sound art: aaaa-rrr-t = art!
thoughts about an on-going social experiment

a lecture by composer gustavo matamoros
part of isaw’s understanding sound series in
collaboration with the FEASt electronic music festival
at florida international university

saturday, february 2, 2008 / 3 pm
green library, room 535
fiu – university park campus, miami
free and open to the public

one most striking realization for me in the lifelong experiment of becoming a composer is the myriad contrasting ways we relate to sound. there are as many ways of listening as there are people in the world, and i have learned to take that as a given. from a marketing perspective, a great deal of what stands in the way of a meaningful, productive interaction between composer and community is not so much ignorance or bias, but some form of benign prejudice. in the meantime, with the advent of new technologies, musicians continue to discover new exciting ways of relating to sound. some view these developments as extensions of music while others feel the need to call it something else. in this lecture i will reference examples of my own musical output to stimulate an open discussion about the linguistic undercurrents that frame and color our relationship with sound

isaw and the south florida composers alliance receive funding from miami-dade cultural affairs department and the state of florida division of cultural affairs

saturday, october 6, 2007
1pm – 2pm
miami science museum, auditorium
3280 south miami avenue, miami

listening at the edges: the necessity for double description
as part of the understanding sound lecture series
in partnership with carnival center for the performing arts

for over three decades there has been an ongoing discourse that has addressed the role that the sonic arts can play in increasing our collective awareness to environmental issues through sensitizing us to the soundscape. a variety of approaches and strategies have used experimental music practices and audio recording technologies to document, compose preserve, study, manipulate, intensify, and otherwise attempt to bring issues of the natural environment into foreground awareness through sound. this lecture demonstrates one approach to bringing art practice and scientific knowledge together towards applied environmental problem solving. it illustrates one of the many ways that the sonic arts can move beyond documentary and sensory heightening strategies alone towards participation in both scientific research and subsequent interventions to growing environmental dilemmas.