Creating ••• at • a ••• Distance
No. 27 • 2021-01-21
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A biweekly newsletter from ExCITe Center Director Youngmoo Kim about novel creative & collaborative works in the time of social distancing, focusing on Philadelphia. Much of it involves tech, but not all of it.

Uncertainty

I don’t recall entering a new year and academic term with this much uncertainty. We have a new President (finally!) and the hope of a coordinated and competent federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. Vaccines are being administered, but when and how will they reach the broader population? Our economy is wrecked, although much-needed relief legislation may soon take effect. We’re still mostly teaching online, which amplifies many structural inequities, so we're trying to get students back into schools and onto college campuses in the coming weeks / months. But what’s the right balance between safety and delayed learning? There are so many questions, and the answers will take time to play out.

Last year was a forced mashup: a mixture of all kinds of tools, technologies, and methods applied in unintended ways to overcome new challenges. Virtual choirs and ensembles emerged into the mainstream as one example of an arts-tech mashup. Developing the skill to produce broadcast quality live or recorded streaming content in-house is another. Recall that at the start of 2020, most people hadn’t heard of Zoom and were unfamiliar with Slack and Teams, but now almost everyone has gained some proficiency with these tools for online collaboration.

And there are countless ways their intended uses have been transformed for remote teaching and learning. Remember, creativity is connecting things.

I believe (and fervently hope) we will be able to return to in-person work, events, and performances with live audiences sometime in 2021. But I also believe that online creation, collaboration, and learning will continue to play a growing role this year and well beyond, particularly in ways that enable things not possible otherwise. As a self-proclaimed “creative technologist”, I am a highly biased commentator on this topic, but I have to believe the creativity and the technology we’ve developed to overcome some of the challenges of social distancing will continue to be valuable. When we return to in-person classrooms or live performance venues, what we’ve learned will feedback into what we do in the “real” world.

Despite the uncertain future, I remain certain that it will continue to demand a great deal of creative adaptation and the ability to wield technology in productive and positive ways. This year will bring new works and tools that will push the limits of what's possible, and I still look forward (cautiously) to what the future will bring.

I am honored to be featured on Apple’s higher education website for “pushing the boundaries of creative expression”. Click here to read more about how faculty leaders are using technology to make a positive change in the world.

(Socially) Distant Creations

  • Peace On Earth [Ragazzi Continuo] Unlike most virtual concerts, this was performed and recorded live. How is that possible? A system called JackTrip (developed at Stanford's CCRMA) enabled the ensemble to sing together from their own homes with minimal audio delay. After months practicing with this new technology they performed this concert live in December. (Yes, my research group has also been experimenting with this system.)

  • Soldier Songs [Opera Philadelphia Channel] I've been really looking forward to this new version of composer David T. Little's exploration of the life of the soldier combining theater, opera, and rock. Presented in a new film for streaming and based on interviews with veterans of five wars, the piece boldly examines the impact of trauma, the exploitation of innocence, and the difficulty of expressing war's painful truths. (Available with a Season Pass through May or with a seven-day rental for $25.)

  • #ISing. Hallelujah [la Caixa Foundation] A unique and beautiful twist on virtual choirs, projecting singers large scale inside a cathedral, the Basilica de Santa Maria Del Mar, for a performance of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.

  • The Mandalorian Light Show [Steve Beers] Holiday lights meet Ludwig Göransson's rousing theme for The Mandalorian, the fantastic Disney+ series set in the Star Wars universe. And how can you not love baby Yoda?

  • The Mandalorian on iPhone [iSongs] And here's how to create the theme song entirely on your iPhone in the GarageBand app. Just one of many amazing videos in this YouTube series.

What I'm creating…

For my class this term, Applied Digital Signal Processing, instead of lectures, I'm  creating a series of short videos. I'll release the full series at the end of the term, but here's my intro theme for these videos.

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