The 60x60 Video UnTwelve mix continues its tour around the globe at Lewis
University for MusicBYTES March 18, 2011 at noon.
Hear (and see) 60 microtonal electronic music by 60 composers, each lasting
60 seconds be paired with video by Patrick Liddell. This 60-minute event is
the result of a collaboration between Vox Novus's 60x60 and the
Chicago-based Patrick Liddell and UnTwelve. The miniatures presented will
all be part of what we call the UnTwelve Mix--short works with a focus of
the novel beauty of tuning which escapes the rigid boundaries of 12-tone
equal temperament, and the use of microtones.
60x60 Video UnTwelve Mix
Video Colaboration with Patrick Liddell March 18, 2011 at 12:00 PM noon
MusicBYTES Lewis University Ives Hall March 18, 2011 @ noon
60x60 Video Vermillion Mix a collaboration with Patrick Liddell, will be presented as part of the University's Cultural Exchanges week and will be sponsored by the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre. The video will be performed on March 4 at 1 pm GMT, in De Montfort University's Performing Arts Centre for Excellence (PACE), Studio 1. 60x60 Video Vermillion Mix March 4, 2011 at 1 pm GMT, De Montfort University's Performing Arts Centre for Excellence (PACE), Studio 1. Leicester, United Kingdom 60x60 contains 60 works from 60 different composers. Each composition is 60 seconds (or less) in duration sequenced together to create a one hour performance. Highlighting the work of a great many composers, 60x60 testifies to the vibrancy of contemporary composition by presenting the diverse array of styles, aesthetics and techniques being used today. This 60x60 video collaboration with Patrick Liddell is called 360 degrees of 60x60 and is sponsored in part by the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). The works included in the mix were created specifically for the 2010 ICMC RED Edition (International Computer Music Conference) presented by Stony Brook University in New York City and Stony Brook. Six 60x60 mixes featuring 360 pieces from different composers throughout the world will presented during the conference and at remote concerts around the globe. The 6 different mixes are all named a different shade of red to honor the RED edition of ICMC: 60x60 Burgundy mix, Crimson mix, Magenta mix, Sanguine mix, Scarlet mix, and Vermilion mix. Each mix is one hour long and contains different composers totaling to 360 different works each by different composers from many different countries around the world. The 6 different mixes are all named a different shade of red to honor the RED edition of ICMC: 60x60 Burgundy mix, Crimson mix, Magenta mix, Sanguine mix, Scarlet mix, and Vermilion mix. Each mix is one hour long and contains different composers totaling to 360 different works each by different composers from many different countries around the world. Patrick Liddell Patrick Liddell recently received this Doctor of Music at Northwestern University in Music Composition. His primary instructors have been Jay Alan Yim (Northwestern University, Evanston IL), Chris Mercer (Northwestern), Peter McIlwain (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia), and Steve Heinemann (Bradley University, Peoria IL). His music has been performed by Function Ensemble (London, UK), Monash Gamelan Ensemble (Melbourne), pLAy Ensemble (Los Angeles, CA), Vox Novus (NYC, NY), Third Coast Percussion Ensemble (Chicago, IL), and many other chamber and popular groups. His art is a combination of music and video (video being the visual counterpart to the temporality of sound), and in a postmodern idiom attempts to combine popular, art, and world musics into a "unified disassociation". His most recent project, Arrow To The Sun, is a multi-dimensional fractal-art piece that fuses music, video, taste, touch, smell, and thought to evoke an anti-narrative of spiritual enlightenment. Composers in 360 degrees of 60x60 (Vermilion Mix) include: Kevin Austin, Kwesi Awotwi, Daryn Bond, Arnold Brooks, Lou Bunk, Mark Corwin, Mitch Curtis, Ricardo Dal Farra, Douglas DaSilva, Thomas Dempster, Hrayr Eulmessekian, Mary Beth Farmer, Yves Gigon, Josh Goldman, Mark Hannesson, Andrew Heathwaite, Ron Herrema, GuangJie Ho, Daniel Houglum, Stephen Howden, Ioannis Kalantzis, Ioannis Kourtis, David Krajic, Fernando Leppe, David Litke, Guillaume Loizillon, Pasquale Mainolfi, Svetlana Maras, John Maters, Alexandre Matheson, Diana McIntosh, Jeffrey Mettlewsky, Bonnie Miksch, Rosemary Mountain, Steven Naylor, David Ogborn, John Oliver, Alex Olsen, Michael Olson, Juan Pablo Medina, Samuel Pellman, Kala Pierson, Michael Pionsonneault, Grant Pittman, Ambrose Pottie, David Power, Fabian Racca, Gilberto Rosa, Stephen Schedra, Jorge Sosa, Julian Stein, Penko Stoitschev, Steel Stylianou, Kotoka Suzuki, Roberto Terelle, Barry Truax, Graeme Truslove, Roxanne Turcotte, Victor Valentim, Michael Weinstein, and Hildegard Westerkamp http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/2010_Vermilion_Mix.htm
11th - 60x60 Sanguine Mix Live! @ California State
Friday, February 11, 2011 - 10:00 PM 360 Degrees of 60x60—Sanguine Mix, Video Event—New Music Compositions Band Room, Cole Conservatory of Music, California State University, Long Beach FREE ADMISSION!
10th - 60x60 Scarlet Mix Live! at California State
Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 8:00pm
360 Degrees of 60x60 — Scarlet Mix,
Video Event—New Music Compositions
University Art Museum,
California State University,
Long Beach,
FREE ADMISSION!
