These videos captures a performance of the Bard Laptop Orchestra (BLORK), an ensemble of 22 laptops, performing under the direction of composer/mix-master Miguel Frasconi, on Thursday, Dec 16, 2010.
This was the end-of-semester concert of Bard College’s “Workshop in Software for Composition and Performance,” taught by Miguel Frasconi.
The participants this semester (fall 2010) were:
Laura Bradford • Penn Chan
Jake Coan • Dylan Coburn
Lucas Denton • Dani Dobkin
John Garlid • Charlie Heller
Alex Hood • Zack Khalil
Shahrod Khalkhali • Elias Moose
Marcel Reid-Jaques • Steve Reiman
Sean Rucewicz • David Silberberg
Nate Smallwood • Charlotte Su
Will Tesdell • Joe Tisdall
Elon Ullman • Jed Wolf
Miguel Frasconi, director & mix-master
via wellweatheredmusic:
Did you mean to write bad laptop orchestra? This is horrendous and not in the least bit amusing. Someone should punch that director in the face.
what the @# is this?? Is this music hell?? Some guys actually yawning and falling asleep?? Makes me want to play "rage against the machine / Wake up"
i find their lack of entertaining disturbing
what do they teach at that college? how to suck?
can i get the 30 secs of my life i spent watching this back, please?
Only in academia can people brainwash themselves into thinking this is music.
what students do for extra credits LOL
I thought it good. Williams mix in parts, modern cut-up and a bit of Funky Porcini in other parts. It's weird but it doesn't always have to be normal and entertaining. Sometimes deep, weird, fucked-up and experimental is the way to go.
I'd like to know more about the set-up. Are the computers networked, do they share a clock or is it all just feed into and mixed on the main laptop?
I thought it good. Williams mix in parts, modern cut-up and a bit of Funky Porcini in other parts. It's weird but it doesn't always have to be normal and entertaining. Sometimes deep, weird, fucked-up and experimental is the way to go.
I'd like to know more about the set-up. Are the computers networked, do they share a clock or is it all just feed into and mixed on the main laptop?
I thought it good. Williams mix in parts, modern cut-up and a bit of Funky Porcini in other parts. It's weird but it doesn't always have to be normal and entertaining. Sometimes deep, weird, fucked-up and experimental is the way to go.
I'd like to know more about the set-up. Are the computers networked, do they share a clock or is it all just feed into and mixed on the main laptop?
I thought it good. Williams mix in parts, modern cut-up and a bit of Funky Porcini in other parts. It's weird but it doesn't always have to be normal and entertaining. Sometimes deep, weird, fucked-up and experimental is the way to go.
I'd like to know more about the set-up. Are the computers networked, do they share a clock or is it all just feed into and mixed on the main laptop?
I thought it good. Williams mix in parts, modern cut-up and a bit of Funky Porcini in other parts. It's weird but it doesn't always have to be normal and entertaining. Sometimes deep, weird, fucked-up and experimental is the way to go.
I'd like to know more about the set-up. Are the computers networked, do they share a clock or is it all just feed into and mixed on the main laptop?
I thought it good. Williams mix in parts, modern cut-up and a bit of Funky Porcini in other parts. It's weird but it doesn't always have to be normal and entertaining. Sometimes deep, weird, fucked-up and experimental is the way to go.
I'd like to know more about the set-up. Are the computers networked, do they share a clock or is it all just feed into and mixed on the main laptop?
Ah… so someone wants to punch me in the face, eh? This is a great example of what we were dealing with in this class. People seem to hold their musical taste as people do patriotism. "My country (or music) is better than your country (or music)." Do we really want to use music as yet another way to exercise intolerance?
The comparison to John Cage's Williams Mix is right on. Sound collage where all sound and music is allowed in, creating something that goes beyond entertainment.
The setup was pretty basic. No clock sync. Simply all the audio was feeding a main mixer, on which I shaped the performance.
