Hi All, my name is Ricardo Arribas, and I am currently a 4th year graduate student in the Comparative Literature Department.  I've been interested in music since very early, and in electronic sound generation techniques for more than 6 years now, although it was not until a few years ago that I had the change to engage in learning in more detail some imortant aspects of this field. I am very invested in producing music as a medium in itself but, since my background is largely literary, I am equally interested in the narrative potential of music, and how sound nitneracts poetically with the written and the visual media. I am very much lured by the cinematic character that many contemporary electronic music styles very often display. Also, I soon realized the enormous potential applications such as Live, Logic Pro, and Reason have for creating the aural space, diegetic and extra-diegetic, that accompanies the moving image.

I've noticed that, while film can be arguably characterized as a predominantly visual medium, its aural aspect often tends to be overlooked, whereas actually sound very much determines the meaning an image will ultimately have, directing its reading, inflecting it with a particular emotional tonality, etc. I therefore am very curious to explore different ways in which sound can instill the moving image with emotional charge and insight.

Years ago, I took an art video course when finishing my BA, and was invovled in an advanced cinematography course during my graduate years in P.R. Also, I've taken Kevin's undergraduate courses in electroacoustic composition. I'm excited to find out what will be the outcome of this combination.   

 

Hello,

I am Ali Cakir from Istanbul. Music somehow hits my visual center. This way that I think of music might be inferior in some aspects but I believe that something good can come out of it. Istanbul is a pot, full of sounds from the East and the West. Historically, visual arts have taken a very symbolic dimension in my society and this perhaps makes them more plastic. Symbolism probably makes more closely related to music because of their granular nature. A rug, for example, can possibly be interpreted as a score of some kind. A single mosaic tile in the same fashion, or a wall made with mosaics where each mosaic host a number of symbols and there is a slight progression in the tiles over a large area. There is a fundamental lack of realistic figures, and if we're thinking in terms of music, we are not making music for or about a visual figure but creating music parallel with the visual. 

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/489355.jpg

 We can instantly see the extent of geometry being used. It is a pity that this kind of art has been neglected in the last century because with current technology, intensely beautiful spaces could be created. Maybe this can be done alongside with music in an interactive fashion. Minimalism comes to mind, but I can't argue that these mosaics are exactly minimal. 

Hey all -

My name is Doug and I'm a senior in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. Since I have some notion that music is way more entertaining than engineering, I've been doing my best to ensure that my schedule contains a healthy number of music courses. I played classical piano for about 12 years back in the day and have been trying to get back into that as well as some jazz piano. Other instruments include (but are not limited to) bass guitar, djembe and didgeridoo though I don't claim to be overly talented in those respects.

I audited Intro to Digital Music last semester and loved the course material, though I wasn't really able to get the hands on experience that I wanted, hence one of my main reasons for taking this course. I hinted at my love for Looney Toons in class, and so if anyone has any animation experience, I'd love to collaborate and maybe put together some sort of modern-day cartoon with a Looney Toons flavor. If you watch cartoons nowadays you'll notice less great music than was present in the past, so I'd like to bring back that musical aspect that has long since been forgotten.

What's going on classmates?

I'm Greg and I'm taking Film Scoring this semester. I'm a sophomore music major concentrating in composition. I also play oboe. As a definite computer nerd, making music with computers is plain fun for me. Also, I feel many of the soft and hard tools used in electronic music force you to think differently about composition. I'm really excited to learn about Pd this semester, hopefully by the end of it I will be able to do more than make a sine-wave oscillator!

I'm happy to do collaborations with people, just contact me and let's talk!

Hi everyone,

I'm Sam and I'm a junior English/music major. I play several instruments but focus mostly on piano/organ and guitar. I'm very interested in composition and digital music, and I also consider myself a pretty big fan of cinema. I spend a lot of time thinking about the ways in which music affects our perception of our environment and our perceptions of other art forms. The merging of arts has always fascinated me, and I would love in particular to work on film scoring, sound/art exhibits, and other expanded forms of multimedia/sound art in a variety of musical and visual styles.

Hello, my name is Andrew Levy and I'm a senior philosophy major.  I have taken intro to electronic music and that's about it for songwriting classes.  I have been writing music on my computer since freshman year, though, on a simple program which has guitar tab notation instead of typical ledger line notation (although I can also write that type of music).  Last semester for my final project I wrote a song and played it along with a video on youtube.  I wrote the song before I had ever seen the video, but I still loved the interplay between both media.  I have always loved soundtracks and how music can change video, and so I thought this class would be very interesting.

I know at least Sarah and I were interested in procedural generation and using algorithms and formulas to make sound and visuals. I stumbled across this awesome portfolio site for a guy who makes art using Processing.org and a bunch of particle attractors and fractal computations.

Complexification

Check it out. It's stunning. The only drawback is that these are missing music...... for now <_<. I'd be particularly interested in trying to get some sound evolving out of the "Bubble Chamber" or "City Traveler" demos. He provides all of the source code and encourages manipulation, so I figured, why not?

Does anyone very familiar with processing suggest using the Ess or Minim library? I've used both and each with different successes and drawbacks...

Hello everyone,

I am currently a college scholar major in A&S studying visual and auditory psychology along with sound design. I was forced to pick up the violin at the age of 4, but I am also forever grateful for that. I have also learned to play guitar, bass, and taiko drums along the way. I have been producing my own music for awhile now. I have a difficult time pinpointing my musical interests because I have a tendency to wander in terms of choosing particular genres.

I took Music 220 last year, which helped give me direction in terms of my musical interests. I hope to expand my production skills into the realm of visual art through this class and as always, I am genuinely excited to learn from Professor Ernste.

Best,

Brian

Hellllllloooo everybody! I am Praveen Narayanan, and I am a freshman at the College of Arts & Sciences. I come from a city called New Delhi, which is in this totally fascinating country called India, where the sounds, smells, tastes and sights that I encountered everyday were so rich and full that I have yearned to record them and compose music all my life. I started with Carnatic (South Indian) Classical singing at the age of five, and since then I have been interested in playing a new instrument every time I came across one. I believe I can strum a guitar, and drum on walls, desks and glasses fairly well. While I'm undecided about my major, I have a desire to study Physics here at Cornell. I would like to take a lot of music courses, but I do not find twentieth century classical music to be the most appealing.

I think I would like more to experiment with all the sounds nature has to offer. This is my first class with Prof. Ernste, and I am naturally excited about learning to use technology to record and create.