[ANN} Huddersfield Max Symposium (21st Feb 2015)

On Saturday 21st February @ 12.30PM the University of Huddersfield is hosting its annual MSP Power Users Symposium as part of Electric Spring 2015 (http://electricspring.co.uk/).
The event is free, and hosted in CAM G/01 of the Creative Arts Building at the University.

We have four speakers (Kasper Toeplitz / Hans Leeuw / Peter Dowling / Robert Henke) who will talk about their work in Max, with time for questions. Further details below.

Hope to see some of you who live nearby there!

Alex Harker

Kasper ToeplitzNoise As Input, Noise As Filter: A Compositional Approach
Through the years my interest in music moved from working with sound to working on noise – when, at the same time (but it took years) my position in the (musical) world evolved from being a "contemporary" composer, writing symphonies, operas, string quartets or pieces for (mostly acoustic) ensembles to becoming a "noise" musician, a "noisician", or at least a musician deeply involved into (working with) noise and the electronics. Maybe as a paradox this quest for noise made me collaborate with contemporary dance projects, up to the point of sometimes using dancers as the only musicians for some compositions (Capture and Désastre) before turning them into instruments (Inoculate? and Data_Noise).
Quite often, my compositional work became (mostly) electronic music which takes as its starting point the use of noise, similar to the (white) canvas of a painter or rather to the block of stone of a sculptor.

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Hans LeeuwBlurring the Borders Between Acoustic and Digital Control
As an experienced trumpet player Hans' instrument is an extension of his body. In this talk he takes this a step further and shows how he searches for ways of sound design and mapping that add the digital world as an extra dimension of embodiment.

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Peter DowlingsoftlySoftly(extending, msp, with, gen)
{
    genaholic = confessions_of_a_;

1) High quality modern DSP algorithms in gen~
2) Why we love gen~
3) Why we hate gen~
4) Interlude: learning to love GenExpr
5) Why we love Max 6) Why we hate Max
6) Why should creative people be concerning themselves with nuts and bolts?
7) Complaints and any other business.

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Robert HenkeLumière II - developing a framework for a large scale laser show in Max
Robert Henke's laser performance Lumière II utilizes audio rate signal processing in Max not only for sound synthesis but also to create the control signals for the lasers.
The presentation will provide detailed insight into the functionality of his software and the concepts behind it. Code for laser control demands sample accurate timing also for control signals. A special focus of the talk will be on the methods employed to achieve highly effective code that meets this criteria. The second main topic is the interactions between artistic desires, the necessity to program a dedicated environment to achieve the initial goals and the transformation of the project as a result of the knowledge and inspiration gained by using these new tools. 

Key Words:  laser, gen~ codebox, audio event based processing, networked patches, Max4Live, performance, multicore parallel processing in Max, vector graphics, sample accurate preset switching

http://www.roberthenke.com/concerts/lumiere.html