MUSIC DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
Speaker: Ashley Fure, Ph.D. (Harvard), 2013-14 Fulbright Fellow (FR). Title: Matter vs. Maker: Chaos and Creative Practice
Abstract:
Despite their wildness, chaotic spectra are rich with acoustic detail that can inform broader musical structures. Sounds like scraped metal and bowed cardboard bring a visceral materiality that highlights the friction and muscularity in sound production. This lecture tracks my engagement with chaotic material behaviors through a range of projects, spanning acoustic and electroacoustic concert music as well as multimedia installations. Drawing influence from architect Greg Lynn’s theories of animate design, I articulate an approach to form influenced by forces and flows. This orientation treats time as a corrosive medium through which sound must pass, not a stable canvas on which it is painted. Examples as diverse as the 40-foot field of violently vibrating strings in Tripwire (2011 – Multimedia Installation) and the multiphonic microfluctuations in Soma (2012 - Sextet) elaborate a productive tension between matter and maker central to my aesthetic practice.