There are more ways to create music than through conventional instruments. The Experimental Music and Digital Media program will display a few of these non-conventional methods Monday at its Cinema for the Ear.
The three-year-old program is a part of the College of Music and Dramatic Arts where professors and students use non-conventional methods to create music.
People often hear music or video through two channel stereophonic sound. The stereo sound is emitted through two speakers that appear to surround the listener. Cinema for the Ears will feature 80 audio channels and 90 speakers to give the audience an encompassing sound experience.
Edgar Berdahl, assistant professor of the EMDM program, created the FireFader, a device that mimics the friction involved in playing an instrument while emitting the instrument’s sound.
The device consists of two audio faders connected to a set of motors. The motors push against the faders to develop a tactile sense of friction while changing the pitch of the virtual instrument. If the FireFader is placed on a guitar setting and the faders are pulled down, the FireFader simulates the resistance a person would feel when down strumming each guitar string.
Berdahl can change the sound of the device through an application on his computer. The sounds the FireFader can make include instruments from the percussion, woodwind and string families.
“Our students learn about music, digital art and some things about programming,” Berdahl said.
The classes are focused on advanced methods of producing content. Undergraduate students are given tools to create experimental media. Doctoral students receive supplies to create their own tools and take part in showcases. Students take walks around campus gathering sound bites of people, cars, animals and construction and create audio tracks from the clips. The doctoral candidates have a variety of undergraduate degrees such as music and electrical engineering.
“As long as they have some sort of digital background, the student has the potential to create experimental art,” Berdahl said.
The program attempts to make art more compelling by adding another aspect, whether audio, visual or tactile. Berdahl said the rising interest in the program is leading to more creative methods in making media.
“There will be many things people haven’t heard before at this concert,” Berdahl said. “We will call into question what music really is.”
Cinema for the Ears will take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the LSU Digital Media Center Theatre. Admission to the showcase is free.
“We will call into question what music really is.” Edgar Berdahl, assistant professor of the EMDM department