10th - 60x60 Sanguine Mix at William Patterson Uni
360 Degrees of 60x60 Video - Sanguine Mix Midday Artist Series at William Paterson University Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 12:30 PM William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey
60x60 Video (Scarlet Mix) video collaboration with Patrick Liddell will be presented at Rutgers University, Stedman Art Gallery on Monday February 7, 2011 12:20pm Electric Café: 360 degrees of 60x60 (Scarlet Mix) Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell Monday February 7, 2011 12:20pm Stedman Art Gallery Rutgers University, Camden NJ Free admission
The 360 degrees of 60x60 Video (Sanguine Mix) Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell will play at an experimental audio event to celebrate the Sprawl's 15 years of regular, and occasional projects - including mini-festivals and eclectic music evenings - since 1996, with this very special night featuring a fantastic and unique line-up of performances. COMMON OBJECTS - common objects is an all-star line up of improvisors lead by avant harpist Rhodri Davies, complimented by renown violinists and laptop artists Angharad Davies, Lina Lapelyte and Phil Durrant, alongside the very physical saxophonist John Butcher. SIMON FISHER TURNER - Simon Turner, is a musician, songwriter, composer and actor. After dabbling with pop stardom in the early 70s, Simon became an internationally renown film soundtrack composer - writing music for several of Derek Jarman films such as Blue & Carravagio. VIV CORRINGHAM, PETER CUSACK, CLIVE BELL Viv Corringham (voice) and Peter Cusack (guitar, saz, samples & electronics) perform songs, mixed with improvisation, and soundscapes created from environmental recordings - all controlled live. Special showcase: 360 degrees of 60x60 Video (Sanguine Mix) Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell details: date: Thursday January 27th 2011 doors: 7.30 pm ticket price: £8 in advance (from ticket web) and £10 on the door VENUE: Cafe OTO 18 - 22 Ashwin Street Dalston, London, E8 3DL cafeoto.co.uk
20th - 60x60 Crimson Mix Video Live! @ 3walls CHI!
Christopher Preissing and Kotoka Suzuki present an installation and
performance comprised of 60 sonic works, each being one-minute long, by 60 sound artists from across the globe.
360 degrees of 60x60 (Crimson Mix) Saturday November 20, 2010 7:00 PM
60x60 is produced by Vox Novus, an organization in New York dedicated to the promotion of contemporary music. This presentation of 60x60 premiered in New York in June, presented by Vox Novus director Robert Voisey.
On November 13th, 2010 at 8:00 PM SALT Gallery in New York City will debut a screening of 360 degrees of 60x60 Video (2010 Magenta Mix) a video collaboration with Patrick Liddell. 360 degrees of 60x60 Video (2010 Magenta Mix) November 13th, 2010 8:00 PM SALT Gallery 1160 Broadway at 27th Street 5th floor New York City Click here for the Concert Program of the 60x60 (Magenta Mix) http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/2010_Magenta_Mix.htm
7th - 60x60 Sanguine Mix Live! in Washington State
11/6, 2pm – 60x60 Scarlet Mix at Western Washington University Old Main Theater, Bellingham, Washington, USA 11/7, 2pm – 60x60 Sanguine Mix at Western Washington PAC Concert Hall, Bellingham, Washington, USA The WWU Department of Music and Sound Culture present “Minifest,” a celebration of musical miniatures spanning diverse styles and genres, November 6 and 7 on Western’s campus. The concerts will feature music-video presentations from around the globe and live performances from local musicians including Kat Bula, Bruce Hamilton, David Ney, members of Umami, Sarah Jerns, members of Savage Henry, Kali Tupper-Richards, Jordan Rain/Yogoman and several more TBA. The November 6 performance will take place in the Old Main Theater, and the November 7 show will be in the PAC Concert Hall. Both shows begin at 2pm; admission for each is $5 with tickets available through the WWU Box Office. Event organizer and Associate Professor of Music Bruce Hamilton predicts "an extremely rich experience; folks will be treated to an unpredictable feast for the eyes and ears." Eclecticism will rule the day as highly focused performances and presentations of folk, experimental pop, jazz, electroacoustic, free improvisation, world music, classical, quirky pop, R&B, etc., are allowed to coexist and form larger sets or pieces. In addition to the live music, two music-video mixes curated by Vox Novus for the international 60x60 project will be presented, each mix containing sixty one-minute works. One 60x60 mix will be performed in its traditional layout as one block of 60 works; the other mix will be performed [in] alternating blocks of 10 pieces with live musicians. November 6th, 2010 2:00 pm 60x60 Scarlet Mix Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell Western Washington University Old Main Theater November 7th, 2010 2pm 60x60 Sanguine Mix Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell Western Washington PAC Concert Hall Bellingham, WA, USA "Minifest" Western Washington University Bellingham, WA, USA
On Saturday, November 6th, 2010 at 5:00 PM the Fifth Annual Fresno New Music Festival will present the 360 degrees of 60x60 Video (Sanguine Mix), a collaboration with the video artist and composer, Patrick Liddell. 60x60 Sanguine Mix Saturday, November 6, 2010 5:00 PM CSU, Fresno Music Building Concert Hall The Fifth Annual Fresno New Music Festival http://www.fresnonmf.com/ CSU, Fresno Music Building 5241 N Maple Ave Fresno, CA 93710 Concert tickets $7, Seniors/Faculty/Staff $6 All student tickets are FREE 360 degrees of 60x60 (Sanguine Mix) 60x60 contains 60 works from 60 different composers. Each composition is 60 seconds (or less) in duration sequenced together to create a one hour performance. Highlighting the work of a great many composers, 60x60 testifies to the vibrancy of contemporary composition by presenting the diverse array of styles, aesthetics and techniques being used today. This 60x60 video collaboration with Patrick Liddell is called 360 degrees of 60x60 (Sanguine Mix) and is sponsored in part by the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) -www.computermusic.org <http://www.computermusic.org> The works included in the mix were created specifically for the 2010 ICMC RED Edition (International Computer Music Conference) presented by Stony Brook University in New York City and Stony Brook. Six 60x60 mixes featuring 360 pieces from different composers throughout the world will presented during the conference and at remote concerts around the globe. The 6 different mixes are all named a different shade of red to honor the RED edition of ICMC: 60x60 Burgundy mix, Crimson mix, Magenta mix, Sanguine mix, Scarlet mix, and Vermilion mix. Each mix is one hour long and contains different composers totaling to 360 different works each by different composers from countries around the world. All of the video was created by Patrick Liddell. Robert Voisey is the music coordinator and "macro-composer" for the Burgundy mix, Magenta mix, Sanguine mix, and Scarlet mix.
