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Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC)

Jonas Braasch

Jonas Braasch
Sun, 2010-06-13 02:05 — braasj
Name: Jonas Braasch
Title:Assistant Professor
Department Architecture
School Architecture
Center Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC)
Website:http://symphony.arch.rpi.edu/~braasj/
Bio Jonas Braasch is an acoustician, musicologist, and sound artist who teaches courses in Acoustics, Music, and the Doctoral Seminar at the School of Architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He obtained a master's degree from Dortmund University (Germany, 1998) in Physics and two PhD degrees from Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany (2001, 2004) in Electrical Engineering/Information Science and Musicology. Mr. Braasch is the co-founder and director of the Communication Acoustics and Aural Architecture Research Laboratory (CA3RL) which is part of RPI's Architectural Acoustics Program. His research interests include Binaural Hearing, Multi-channel Audio Technology, Telematic Music Systems, Perceptual Audio/Visual Integration, Intelligent Systems, and Musical Acoustics. Jonas Braasch (co-)authored more than 60 journal and conference papers and 3 monographs. For his work, he has received funding from the NSF, NSERC, DFG (German Science Foundation), and NYSCA. As a soprano saxophonist and sound artist, he has on-going collaborations with Curtis Bahn, Chris Chafe, Michael Century, Mark Dresser, Pauline Oliveros, Doug van Nort, and Sarah Weaver - among others. In 2006, he has been awarded with the Lothar-Cremer Prize, the highest recognition of the German Acoustical Society for young investigators. Jonas Braasch is a Board Member of the Deep Listening Institute (Kingston, NY) and holds a courtesy Adjunct Professor Appointment with the Schulich School of Music at McGill University.
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Scholarly Works:
  • J. Braasch (2006) Global reflections, audio compact disk, Deep Listening Publications DL 34-2006, Kingston, NY.
  • D.L. Valente, J. Braasch (2008) Subjective Expectation Adjustments of Early-to-Late Reverberant Energy Ratio and Reverberation Time to Match Visual Environmental Cues of a Musical Performance. Acta Acustica united with Acustica, S. Hirzel Verlag, 94, 840-855.
Recognitions:
  • Lothar Cremer Award 2006

Barbara Cutler

Barbara Mary Cutler
Sun, 2010-06-13 02:05 — cutleb
Name: Barbara Mary Cutler
Title:Associate Professor
Department Computer Science
School Science
Center Data Science Research Center (DSRC) Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC)
Website:http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~cutler
Bio I'm an Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department and an EMPAC Affiliated Faculty member at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. My research interests include computer graphics, geometry processing, visualization, and design tools for architecture.
Previously I was a student and then Post-Doctoral Lecturer at MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science doing research in the Computer Graphics Group which is part of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
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Education PhD Computer Science 2003 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MEng Computer Science 1999 Massachusetts Institute of Technology BS Computer Science & Engineering 1997 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Scholarly Works:
  • Interpreting Physical Sketches as Architectural Models Barbara Cutler and Joshua Nasman Advances in Architectural Geometry 2010, September 2010.
  • Dynamic Projection Surfaces for Immersive Visualization Theodore C. Yapo, Yu Sheng, Joshua Nasman, Andrew Dolce, Eric Li, and Barbara Cutler PROCAMS 2010 IEEE International Workshop on Projector-Camera Systems, June 2010.
  • Global Illumination Compensation for Spatially Augmented Reality Yu Sheng, Theodore C. Yapo, and Barbara Cutler Computer Graphics Forum, Eurographics 2010, April 2010.
  • A Spatially Augmented Reality Sketching Interface for Architectural Daylighting Design Yu Sheng, Theodore C. Yapo, Christopher Young, and Barbara Cutler IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, accepted October 2009.

Jim Hendler

Jim Hendler
Sun, 2010-06-13 02:05 — hendlj2
Name: Jim Hendler
Title:Sr. Constellation Prof. of Tetherless World Res. Constellation
Department Cognitive Science Computer Science IT and Web Science
School Science
Center Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC) Network Science and Technology Center (NeST)
Constellation Tetherless World
Website:http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~hendler
Bio James Hendler is the Tetherless World Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science, and the Assistant Dean for Information Technology and Web Science, at Rensselaer. He is also a faculty affiliate of the Experimental Multimedia Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), serves as a Director of the UK’s charitable Web Science Trust and is a visiting Professor at the Institute of Creative Technology at DeMontfort University in Leicester, UK. Hendler has authored about 200 technical papers in the areas of Semantic Web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing and high performance processing. One of the inventors of the “Semantic Web,” Hendler was the recipient of a 1995 Fulbright Foundation Fellowship, is a member of the US Air Force Science Advisory Board, and is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, the British Computer Society and the IEEE. He is also the former Chief Scientist of the Information Systems Office at the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and was awarded a US Air Force Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 2002. He is the Editor-in-Chief emeritus of IEEE Intelligent Systems and is the first computer scientist to serve on the Board of Reviewing Editors for Science. In 2010, Hendler was named an “Internet Web Expert” by the US government.
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Education PhD Computer Science, Brown Univ, 1986.
Recognitions:
  • Fellow AAAS, BCS, IEEE

Johannes Goebel

Johannes Goebel
Tue, 2011-03-08 17:42 — willij
Name: Johannes Goebel
Title:Professor and Director of EMPAC
Department Arts
School Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
Center Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC)
Bio Johannes Goebel joined Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as Founding Director of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) in July 2002. He holds a tenured position as Professor in the Arts Department and in the School of Architecture.

