I teach electronic music to students from the Department of Music and also the Technocultural Studies Program. Here are some examples of the larger projects we've created together.
For the past few years, I've asked the undergraduates in my electronic music class to locate and interview an composer/performer/improviser/instrument builder/etc. they find interesting. I let the students choose the subject of the interview, and generate the questions. Most of these interviews take place through email. To the best of my knowledge, all of the interview subjects have agreed to let their interview be posted. (If I'm mistaken, please send me an email at ssnichols@ucdavis.edu and I'll remove your interview.) Thanks to Prof. Glenda Drew of the UC Davis Design Department for letting me borrow and adapt this assignment.
I'm still formatting a big pile of interviews, and I'll keep posting them, but gradually. Check back again soon for more.
From a Group Directed Study in the spring of 2010. On October 28, 2010 eleven undergraduates staged a realization of David Tudor's Rainforest IV. The students made a variety of different sound sources (with help from Prof. Jesse Drew, and his "Electronics for Artists" class), contact microphones, matrix mixers, amplifiers, and etc. They then used found objects as physical filters, and turned the lobby of the Mondavi Center for the Arts into an immersive sonic environment. This performance was part of the UC Davis Madness and Music Festival. The students: Sharmi Basu, Aaron Cooper, John Brumley, Mike Dorrity, Cody Duncan, Gareth Ewing, Alejandro Gonzalez, Patrick Langham, Adam Morales, Dakota Salazar, and Daniel Scrivano. Thanks to Keith Carey for generously sharing his knowledge, and to Noah McGee for recording the performance.
dress rehearsal excerpt one
dress rehearsal excerpt two
dress rehearsal excerpt three
performance excerpt one
performance excerpt two
performance excerpt three
performance excerpt four
performance excerpt five
Three excerpts from our June 4, 2009 performance at UC Davis. The students in the ensemble created and then performed a soundtrack to accompany Yasujiro Ozu's 1934 silent film "A Story of Floating Weeds."
excerpt one
excerpt two
excerpt three