On November 2nd, 2010 at 5:00 pm the video collaboration of the 60x60 (Burgundy mix) and Patrick Liddell will take place in Leipzig, Germany. 60x60 contains 60 works from 60 different composers. Each composition is 60 seconds (or less) in duration sequenced together to create a one hour performance. Highlighting the work of a great many composers, 60x60 testifies to the vibrancy of contemporary composition by presenting the diverse array of styles, aesthetics and techniques being used today. This performance is a special video collaboration created by Patrick Liddell. November 2nd, 2010 at 5:00 pm Lecture hall of the Universität Leipzig, Institut für Musikwissenschaft, Mendelssohnhaus (Hofgebäude), Goldschmidtsraße 12, D 04317 Leipzig, Germany
On Monday November 1st, 2010 the video collaboration of the 60x60 (Sanguine Mix) and Patrick Liddell will screen at Kansas City Kansas Community College Performing Arts Center. 60x60 contains 60 works from 60 different composers. Each composition is 60 seconds (or less) in duration sequenced together to create a one hour performance. Highlighting the work of a great many composers, 60x60 testifies to the vibrancy of contemporary composition by presenting the diverse array of styles, aesthetics and techniques being used today. This 60x60 video collaboration with Patrick Liddell is called 360 degrees of 60x60 (Sanguine Mix) and is sponsored in part by the International Computer Music Association (ICMA) -www.computermusic.org The works included in the mix were created specifically for the 2010 ICMC RED Edition (International Computer Music Conference) presented by Stony Brook University in New York City and Stony Brook. Six 60x60 mixes featuring 360 pieces from different composers throughout the world will presented during the conference and at remote concerts around the globe. The 6 different mixes are all named a different shade of red to honor the RED edition of ICMC: 60x60 Burgundy mix, Crimson mix, Magenta mix, Sanguine mix, Scarlet mix, and Vermilion mix. Each mix is one hour long and contains different composers totaling to 360 different works each by different composers from countries around the world. 360 Degrees 60x60 Video (Sanguine Mix) video collaboration with Patrick Liddell November 1st, 3:00 pm Performing Arts Center Kansas City Kansas Community College 7250 State Avenue Kansas City, Kansas 66112
Playing world premieres by Dave Reminick, Alex Temple, Ian Dicke, Lee Weisert, Patrick Liddell, Ben Hjertmann, and Luke Gullickson!
Saxophones - David Reminick, Noah Zeldin, and Sean Patayanikorn
Drums - Brian Baxter
Bass - Bill Milgram Tenor Voice/Bass - Ben Hjertmann
Synth/Melodica - Alex Temple
There will be a $5 cover charge at the door. Proceeds go to help the new-music shortage.
No stranger to Brooklyn 60x60 returns home for a holiday visit. This is not a quiet affair; it's a SCREAM! 360 Degrees of 60x60 Video (Magenta Mix) Video collaboration with Patrick Liddell will be presented by Robert Voisey at The 21st Biannual International Electroacoustic Music Festival "The Scream Festival" And if that isn't enough... On the 27th at 7:00 PM in Whitman Hall Robert Voisey and David Morneau return as EMR to perform Monkey Lab... To talk(perform) a story about Rob Voisey's other Alma Mater Don't DARE miss it! A 360 Degrees of 60x60 Video (Magenta Mix) Video collaboration with Patrick Liddell presentation with Robert Voisey October 26, 2010 7:00 PM 21st BIANNUAL INTERNATIONAL ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC FESTIVAL Levenson Recital Hall Brooklyn College 2900 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, New York Free Admission http://146.245.216.120/
The Fourth Annual Kentucky New Music Festival will be presenting 360 degrees of 60x60 Video (2010 Magenta Mix) on Concert 4: 60x60 (2010 Magenta Mix) Video Collaboration with Patrick Liddell Thursday, October 21 at 6:00pm in the John Jacob Niles Gallery of the Fine Arts Library. Featuring 60 one-minute electronic works by 60 different composers played back to back for a one-hour concert accompanied by DVD art created by Patrick Liddell. The Fourth Annual Kentucky New Music Festival October 17-24, 2010 The Kentucky New Music Festival and its organizers seek to promote the creation and performance of new classical music. This year's festival consists of six concerts and a lecture taking place on the University of Kentucky Campus. The concerts include the Kentucky Composers concert featuring works by composers living in Kentucky, a jazz concert featuring works by UK's Raleigh Dailey, an electronic music concert featuring the 60x60 project, and a concert of new works for organ selected from an international call for scores. In addition, The Out of Bounds Ensemble, Ensemble in Residence of Winthrop University and Central Piedmont Community College, will be performing a concert of new music and Dr. Ronald Keith Parks of Winthrop University will give a lecture on his compositions titled: "Visibly Inspired: Translating the Visual into Music". For more information and concert dates, times, and locations, please visit the University of Kentucky School of Music events webpage. All events are FREE and open to the public.
video borrowed with reverence from Vincent Collins
"bi-centennial" created for the US Information Agency
in celebration of 1976
original found at archive.org
music written for Corey Bertelsen, on vibes and marimba
Please consider donating a small amount to creation of my next album, now in pre-production! You can find more information, as well as a few incentives HERE.
