Interference Arts engages in a wide variety of arts-based research in Minneapolis, MN. In our research activities, we explore the use of new and exciting technological resources in order to service, advance, and celebrate many unique creative endeavors. The focus of our work is to increase our understanding of the world around us. We also strive to understand more about the pivotal role that the arts play in healthy human development. Reach out to us today for more information about our initiatives and our inter-media performance work.
Configurable Space
In 1987 Artistic Director Craig Harris launched a long term research and design project entitled Configurable Space, exploring future creative work environments, the creative process and the use of new technological resources to support artistic functions.
The fundamental premise hypothesizes that it is possible to develop integrated, technological resources that encompass the breadth of our beings in all of its complexity. These comprehensive resources would allow us to deepen our understanding of ourselves, and to communicate on these deeper levels in a conscious and purposeful manner.
Configurable Space is directed towards the development of a balanced understanding about how we use the visual, aural, tactile, and configurable capabilities of digital technologies, and how the tools developed affect ways that we think, feel, formulate, and develop on intellectual, spiritual, and emotional planes. In addition to advancing the understanding of our use of new technologies in a variety of human endeavors, the goal of this initiative was to influence the development of technological resources, and to interfere with a development trend that reinforced limited perspectives of how we use these tools.
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Music Notation and Contemporary Performance Practice
Interference Arts research in the arena of Music Notation and Contemporary Performance Practice looks far into the future to envision the future of music and music making, and uses this as a foundation for exploring the current conditions to identify a path towards realizing the vision that these resources make possible.
The innovation of computer-based musical resources has altered the landscape for the creation and dissemination of music, with wide ranging impact on all of these aspects of musical practice. The evolution of Western music notation over the last millennium reveals vital dynamic relationships among music composition, instrument development, performance practice and audience engagement. This research is an exploration of how multi-dimensional notation and representation systems can significantly enhance all of these aspects of music making.
This research highlights what is considered to be a stagnating condition in the evolution of contemporary music and music making that needs to be addressed if the artform is to continue to serve its role as both a reflection of our culture, and as an active change agent in creating our future.
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Contemporary Music Analysis Package
The Contemporary Music Analysis Package (CMAP) is a set of computer programs for analysis, modeling and composition of atonal and serial music that I created with music theorist Alexander Brinkman. Completed in 1986, the package includes a set of programs designed to be used in an interactive computer environment such as UNIX or MS-DOS. This article describes the origin of the development of CMAP. At the time of writing this article CMAP is no longer available for distribution.
Learn more about the Contemporary Music Analysis Package here.
A Composer’s Computer Music System: Practical Considerations
In the early to mid 1980s I was involved in a set of activities rooted in the development and use of computer applications in the contemporary classical music field. As a composer I often envisioned sounds and musical processes that were unrealistic or even impossible to achieve with existing instruments, and I was attracted to delving into the potential of computer-based resources to fulfill my musical voice. In order serve my own artistic needs, and to help advance development in the computer music field, I developed a personal computer music work station concentrating on building the tools and environment for music creation using “delayed performance,” direct synthesis techniques for music generation and sound processing.