Machine Communication
WSS3 - Algorithmic Sequencing
WSS4 - Audio Reactive Patches, stochastic/probabilistic/chaotic systems
WSS5 - Synthesizer Architectures and Advanced Signal Flow
WSS6 - Continuum1 - Modulation Synthesis (Ring, AM, FM)
WSS7 - Continuum2 - Wavetable Synthesis and Sampling
WSS8 - Continuum3 - Granular Synthesis and Spectral Synthesis
Afternoons:
Composition Workshop - Gabriel Francisco Lemos
WSC1 - Finding “semiotic oppositions” and developing self-reflection vocabulary
WSC2 - “Complex” Music made from “Simple” Means
WSC3 - Algorithmic thinking and rule strategies before digital computers
WSC4 - Structuring a morphology of sounds
WSC5 - Composing systems and structuring rules
WSC6 - Computational models for time and frequency domain
WSC7 - Incorporating referential sounds, recordings, sound events, and loops
WSC8 - Expanding your morphological method from particles to masses
Hyperlinear
Semi-deterministic sound workshops
Design / Art Direction
Joe Gilmore