Many Makings

Abstract

For many years, I have been concerned to develop methods which draw on practices in art and design worlds to explore possibilities for instruments, interfaces, circuits, et cetera that might contribute to research at the intersection of music and computing, including the field known as NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression). After an overview, I will give a more detailed presentation of recent attempts to integrate design, performance, and pedagogy in a collective participatory practice and describe a series of workshop/residencies and performances in the UK and Japan, and the experimental instruments and devices which emerged from them. Following this, I will discuss and demonstrate some ongoing research into feedback systems which works with similar methods to develop a personal performance system - a system performed with at Fylkingen on Thursday 8th June fylkingen.se/node/3146  (do come!).

Bio

John Bowers is an artist-researcher who works with modular synthesisers, home-brew electronics, feedback systems, self- made software, field recordings, esoteric sensor systems, experimental film, and spoken text. He often combines performance with walking and the investigation of selected sites to research an imagined discipline he calls ‘mythogeosonics’. He has performed at festivals including the Venice Biennale, Experimental Intermedia New York,Transmediale/CTM Vorspiel Berlin, Piksel Bergen, Electropixel Nantes, BEAM London, Aldeburgh Festival and Spill Ipswich, and toured with the Rambert Dance Company performing David Tudor’s music to Merce Cunningham’s Rainforest. He contributed to the design of The Prayer Companion - a piece exhibited twice at the Museum Of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, and acquired for their permanent collection. He has just launched a personal record label, unlanded.bandcamp.com/ . Before working independently, John’s academic career spanned the social and computing sciences, with a particular concern to examine foundational issues in Human Computer Interaction through ethnographic study and design exploration. Until 2021, he was Professor of Creative Digital Practice at Culture Lab, Newcastle University, UK. www.instagram.com/johnthemodulator/