SELLABAND is a site that supports crowdsourcing to help fundraise, more accurately termed "crowdfunding".
If you like what you see here or on YouTube or Vimeo, please help me work toward new and inspiring art!
A new performance of my video work with Vox Novus is featured at Outsound Music Festival on July 21st. If you're in the San Francisco area please check it out!
11th - Tomorrow Music Orchestra w/ ontologist vids
Jerry's Sandwiches
1938 W Division Ave, Wicker Park CHI
July 11, 2010 starting at 8:30 PM
TOMORROW MUSIC ORCHESTRA
featuring mostly new beauty music from composer/leader Matthew Golombisky
and improvised video projected directly onto the performers for an immersive, inclusive experience like nothing you've ever seen at Jerry's Sandwiches!
This page is designed to answer questions concerning the creation and issues surrounding my piece I Am Sitting In A Video Room. If you haven't seen it yet, please click here.
An homage to the great Alvin Lucier, this piece explores the 'photocopy effect', where upon repeated copies the object begin to accumulate the idiosyncrasies of the medium doing the copying.
Please visit here for more information about Alvin Lucier's piece, and you can listen to the complete piece here.
Full words: I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now. I am recording the sound of my speaking voice as well as the image of myself, and I am going to upload it to YouTube, rip it from YouTube, and upload it again and again, until the original characteristics of both my voice and my image are destroyed. What you will see and hear, then, are the artifacts inherent in the video codec of both YouTube and the mp4 format I convert it to on my computer. I regard this activity not so much as a demonstration of a digital fact, but more as a way to eliminate all human qualities my speech and image might have.
How long did this take?
I began on May 27, 2009 and completed the 1000th upload on May 27, 2010. It was not particularly labor intensive, but required constant interruption with my other work. I did not do it consistently, and there were entire months that went by where I didn't upload a single one.
Did you upload them by hand?
I did upload them all by hand. I would download the latest video, rename it and save it, then immediately upload that renamed video to YouTube (with pasted information). YT would require between 5-10 minutes to process the new video, then I would download that one. So I guess it was a pretty arduous process. If I were to do this again, I would write a bot in C++...
Why does the video get shorter as iterations progress?
YouTube automatically cuts off the last one or two frames from an uploaded video. While this doesn't make a difference for a single upload, the successive accumulation of these cuts eventually adds up. The first video is 42 seconds long, while the last video is only 38 seconds!
Why does the video get out of sync in the first 100? Why does it get corrected thereafter?
As with removing the last few frames, YouTube also adds a few frames of (silent) audio at the beginning of each upload. Again the accumulation of iterations pushes the audio out of sync. I didn't realize this would be a major issue until about Room 130, where I decided if I didn't fix the audio, it would eventually be removed entirely from the project. So I corrected the sync in Final Cut Pro, and then re-corrected it every 100 iterations. The final version of the audio is worth the corrections!
I thought digital copying was lossless. Why does the video quality get worse?
When copying files, the information is lossless; i.e. no matter how many copies are made they are all exactly identical to the original. This is just bit-jockeying. But what I am doing here is transcoding the video twice per upload. Each time the video gets uploaded to YouTube, it gets translated to the .flac/H.264 video codec -- a process that makes the video smaller but loses some of it's information. Then this loss happens again when I translate it again to mp4 format on my computer. Each time the pieces of information lost are saved on subsequent versions, and accumulated throughout the process.
Oh my god that audio is terrifying! What's going on?!
It gets complicated, but each translation of the audio goes through a process known as "Fast Fourier Transformation", which breaks the audio down into more-easily-parsed tones. Again, however, this process loses a bit of subtle information, which is accumulated. It sounds like water because water actually resonates/fluctuates at many random frequencies, and the FFT analysis unintentionally mimics this as well.
And a review from Dutch art magazine CopyClash, translated by Google:
Musician Patrick Liddell took of himself in a monologue, placed it on YouTube again to download from YouTube. This result was then put back on YouTube to this process is then repeated 1000 times.
Liddell began his project as a tribute to the avant-garde musician Alvin Lucier and his famous "I Am Sitting In A was room in which a text hardfacing Lucier, took up this happening again and re-took until only the sound of the room where he was present remained. Copy Clash shows in his ode Liddell, who just different than Lucier's version because it is more about digital reproduction. The work can be viewed as the YouTube version of something photocopying until nothing remains but a grainy, thick stain.
The Northwestern University Saxophone Ensemble proudly presents:
A Night of Entertainment: IN 3D!!!
Hear the profane and the profound as music blends with color and shape in a never-before seen synesthesiac experience, featuring ONTOLOGIST (patrick liddell) providing the eye-popping visual experience.
Works by Glinka, Walton, Fuste-Lambezat
Conducted by Anthony Paggett, William Staub, and Frederick L. Hemke
Narrated by Linda Gates and Richard Drews
Video by Patrick Liddell
I'm playing with Friends Of The Gamelan, the Indonesian music ensemble at University of Chicago. Our spring gamelan concert will be held
on Sunday, April 25, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. at Hyde Park Union Church,
5600 South Woodlawn Avenue in Chicago.
Joko Sutrisno, our guest artistic director, has crafted
an outstanding repertoire of traditional and
contemporary Javanese gamelan music. We've had great fun
learning these compositions, and we hope that you'll join
us for an incomparable listening experience.
