Output details

Clonal Colonies, ensemble with computer-realised sound and image

New York’s Avian Orchestra commissioned Clonal Colonies and premiered it in September 2011 in New York City and Delaware. The work is scored for in two movements for flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and gongs with video and computer-realised sound (fixed media). I composed it in part with my Variable-Coupled Map Networks (VCMN) technique, interlinking iterated maps to create multilevel feedback structures for generating note events. The research questions were: (1) How can VCMN techniques be used to create coherent, dramatic, accessible, performable but unconventional music for acoustic ensemble? (2) Can it help create note-based music that “unfolds continuously” in a fashion analogous to the editless sound and image textures in my synthesis-based Luna Series pieces? (3) Can control of instrumental articulation be meaningfully generated as part of this process? (4) Can realtime control contribute to the technique?

The composition also entailed significant expansion of my visual language, moving from the “continuous isomorphism” of my last three works towards a more independent model of “fluid counterpoint”. Technical developments included conversion of my custom Apple Motion plugins to OpenGL code for better performance; integration of virtual 3D camera- based viewport control; addition of spline curves in the graphics; and creation of post- processing plugins to provide flexible and subtle colour gradations and frame-feedback effects. Another public code release arises from this work: VSLCONV, which converts MIDI files containing instrumental articulation keycodes to MusicXML for import into music notation programs. (See portfolio.)

Clonal Colonies received first prize from the Fresh Minds Festival 2013, Texas A&M University. I have presented the technique and aesthetic of the work in lectures at the Code-Control European Max/MSP Conference, the Royal Conservatory of Music in Stockholm, the Technarte Art and Technology conference of Bilbao, the University of Kent, and Collider Artslab, Northamption.