Native from Lucerne, Switzerland. studied jazz-doublebass, composition for contemporary music and digital arts in the US and europe. active for many years in jazz, improvised music and performance-art. Composer of various pieces for film, theater, chamber-music, mixed-media projects and electronic music. Many collaborations with video-, theater- and performance-artists. teaches internationally music, interactive software and sensor technology. Personal research in electroacoustic music involving physical interfaces,algorithmic autonomous systems, and cross-media performance-concepts. Strong interest in blending of physical and symbolic domain, bridging the gap between bodily action and abstract calculation / intuition and rational control. Development of realtime systems for symbolic data-representations and meta-structures for media-control.
Contribution:
Codespace — visual and sonic symbolics: Jasch
Codespace integrates realtime drawing and synthesized sounds in a minimalist
and symbolic fashion. Generative (rule-based) processes or algorithms
influence descriptive attributes applied to both drawing and sound.
Gestural interaction through physical interfaces such as a sensor-glove
are used for real-time control and are in strong opposition to the enigmatic
and invisible world inside the machine.
Empty black space and fast moving abstract shapes, almost architectural structures, develop over longer periods of time. Pulsations, beats, cracklings and sonic creatures populate the piece. It evolves from dark and minimalist atmospheres to abstract densities, like a digital painting performed over an extended period of time. Three-dimensional visualisation in conjunction with a spatialized immersive sound-scape take the audience onto a visual and sonic journey into an abstract ‘codespace’. In all compositional processes, structures are always beginning and endpoint, shaping the results, at the same time merely setting the initial line of flight. In contrast, intuition is a key to unlock past experiences and make them accessible in performance, giving the ability to react without the necessity of analytical thought. Realtime inter-action with machines poses a challenge on both those planes. There is a need to find a strategy to deal with the (sometimes overwhelming) complexity of choices and actions presented during performance. Ideally the control of image and sound would be unified in the same interface and gesture. In reality many parts of the processes have to be left to higher level algorithms, freeing the performer to more intuitively shape the flow in time. Reduction and concentration in both the visual and sonic media help to maintain a crucial focus. The piece is a study in data-juggling, pulling strings and yet not being able to have total control over everything.
