Call for applications: Workshop with Keith Fullerton Whitman

Published on Jan 31, 2019

As part of Sonic Acts Festival 2019, Keith Fullerton Whitman will lead a one-day workshop, Sub-Conscious Decision-Making while Performing Live Electronic Music, focused on the challenges posed by an orchestral approach to electronic instrumentation. The workshop will take place on Wednesday 20 February, 13:00 – 17:00, at STEIM, and combine an expanded lecture and demonstration and will be followed by a discussion.

Over the past decade, Keith Fullerton Whitman has developed a unique method for composing and performing with early analogue synthesisers by using algorithmic and generative processes implemented in the hardware. In this one-day workshop, Whitman will discuss the challenges one must face when approaching electronic instrumentation in an orchestral manner. His Redactions’ and Generators’ setups will be on hand, and the choices made while designing and implementing their specific topologies over a decade will be demonstrated. 

While a familiarity with experimental electronic music and analogue synthesisers will be helpful, the workshop will centre on a broader discussion about how and why to implement chance and improvisational concepts within rigid compositional frameworks, and how to delineate risk and humanistic performance tendencies to simple, algorithmic systems.

Enrolment

Participants are required to have a basic knowledge about analogue synthesis and digital sound production. Applicants are asked to submit a short motivation and CV to workshop[at]sonicacts[dot]com. The deadline for applications is 15 February 2019.

Fee

The participation fee is €25.

Keith Fullerton Whitman is a composer and performer living in Brooklyn. He is currently performing live electronic music under the Redactions banner. He recently performed at the GRM’s Immersion festival in Paris, Documenta 14 in Athens, The Labyrinth in Niigata, MaerzMusik’s The Long Now in Berlin, etc. Active from the early 90s on, while working towards completing a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Synthesis at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, Keith began exploring electronic music’s many facets, yielding dozens of recordings for influential labels such as Kranky, Planet µ, Editions Mego, PAN, Carpark, Room40, etc. He has collaborated with Oren Ambarchi, Tony Conrad, Mark Fell, Eli Keszler, Felix Kubin, Okkyung Lee, Matmos, Charlemagne Palestine, Terry Riley and many others. 

Keith Fullerton Whitman. Photo by Max Schiano.
Keith Fullerton Whitman's equipment. Sonic Acts 2012. Photo by Rosa Menkman.