On Friday April 16 2010 I perform with Northwestern's Contemporary Music Ensemble on Kaija Saariaho's work Amers. My part controls the electronic cues, synthesizer and sampler programs, and the reverb of the solo cello. Saariaho was invited to NU as part of her Nemmers Prize residency. I was asked because the electronics part ended up being pretty difficult to execute.
Another beautiful night of beautiful music and beautiful imagery. Two vids of the night attached: first, DJ TWITCH makes some beautiful noise with DOJO's recorded tracks. Both vids show off the double-projected imagery.
A piece originally written as a project in Jay Alan Yim's course at Northwestern, "Content In Music". After I wrote the music I had made a mp3 of it using sampled gamelan sounds, and posted that on my myspace profile
www.myspace.com/neominimal
I had been in contact with the lovely Dr. Jui-Ching Wang at Northern Illinois University the year before asking to borrow their gamelan for my recital, and while the school decided not to let me use it, she and I remained in touch and this spring she asked if the NIU gamelan could play this piece! Here is the performance, accompanied by my live visuals, at the concert on NIU campus April 11, 2010.
'
And here's another version with better (if quieter) audio, though I can't embed it:
On Sunday April 11, Northern Illinois University Indonesian Gamelan Ensemble will be playing a piece I wrote a few years ago. While I will put up some info about that soon, the ensemble director, Dr. Jui-Ching Wang, was so kind as to film an early rehearsal. Check it out to get a sense of what to expect!
Premiered at Electronic Music Midwest miniFestival on March 11, 2010 at Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois. Intended for tape and 2 videos, in which the second video is projected at a large convex mirror and reflected across the entire auditorium walls and ceiling.
Program notes:
The title is a quote from spiritual teacher Adi Da Samraj, discussing the connection between our Universe and our thoughts. This sentiment is echoed in current quantum theory, where consciousness is required to collapse the behavior of electrons (as exemplified in the infamous Schrödinger's Cat paradox). I used the electron emission spectrum of elemental hydrogen as the source for timbral and formal material within this piece. The dual-duality of the title also suggests the fractal (in this case, Cantor's Comb) nature of the Universe, again found in the emission spectrum of hydrogen and a formal factor in both the music and video.
Maurice and ontologist, at it again! This time at Morseland (1218 w Morse ave, Rogers Park) on March 6 2010 starting at 9 PM!! Come out for some experimental rock/jazz and classic R&B/soul jams!
You might be asking yourself "Self, how many innocent people have died because of America's presence in Iraq?" Now there's no need to ask! Iraqbodycount.com has hooked you up:
localSTYLE (Jay Alan Yim (sound) and Marlena Novak (light)) are featured at Northwestern University's Contemporary Music Ensemble Concert on February 1st, 2009 at 7:30 PM at NU's Pick-Staiger Hall, 50 Arts Circle, Evanston IL.
ONTOLOGIST performs the video for this unique performance experience!
Two tectonic plates — the North American (moving to the west) and the Eurasian (moving to the east) — form the Icelandic Rift; they are separating at the rate of approximately two millimeters annually.
The underlying theme of ~plicity is that of inexorable forces (such as social / political / psychological turbulence and plate tectonics) pulling people (and continents) apart, counterbalanced by a reciprocal yearning to pull together, build bridges across divides, and to strengthen community.
The title is an indication of the complex nature of these relationships and of the strategies for addressing them: implicit, explicit, complicit, duplicit, implication, duplication, replication, multiplicity, etcetera.
The musical and video scores are templates for contingency, presenting the performers with recurrent windows of opportunity to assess and reassess their relationships with each other, shift allegiances, and to map out a course through changing terrain.
Renowned Wicker Park lounge Rodan is the site of the weekly showcase of sound and video art known as "LIVING SUNDAYS." The evening features new music, video art, and live performances. Hosted by a potent cross-section of creators and promoters, "LIVING SUNDAYS" is a free event sure to leave a lasting impression.
Noisemakers Dojo vs Twitch, along with the trusty Ontologist on visuals, curate their chapter of the Living Sundays story every 2nd Sunday of the month. This Sunday January 11th they welcome the celebrated Chicago institution DJ Warp as their featured guest. Good beer on tap is 3 bucks. No cover. Great food. Chicago's own clubhouse for weirdo art peeps who do shit.
Please visit Rodan on any Sunday night to check out some great Chicago sound and video art, at 1530 North Milwaukee Avenue, 10pm-2am. For more information visit the Living Sundays website, www.livingsundays.com
Here's a clip taken from that night (courtesy of Brian Klein):
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
Episode four: Combine Doubt With Wonder
Today's society is chock full of two types of people: skeptics and fanatics. Is there any middle ground? This episode discusses an old Japanese philosopher who dared to say 'yes'. He is visited by his old friends Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Carl Sagan, and some crazy dancing women.
No longer on Thursdays, ONTOLOGIST still visits your favorite Pilsen hotspot, this time coming in on a Saturday to make your feet move and your spirit soar.
ONTOplayer is a quicktime video player intended for real-time manipulation in live improvisatory settings. Choose any set of movies to scrub, add effects, and zoom, pan, colorize, and otherwise fuck with in real time!
Features:
• 19 video effects, including Sobel line detection, distortion, feedback, and more
• Full MIDI controller implementation
• Video camera in and out
• Full algorithmic mixing and chromakeying
• ReWire support
• Play and manipulate any movie that QuickTime can read
Freeware! For Macintosh running OS 10.5+. Please download here:
60 works by 60 different composers. Each piece exactly 1 minute long, played back to back. This ultimate mix tape of largely original works becomes the bread and butter of Vox Novus's 60x60 project. It has become so large and successful in the last few years that multiple offshoots have started, including a Midwest Minutes Mix and a Pacific Rim Mix.