Between 1990 and 2002, Goebel was the Founding Director of the Institute for Music and Acoustics at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany. With its studios, artist-in-residence program, productions, commissions and festivals, he established the Institute as one of the leading production environments worldwide for "music and technology". For ZKM's new building, which opened in 1996 and comprises two museums, two research and production institutes, studios and performance venues, Goebel coordinated the overall demands for the ZKM building and specified the requirements and infrastructure of ZKM's performance spaces and the Institute for Music and Acoustics.

Under his directorship, more than 90 international artists produced roughly two-hundred works at the Institute, ranging from compositions with live and interactive electronics to pure sound synthesis, interactive operas and radio plays, sound installations, ballet music and music films with live orchestras. A continuous performance program and co-productions with other festivals established the Institute as a center for new practices in music.

During his tenure at ZKM, Goebel lectured and published internationally on aesthetics, technology and music, co-directed 1996 Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), taught a summer course at the Catholic University Porto, Portugal in 2000, and was a guest professor at the Music Academy Graz, Austria, in 1992.

Two key research projects at ZKM during Goebel's leadership include the establishment of the International Digital Electro-Acoustic Music Archive (IDEAMA). This endeavor was also led by Max Mathews, the "father of music compilers," and Patte Wood from Stanford University. After an extended collaboration between Stanford and ZKM, the first digital archive of electronic music up to the 1970s was complete and became a major resource of early electronic music. The archive holds nearly 550 works and is currently available in 23 libraries and music institutes around the world. The next key project Goebel conducted, as principal investigator with a team of experts, developed and applied hardware and software to record and transcribe the music for the Balinese shadow play, Gender Wayang. The final publication with transcriptions, data and research reports is forthcoming.

As consultant to Schott Musik International, one of the largest music publishing houses worldwide, Goebel conducted the overall changeover from traditional music engraving to electronic music printing in 1988 through 1990.

In cooperation with the German avant-garde record label Wergo, Goebel initialized the first Audio-CD series utilizing this new digital medium for Digital Music Digital in 1986. As producer, coordinator, digital audio editor and editor-in-chief, he published in collaboration with Max Mathews and CCRMA Computer Music Currents, a 13-volume CD series focused mainly on computer music of the 1980s. The final volume, The Historical CD of Digital Sound Synthesis, is a collection of the very first computer-synthesized pieces from the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Goebel also established the music devision of edition zkm during his time at ZKM. This series serves as a forum for works produced at the Institute for Music and Acoustics. The Audio-CD and DVD series is published by Wergo, the books by Schott Musik International.

Between 1977 and 1990, Goebel's activities stretched between the United States and Europe. In 1977, he started in the field of computer music at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) with a two year grant from the German Academic Exchange Service DAAD. As a visiting composer, he was a regular guest at CCRMA until 1990 and he initiated several major projects. In Europe, he worked as composer, teacher, instrument designer, curator and musician.

In the 1970s, Germany was the only country of the western industrialized nations that did not have a center or studio for music with computers. This slowly changed in the 1980s. Johannes Goebel was at that time the only composer moving continuously between the Silicon Valley and Germany trying to create a bridge between technical advances and the German contemporary music attitudes. In 1983, he conducted the first workshop for German composers at CCRMA, Stanford University. His lectures on the topic of computer music were slowly accepted and he continuously strived to establish a German artistically based approach to computer and music application. ZKM provided the basis for establishing a studio with international relevance.

While composing music with computers in the USA, Goebel designed and constructed wood and metal instruments in Europe including mallets with non-traditional tuning systems, a huge walk-in organ pipe etc. Between 1970 and 1990, he was very active in the field of free improvisation with non-traditional instruments. As member of a group including his mentor Gunter Lege, Goebel conducted more than 450 free improvisation workshops for students ranging from kindergarten to university age.

Goebel began teaching music at public schools and colleges at the age of 21. Until his position at ZKM in 1990 required from him to stop continuous teaching, he taught in very diverse environments. He taught computer music to professionals, free improvisation to children starting at the age of 3, adults up to 60+ and conservatory students. He also taught music theory, conducting and interdisciplinary artistic production as Professor at the University Hildesheim and worked intensively with physically and mentally handicapped children.

In 1975, he began his work as a curator by establishing the Hohe-Ufer-Konzerte in Hannover, Germany. At that time, it was a major initiative to establish a platform for a program that crossed and integrated composition, improvisation, literature, theater, dance and visual arts. He collaborated with Gunter Lege and Guenther Christmann. Goebel has since been active in programming and collaborating with festivals and institutions. In 1989, he was Founding Curator of ZKM's media-festival MultiMediale, initiating ZKM's artistic activities.

As a composer, Goebel wrote pieces for traditional instruments, his own instruments, computer synthesis and the live and electronic environment of the experimental studio at the Strobel-Stiftung Freiburg. He collaborated in numerous intermedia projects and interdisciplinary performances with dancers, actors, architects, performance and visual artists.

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