A new form of art is being created in the University’s Music and Dramatic Arts studio.
According to the MADstudio’s Web site, the program brings visual artists and composers together to work on projects involving 3-D computer modeling, animation, digital video and computer music.
The studio was formed in 1995 by the Laboratory of Creative Arts and Technology’s interim director Stephen Beck and the late School of Art director Michael Daugherty.
It is a collaboration between the School of Art and the School of Music.
“We were looking for a way of collaborating in digital art and media projects, and decided that this would be a good way to get students together and find funding for digital art and music at LSU,” Beck said.
A new genre of music, in which composers are concerned with musical and non-musical sounds, is created inside the MADstudio, he said. Birds chirping, glass breaking or brakes squeaking can be different types of non-musical sounds.
“Composers are often interested in immersing the audience in sound with large arrays of speakers that surround the audience from every angle,” Beck said. “The result is the creation of new virtual sonic worlds that take elements of our real world and recast them in new alternative visions.”
The final product will be cinematic in scope and dramatic in presentation, he said. But it could be thought of as sonic art or cinema for the ears.
Beck said what is being done in the MADstudio is part of a long tradition of sound experimentation, which began with Italian futurist Luigi Russolo.
In the early 20th century, Russolo wrote “The Art of Noise,” which proposes replacing orchestra instruments with sounds of the industrial age.
Beck said as technology developed, other artists experimented with sound manipulations.
Artists experimented with slowing sound up and down with their hands 40 years before rap artists began to scratch records, he said. French radio engineers in the 50s cut up recordings of ordinary sounds and taped them together to recompose the sounds.
Beck said sonic art and computer music draw from these traditions.
He said it can take a long time to produce the components needed to create the projects in the MADstudio.
While the music and sound for animation can be composed quickly, video and animation can take a long time to produce, Beck said. It will take an hour to create one minute of video.
He said the last work he created with Daugherty was only 3:30 long, but it took four months to develop ideas and try them.
Beck said there are dedicated and hard-working students in the studio.
Working in the studio is hard, frustrating and challenging, he said. But it gets fun as the students become better at using the technology and are able to find different ways to express themselves.
Beck said he wants the students to understand the importance of collaborating with other artists and that making art should be a collaborative project.
“We generally think of composing music or creating visual art as a solitary activity,” he said. “But in reality composers must collaborate with other musicians to realize their work, and all artists have to create a collaborative relationship with their audiences.”
Beck said most importantly, the MADstudio demonstrates how artists can create powerful, compelling and beautiful experiences by collaborating with artists in different fields.
However, within the last 2 years, there have been major changes to the MADstudio that have hindered the collaborations and suspended activities, Beck said.
In 2001, Daugherty passed away after a battle with leukemia, Beck said. The studio not only lost its director, but also its digital artist.
According to the MADstudio’s Web site, Daugherty’s last video is “Protect Your Domain Name,” a mixture of video animation, poetry and music.
Beck also said he was asked to develop a digital-arts-based research lab within LSU CAPITAL — the University’s center for computation and technology.
“That work led to the establishment of the Laboratory for Creative Arts and Technologies (LCAT), and I was named interim director in July 2003,” he said
Beck said the software development programs have been moved to LCAT, but projects involving an audio theater and animation rendering cluster are underway.
The Schools of Art and Music have continued with instruction in digital media, Beck said. Also, they are working on getting other faculty members involved with the program
“Ultimately, LCAT and the MADstudio will work together in supporting curriculum and collaboration,” he said. “And it’s my hope that we’ll be getting students working together again next year.”