This year Robert Voisey, ringleader at Vox Novus, asked me to collaborate with them for their 2009 International Mix. 60 composers from around the world combine into an intense and orgiastic hour of sonic bliss. I composed and recorded 60 short videos to accompany the sound! Please check out the collaborators list for Vox Novus here:
http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/Collaborations.htm
and please check the events schedule to see if the International Mix (or any of the other mixes) is playing near you:
http://www.voxnovus.com/60x60/Events.htm
Says Voisey:
Friday September 25, 2009 – 60x60 Video (2009 International Mix)
So all this starts somewhere around the G20 conference in Pennsylvania,
Friday September 25, 2009. 60x60 had a private screening of the 2009
International Mix with a video collaboration from Patrick Liddell. David
Morneau and David Berlin presented this screening is in an effort to create
a large interactive educational outreach program using 60x60. (Another new
initiative for Vox Novus and the 60x60 project.)
ONTOLOGIST @ SIMONES (980 w 18th st, Pilsen, Chicago)
TUESDAY JUNE 30th 2009 @ 8PM+
NEW & OLD FUNK (Parliament, Jamiroquai), SOUL (Jackson 5, Dwele), R&B (Al Green, Remy Shand), some originals!, and MORE (Bob Marley, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder)!!
Including video footage of soul/R&B classics and live visual improvs!
Come out and enjoy some listening/watching/dancing/drinking!
New CD "Themes And Scenes" by bassist/composer Matt Ulery! Recorded with musicians from throughout the Chicago area, this album is a soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist.
24th - FEATURED VIDEOGRAPHER at EARS&EYES FESTIVAL
THREE DAYS of ONTOLOGIST
as FEATURED VIDEO ARTIST at the 3rd ANNUAL EARS and EYES FESTIVAL
OCTOBER 24 - 26, 2008
at The Hideout, 1354 w Wabansia, Chicago
Performances by: Toby Summerfield Large Ensemble, Touch., Bus Master, David Daniell, Black Ladies, Rats & Labor, Bill MacKay, Maurice, L'Altra, Mike Reed's People Places and Things, Via Tania, D Numbers, The Eternals, Silences Sumire, Jeff Greene Large Ensemble, W. W. Lowman, The Engines, Pedway, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Algernon, Eleventh Dream Day
please see: www.earsandeyesfestival.com for more information.
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
Episode Three: an explanation of harmony
In this third installment we are taken through the harmonic inner ear of three electronic composers (and a tip o the hat to Beethoven). What is harmony? What does it represent in our everyday lives? And what does this mean for you?
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
Episode Two: Bifurcation
In the second episode we take a look at the dichotomy of human existence. Why do we always see everything in black and white? What does that say about the way we process our experiences? Featuring an ontologist original, some bizarre computer footage from the 80's, and a few words of advice from none other than The Beatles themselves.
If you know anyone that would like to know about this, please forward this to them or forward me their email address and I'll include them in the next posting. Postings will be made at the release of every two episodes; you are welcome and encouraged to join the mailing list! Please write to me here!
A semi-regular series of episodes exploring the sometimes-confusing and often-beautiful world around us through music, video, and light-hearted philosophy.
'Postmodern Mix' is theme for this premiere episode. Within we take a look at what postmodernism is as a movement, as well as what some of its implications are. Music and visual examples abound.
If you would like to receive info about new episodes of ADSR, or if you'd like to discuss any content from the show with me, I would love to oblige.
I've ordered new business cards! I wish that I could include the information from this site but alas it wasn't ready when I made these cards. www.patrickliddell.com still works though, so at least they can (re)direct here.
Track 8 from the complete art-piece Arrow To The Sun. Here CHOP must overcome the Kiva of BEEZ, symbolizing money and sex. Performed by Maurice from Chicago.
When I made this video I was not aware of the singer or song; however, since then I have come to discover that it is none other than Bridget Bardot singing one of 'her' tunes, Contact. I took out most of the accompanying instruments and added my own harmony, rhythm, timbres, and so forth.
I must admit that the final product, with the video singing along, is pretty nice. I'll be trying more of this sort of mash-up covers in the future... stay tuned.
Performed by Joann Cho and Victor Ngo at Northwestern Student Composers Concert, Wednesday March 5th 2008 at 7:30 PM.
Program notes for the event:
30 Memories of Northwestern was written in 2002, immediately after the completion of my first year at Northwestern University. I was leaving the school for an undetermined amount of time, and this piece was an attempt to sum up the incredible experience I had while attending the School of Music. In two books of 15 'memories' a piece, each page consists of a chord which represents (in a most abstract form) a particular event during that year. The static nature of the work as a whole was meant to reflect the seeming lull of day-to-day life; however, each event changed me in a fundamental way, and in that same way the chord slowly evolves throughout the piece. Tonight's performance is an abridged version of only Book 1; a full performance of the two books should last between 60 and 80 minutes.
Below are two paintings that I created at the same time I was writing the music. There is direct correlation between the form and shapes of each medium. I had also written an essay about their connections for a class I was in at the time, but that seems to be gone from me.
for two small ensembles (saxophone and female vocalists, and bass with french horn)
ALL THREE MOVEMENTS ARE AVAILABLE TO LISTEN IN THE PLAYER ABOVE!
