Feedback String Instruments (workshop + concert)
With long academic and musical experience, Scott McLaughlin and Thanos Polymeneas Liontiris are organizing at KET a three-day workshop dedicated to feedback string instruments, which will conclude with a concert of the workshop participants.
Feedback instruments provide novel avenues in sound and music making. They also introduce fresh approaches in instrument design, and in acquiring musical skills. Such instruments though give rise to intricate research and performance challenges. The development of new composition, notation, and performance techniques, as well as a reevaluation of notions of virtuosity are some of the challenges that feedback instruments pose.
Feedback String Instruments like the Halldorophone and the Feedback Actuated Augmented Bass are a sub category of such instruments. The Feedback String Instruments Workshop aims to unite artists and researchers to tackle these challenges. During the workshops we will have the chance to visit the Workshop of instrument maker Halldor Ulfarsson where such instruments are getting made.
Scott McLaughlin is an Irish composer and improviser based in Huddersfield (UK). He started out as a guitarist (shoegaze and experimental music) before beginning studies at the age of 20 at the University of Ulster. He went on to study at the University of Huddersfield. He lectures at the University of Leeds on composition and music technology. He is co-director of CePRA (Centre for Practice Research in the Arts) and co-ordinates the RMA Practice Research Study Group. His research focuses on composition for contingency and uncertainty in the physical materiality of sound. He is an associate researcher on the AHRC SPARKLE (Sustaining Practice Assets for Research, Knowledge, Learning and Engagement) project and recently completed an AHRC Leadership Fellowship, the Garden of Forking Paths project for clarinet.
Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris is a composer, performer and sound artist. His practice comprises computer-aided compositions, interactive audiovisual installations and interactive music for dance, theatre and multimedia performances. He obtained a BA in Double Bass, and a BA in Electronic Music and Composition from the Rotterdam Conservatoire, while following courses at the Institute of Sonology (Royal Conservatoire of The Hague) and at IRCAM. He has obtained two MA degrees, both with distinction, one in Art and Technology from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the other in Creative Education from Falmouth University. In 2019 he obtained his PhD from Sussex University with a research scholarship fully funded by CHASE-AHRC. Since 2012 he is a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He’s continuously taught in Higher Education since 2011 – Falmouth University, University of Sussex, University of Brighton, Ionian University and National & Kapodistrian University of Athens. He is proficient in computer programming. He is founding member of the Dutch artists collective Apes Container. His publications encompass subjects related to Pedagogy, Technology and Aesthetics.
workshop: Thursday 1, Friday 2, Saturday 3 February 2024 (10:00 – 14:00)
* The workshop is open to the public. Reservations required at athpoli@gmail.com (limited spots).
concert: Saturday (21:00)
* The concert ticket fee is 8€. Reservations at www.more.com/music/feedback-string-instruments & στο 213 00 40 496.