30% PhD Seminar
Posted in Announcement on March 7th, 2022 by admin
Derek Holzer 30% PhD seminar: 11th March, 11am (GMT +1)
Discussant: Professor Thor Magnusson, University of Sussex
Contact me at idholzer AT kth DOT se for a Zoom link
Title: Historically Informed Audiovisual Synthesis
Abstract: This project explores vintage audiovisual synthesis technology from the 1960s and 1970s used in Sweden at the Royal College of Music (KMH), Elektronmusikstudion (EMS), Swedish national radio (SR) and television (SVT), and in the private studios of composers such as Ralph Lundsten and Leo Nilsson. Specific examples of these technological artifacts have been archived by the Swedish Performing Arts Agency (Statens Musikverket) and the Performing Arts Museum (Scenkonstmuseet). A number of these instruments are unique specimens which represent visionary, idiosyncratic, and often commercially unsuccessful attempts to reinvent production methods of creative media according to specific visions of the future. Their uniqueness as heritage objects under conservation has also restricted public access to many of them. We propose that, if the original instruments no longer exist or cannot be maintained in usable conditions for artists and designers to work with, then contemporary re-enactments of these instruments can be produced. Through an iterative design process involving artists and designers, we hope to create instruments which renew historical creative visions and transcend the technical obsolescence into which many of them fell.
We aim to address the following research questions:
How can the ethics and affordances of a historical creative media instrument be re-enacted within a contemporary context, using contemporary technical means?
What does a user of these historically-informed instruments gain from such a re-enactment?