TRACKS
12, 13, & 14
Program notes:
Despite what movie music may imply, music is inherently nondescript. While it mimics movement and emotion within our daily lives, when forced to determine the 'meaning' or 'intention' behind a particular piece of music (without prior verbal or conceptual baggage already attached), it is practically impossible to say what the 'meaning' is (if any). This ambiguity is something that composers have always played with, from the deceptive cadences of Bach and Mozart to the unsteady rhythmic vacillations of Gerard Grisey's Vortex Temporum. In a different way, that is the idea behind this piece: two separate pieces, each with its own meter and tonality, sound complete within themselves; but when played simultaneously, new and richer rhythms and harmonies emerge. While it seemed that the content of each movement was constant and unambiguous, in reality it was only the ambiguity that we were able to perceive.
This poppy piece was originally written as a potential car advertisement in England. It didn't get used, but I was pretty happy with the texture I created so I added some chords underneath and the rest just came together.
About the video: Consider a building you pass on the way to or from work. That building has a particular meaning to you. Now consider the meaning of that building to a person who lives there -- the meaning of that building is *completely* different to yours, in ways we are incapable of fathoming. Further, to a tourist who passes the building for the first and only time, your meaning is impossible for him to fathom. Now, consider how the building is a weak metaphor for *everything in the entire world*.
The original was created for pLAy ensemble, which performed it multiple times in their 2007-2008 season.
LISTEN TO THEIR PERFORMANCE IN THE PLAYER ABOVE!
TRACK 28!
The instrumentation is: flute(piccolo), clarinet(bass clar), oboe, viola, cello, piano(percussion), and tape.
The second version is electronic, featured below. A birthday gift to Jessica. Happy Birthday! A video/music collaboration celebrating women and all their roles in our society. Taken from film reels of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, this montage changes the meaning of those reels -- in which women were shown to be often subordinate to their male counterparts -- to show what they were capable of then, and even more so now.
Also, you can download and alter the original Reason document I made this piece in! Have fun! Let me know what you come up with!
Composed for Jay Alan Yim's "Content in Music" course at Northwestern University.
Instructions:
Recall from childhood a favorite melody with lyrics. It does not need to be one that others will recognize; instead, truly try to chose your own favorite. The conductor will give you a pitch (middle C) on which the tune should start (as opposed to what key the tune is in). On cue, sing your melody without any regard for what the people around you are singing. Sing at a mf volume with straight tone (little to no vibrato). If your melody accidentally strays from the key in which you began, make no attempt to correct yourself as the piece progresses. At exactly two minutes, the conductor will give a cue to end the piece; at exactly the cue stop all sound, regardless of whether it is at the end of the phrase or the end of a particular note. Thirty seconds of silence follows, after which the conductor will cue the end of the piece.
I took a class taught by Aaron Cassidy at Northwestern titled "Music at the Limits", in which we examined the extremes of music; the extremes of length (milliseconds up to 6-hour performances), the extremes of playability (John Cage and Iannis Xenakis), the limits of authenticity (George Rochberg, DJ Spooky's sample culture). The final project was to create a piece of music that tested the limits of some aspect of music. I decided to write a piece of recorded music that toyed with the limits of taste and tackiness. In the process I discovered how personal an opinion taste was, and was confronted with some of my biases toward music. It is a very subjective matter, taste.
This piece is in four sections, each exemplifying a style that lends itself to schmaltz and tacky interpretation, and each is coupled with lyrics that lie on the boundaries of comfort and purpose. The first section is generic house music, coupled with the most banal of lyrics (with an intentionally bad sax solo by the in-fact-very-talented Caroline Davis). The second section is trashy grunge rock, complete with lyrics about the love of intoxication (and another poor solo, on guitar by Lee Weisert). The third section emulates cheap 80's new wave, with washy, completely nonsensical lyrics. The final section is a bubbly polka, bizarrely coupled with raunchy sexual lyrics (sung by Chipmunks, of course). Each section is awkwardly glued together by other genres and sound effects.
My final piece was accompanied by an essay detailing the topic of taste and tackiness, as well as a complete description of all the intentionally tacky compositional choices I made along the way.
Created for Chris Mercer's "Composing with Computers" course at Northwestern University. This Max/MSP patch takes any audio file and performs a continuous large-scale granulation to the file; however, the grains remain in time with a master clock which creates a much more rhythmic structure. Each performance is unique. In this particular performance the master clock gradually increases tempo. The sound file is taken from Montiverdi's Magnificat, movement 1, performed by Bach Collegium Japan.
None of my works have seen as illustrious a career as Uptown.
Originally featured in the documentary "Uptown: Portrait of a Palace" by filmmakers John Pappas and Michael Bisberg. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE IMDB PAGE! Check out that listing under "Original Music". Oh yeah!
Performed at Northwestern Student Composer Concert held in Alice Millar Chapel on November 16, 2006 by Zvonimir Nagy and Sergiy Komirenko.
Then in late 2006 my work with Function Ensemble (now Outshine Family) lead to a pop version with lyrics and backup ensemble, including string orchestra, full choir, brass and woodwind ensembles recorded on November 8th and 9th, 2006, and the vocal deliciousness of leader Matthew Nicholson. For Outshine, we have renamed it "The Dream, The Lie". Here is video for that piece, available soon on VINYL from Black Map Records in London!
Also available, my Reason documents, where I composed both movements:
I have been interested with the idea of ‘aural postcards’ for some time now. There are similarities between the expressionists within the art realm and the expressionists in the music realm; in the same way there are similarities between impressionists in both disciplines, and minimalist art and music share many concepts. But what is the aural equivalent of a photograph, or a snapshot, or a postcard? These represent a cross-section of time – a singular moment, lasting anywhere from 1/2000ths of a second to half a second. Obviously no piece of music can technically be played within these time limits. These ten short pieces attempt to portray the same idea; while the period of time in which they are perceived is longer than that of a postcard, perhaps, they are a cross-section of a larger time span of which the listener can only guess their full scope.