Ah… so someone wants to punch me in the face, eh? This is a great example of what we were dealing with in this class. People seem to hold their musical taste as people do patriotism. "My country (or music) is better than your country (or music)." Do we really want to use music as yet another way to exercise intolerance?
The comparison to John Cage's Williams Mix is right on. Sound collage where all sound and music is allowed in, creating something that goes beyond entertainment.
The setup was pretty basic. No clock sync. Simply all the audio was feeding a main mixer, on which I shaped the performance.
Ah… so someone wants to punch me in the face, eh? This is a great example of what we were dealing with in this class. People seem to hold their musical taste as people do patriotism. "My country (or music) is better than your country (or music)." Do we really want to use music as yet another way to exercise intolerance?
The comparison to John Cage's Williams Mix is right on. Sound collage where all sound and music is allowed in, creating something that goes beyond entertainment.
The setup was pretty basic. No clock sync. Simply all the audio was feeding a main mixer, on which I shaped the performance.
Ah… so someone wants to punch me in the face, eh? This is a great example of what we were dealing with in this class. People seem to hold their musical taste as people do patriotism. "My country (or music) is better than your country (or music)." Do we really want to use music as yet another way to exercise intolerance?
The comparison to John Cage's Williams Mix is right on. Sound collage where all sound and music is allowed in, creating something that goes beyond entertainment.
The setup was pretty basic. No clock sync. Simply all the audio was feeding a main mixer, on which I shaped the performance.
Ah… so someone wants to punch me in the face, eh? This is a great example of what we were dealing with in this class. People seem to hold their musical taste as people do patriotism. "My country (or music) is better than your country (or music)." Do we really want to use music as yet another way to exercise intolerance?
The comparison to John Cage's Williams Mix is right on. Sound collage where all sound and music is allowed in, creating something that goes beyond entertainment.
The setup was pretty basic. No clock sync. Simply all the audio was feeding a main mixer, on which I shaped the performance.
Ah… so someone wants to punch me in the face, eh? This is a great example of what we were dealing with in this class. People seem to hold their musical taste as people do patriotism. "My country (or music) is better than your country (or music)." Do we really want to use music as yet another way to exercise intolerance?
The comparison to John Cage's Williams Mix is right on. Sound collage where all sound and music is allowed in, creating something that goes beyond entertainment.
The setup was pretty basic. No clock sync. Simply all the audio was feeding a main mixer, on which I shaped the performance.
"Goes beyond entertainment" is right. You've created the exact sound of a pretentious circle jerk. shitting in our ears. Well done!
"circle jerk", "shitting"… excellent discourse! Well, at least it effected you guys enough to spend time insulting it. Who knows, maybe this experience will make you work harder to create music you actually like.
how much practice was put into this?
Whether this is music or not I couldn't care, but my question is what actually is happen here? Is it just arbitrarily twisting knobs hoping that something sounds good? Or is there actual thought put into this?
I understand sound for the sake of sound (I enjoy listening to radio static while I practice piano) but this seems as though it was put together haphazardly without a lot of time or effort.
In my opinion this is not a very good display of what can be done with computer based music.
Well, I wouldn't call this a masterpiece by any means, but it certainly was fun. It was essentially a way for these 22 students to experience using their laptops in a performance situation. Learning to boot up 8 Ableton projects in a row without having to search around for various clips, then actually performing these projects in real time. The show alternated ensemble pieces with solos. This edit has most of the solos removed. Although there is a very cool solo in part 2 where the performer is playing feedback by moving his laptop around in the air.
So, there wasn't much arbitrariness to the performance. Everyone was moving through specific pre-set projects at the same time. In the ensemble pieces, I was improvising the mix on the spot. I certainly didn't want 22 laptops all playing at once! I think for what it was, a summing up of a semester's worth of work, it was quite successful. Everyone learned composition and performance techniques that will be very useful in the real world.
Thanks for your interest!
Thanks frasconi…
gave a lot more contexts as to what was going on…sounds like a cool project.
Look forward to seeing more.