constructing nerves, awakening machines

Abstract

This dissertation represents the last five years of my compositional output and outlines my artistic pursuits during my time at Harvard. As I entered this program, I thought of my work as the formation of interconnected systems; devising electro-acoustic environments where performers are interdependent upon each other as well as interactive electronics to form a "machine." The logic of my works has thus been one of form, starting, stopping and learning this machine. While this logic still holds, I've used my time within this program to increasingly confront these conceptual frameworks and dig into how this approach can push further inwards, in particular, towards the mechanisms of the machine and the worlds in which it builds. Collaged within this dissertation are pieces that range from duo to large chamber instrumentation, all utilizing electronics in differing ways, but most importantly, never as a passive element. The order of the works presented trace these thoughts of formal and material interests. Furthermore, I've broken my research into smaller sections in which to discuss the ideas of my practice that have formed in the past several years.