I took the New York Miniaturist Ensemble call for scores as a perfect opportunity to create a series of postcards. Each postcard is only 10 notes in length (though repeats add to the literal number of notes played), and with ten postcards the 100-note limit is reached exactly. Upon completion of these miniatures, I realize that some are indeed cross-sections of larger works, and a snapshot has been taken, while others are complete within themselves… perhaps the visual equivalent in these cases is a photograph of a landscape, still-life, or portrait.
I wrote this piece for Vox Novus's 60 x 60 project, in which sixty tape pieces of exactly one minute each are played back to back, filling one hour. My piece takes this concept one step further though; in ...by Sixty, I break the time into smaller segments and wrote 60 one-second pieces.
I had just discovered the term "ontology" at the time I wrote this piece (and hadn't thought of "ontologist" yet), and some then-students at Northwestern Uni composition students voiced the word for me for this recording as well. Voices include:
Johnathon Kirk
Kenn Kumpf
Joann Cho
Jennie Gottschalk
Lee Weisert
(Some samples include: accordion, waterphone, electric bass, film strips of the 1950's (in particular "Duck and Cover"), and my 2005 freshmen aural skills class.)
She's a simple melody/Such a perfect, precious thing/Wouldn't know what to do/Guess I don't know what to do
He is rhythm manifest/Sometimes plastic, sometimes clay/Wouldn't know what to do/Guess I don't know what to do
(From the program notes of the 2007 concert):
Test Pattern No. 1 (2005) was my first true experiment with solely minimalist and popular elements. Melodic repetition, form, and pan-diatonicism were some of the ideas that I borrowed from classical minimalism, while groove/style, instrumentation, and rhythmic features were taken from popular musics. Interestingly, the combination sounds like neither, take a shape and form all its own. Since these piece, my personal compositional style has moved more toward a true classical-popular hybrid. While I have not reached it (and it may not be possible after all), the effects are spellbinding in their own right, and that magic in itself is reason to continue on this quest.
Simply an homage to the great Bob Marley, a version of one of my favorite pieces of his, Waiting in Vain.
Performance by Sean Connor (marimba) and Tristan Arnold (bass) of Exposure Ensemble, at Norris Center on Northwestern University Campus, November 8th, 2005.
This piece is not-so-loosely based on the song from Bob Marley’s Exodus—Movement of Jah People album, Waiting In Vain. It uses an extended harmonic progression from the original, but many bass passages as well as melody motifs can be recognized throughout. There are a total 5 ‘variations’ to the chorus melody, each with a distinct change in rhythm and technique. As the piece progresses each variation slips a bit more out of key, into the final variation, which is very free. For the final ‘tag’ chorus, dissonances are resolved and the two instruments return to the home key. This piece is dedicated to Bob Marley.
Written at Monash University and performed at a Composer's Concert in December 2003, 7 Melbournisms brings old and new together: traditional instruments and notation of Javanese gamelan and live computer processing. The instruments are appropriately mic'ed and their sounds fed into a program written in Max/MSP which allows real-time alteration of that sound. Each movement alters the gamelan sound in a different way. The final movement explores all the manipulations together, and is a small tip-o-the-hat to composer Elliot Carter's Eight Etudes and a Fantasy.
Each movement conjures a unique aspect of life in Melbourne, Australia. Their titles are:
1. skylines of clouds
2. lousy public transport
3. anzac biscuits
4. bourke st. mall
5. the pony
6. trees where cars should be
7. music scene
8. fantasy
I also wrote an essay describing my intentions and inspirations behind the piece, which seems to be a fairly standard practice in Australia. CLICK HERE to download the backstory behind this piece!
LISTEN TO MVMTS I, II, & III (TRACKS 16 - 18) IN THE PLAYER ABOVE!
These four movements were inspired by four handwritten notes I once received. Each movement treats the text of the notes differently: the rhythm of the passacaglia in the first movement, the stately ensemble chords in the second movement, the rhythm of the solo pad in the third movement, and the "lyrics" to the melodic line in the fourth. I treat each of the parts as a melodic instrument, and throughout the work the instruments trade roles with the marimba soloist.
This performance is none other than the now-world-famous Third Coast Percussion Quartet, featuring guest marimba soloist Ryan Kilgore. This performance was in April 2007 at Northeastern University in Chicago.
If you would like to follow along, please feel free to download the score for each movement here:
Patrick Liddell [ontologist] is a music composer and video artist currently living in Chicago. His music and video art is a postmodern blend of all styles and genres. He has regular collaborations with bands such as Maurice (Chicago), Sunshine Family (London, Melbourne), Silences Sumires (Chicago), Vox Novus (New York), Tomorrow Music Orchestra (Chicago), and many solo artists from around the world. His first album, Arrow To The Sun, is available from Canzona Records as well as iTunes and CDBaby.
He has received his doctorate in music composition from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
"Liddell is exploring the divide between reality and the mimed version of that reality we encounter through media." - Switched.com
"Sound artist ontologist has ... ended up with one of the more elegant pieces of video art around on the web. ... It’s also the first time I’ve ever seen someone use the Youtube platform itself to create an artwork. I dig it." - Tomas Ford Blog
"Is this guy rad or what? I love how somewhere among the crazy streets of Chicago an artist I never knew existed is sitting in his room putting together unpredictable sounds and images and sending them our way through cyberspace..." - Daniella Jaeger, Kickstarter
