Call for Participation!
Registration is open to participate to our next workshop in Brussels:

Laptop Music workshop:
Simple Genetic Algorithm for Music by Kim Cascone
The purpose of this workshop is to stimulate new ways of working collaboratively and in performance with open source materials. Kim Cascone's approach is based on a simple genetic algorithmic which is 'executed' by the participants.
The concept for this workshop was inspired by John Maeda's "Human Powered Computer Experiment". In this experiment Maeda recreated the internal operations of a simple computer using people to physically transport handwritten instructions and data to and from the CPU, RAM, FPU, etc.
Participating in this type of experiment enables one to transfer abstract concepts from their body to their brain. In a similar spirit, this workshop develops a group workflow using the model of a Simple Genetic Algorithm (SGA) with the result being an emergent work of music/sound art.
The SGA workflow for the participants group is constructed as an iterative process performed by the participants and working on a shared pool of open source sound files (the gene pool) to which fitness, matting and mutation operations are iteratively applied until a collaborative work starts to converge.

About Kim Cascone
Kim Cascone has a long history involving electronic music: he received his formal training in electronic music at the Berklee College of Music in the early 1970's, and in 1976 continued his studies with Dana McCurdy at the New School in New York City.
In the 1980's, Cascone worked with David Lynch as Assistant Music Editor on both Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart.
In 1991, Cascone concentrated on Silent Records, a label that he founded in 1986, transforming it into the US's premier electronic music label. At the height of Silent's success in early 1996, he sold the company to pursue a career as a sound designer and went to work for Thomas Dolby's company Headspace. After two-years at Headspace he worked for Staccato Systems as the Director of Content where he oversaw sound design using algorithmic synthesis for video games.
Since 1984, Kim has released more than 30 albums of electronic music and has recorded/performed with artists such as Merzbow, Keith Rowe, Tony Conrad, Scanner, Ikue Mori, and Pauline Oliveros among others. Cascone was one of the co-founders of the microsound list, http://www.microsound.org, which focuses on issues concerning digital music and laptop performance. He has also published work for Computer Music Journal (MIT Press), Artbyte Magazine, Contemporary Music Review, and Parachute Journal.

When ?
Workshop dates are : from THU 11 OCT to SUN 14 OCT in Brussels. From 10am to 18pm with lunch break. Public concert on SUN 14.

Where ?
at iMAL, 30 Quai des Charbonnages, 1080 Brussels.

Language ?
English (c'est pour cela que cette annonce se fait uniquement en anglais...)

Registration
Only through the registration form on http://www.imal.org/cascone_workshop/
The workshop will accept a maximum of 15 participants. The participation fee is 30 EUROS.


And stay tuned to our mailing list... other major events coming very soon !!!


A workshop produced by iMAL and TELE the Communications and Remote Sensing Laboratory of the Faculty of Engineering (FSA) at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL).
With the support of Communauté française de Belgique

--
Yves Bernard yb@imal.org
asbl iMAL vzw
30-34 Quai des Charbonnages
1080 Bruxelles/Brussel
tel 32 2 410 30 93



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