Leonardo Network News

LMJ Editorial Board: Tom Erbe

LMJ welcomes Tom Erbe to the LMJ Editorial Board. Tom Erbe has played an important role in American experimental and electronic music for the last 20 years. In addition to his pioneering and widely used program SoundHack, he has become one of the most sought after and respected sound engineers for contemporary music. Erbe studied computer science and music at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and got his initial audio engineering experiences at WEFT, WPGU, and Faithful Sound Studios. In addition, Erbe has engineered the LMJ CD Series—a total of 19 CDs—since 1991, when the first LMJ CD was produced.

In 1987, Erbe became the Technical Director of the Center for Contemporary Music (CCM) at Mills College. At Mills, he worked as computer music and recording engineer with composers Robert Ashley, David Rosenboom, Larry Polansky, James Tenney and Alvin Curran. His research work at CCM included the program SoundHack, and the design of a 4-channel spatial audio processor for the NASA Ames Research Center.

In 1993, Erbe joined the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts as Technical Director of the computer music studios. Here he continued his work with SoundHack and spectral techniques, teaching courses in computer music, programming, and audio engineering. Erbe also directed the design and construction of CalArts' Dizzy Gillespie Recording Studios. While at CalArts, he archived the David Tudor collection for the Getty Research Institute.

In 2004, he joined the faculty of University of California, San Diego (UCSD), in the Department of Music. At UCSD, Erbe developed the Spectral Shapers, Delay Trio and Freesound plugin bundles, which explore new and old techniques in computer sound processing. Erbe was instrumental in the design and construction of the Conrad Prebys Music Center, which opened in April 2009.

Leonardo Abstracts Service Update

Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS), consisting of an English-language database, Spanish-language database, Chinese-language database and French-language database, is a comprehensive collection of Ph.D., Masters and MFA thesis abstracts on topics in the emerging intersection of art, science and technology. Individuals receiving advanced degrees in the arts (visual, sound, performance, text), computer sciences, the sciences and/or technology that in some way investigate philosophical, historical or critical applications of science or technology to the arts are invited to submit abstracts of their theses for consideration.

The new panel reviewers for submissions to the English-language database for 2009-2011 are: Yiannis Colakides, Co-Director, New Media (NeMe), Limassol, Cyprus; Christo Doherty, Chair, Digital Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa; Ryszard W. Kluszczynski, Chair, Department of Media and Audiovisual Culture, University of Lodz, Poland; Tom Lesser, Director, Center for Integrated Media, California Institution of the Arts, Valencia, California, United States; Rachel Mayeri, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, California, United States; Andrea Polli, Director, Interdisciplinary Film and Digital Media (IFDM) and Mesa Del Sol Chair of Digital Media, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States; Sheila Pinkel, Professor of Art, Pomona College, Claremont, California, United States.

For more information, visit: <leonardo.info/isast/LABS.html>

Call for Papers: LMJ20—Improvisation

Improvisation has been a critical component in many forms of music around the world throughout most of history and is an essential quality of human intelligence that extends far beyond the borders of art. It remains, nonetheless, a controversial subject in contemporary Western music: detested and denounced by such titans as Pierre Boulez and John Cage, embraced with equal fervor by others and seriously misunderstood by many. For Volume 20 of Leonardo Music Journal (2010) we welcome papers on aspects of improvisation in music, art and the general realm of decision-making—especially texts addressing the interplay of improvisation and technology.

DEADLINES

15 October 2009: Rough proposals, queries

1 January 2010: Submission of finished articles

Address inquiries and proposals to Nicolas Collins, Editor-in-Chief, at: <ncollins@saic.edu>.

Editorial guidelines and information for authors can be found at <leonardo.info/Authors>.

Leonardo On-Line Has a New Look!

Leonardo On-Line, the on-line hub of the Leonardo Network, has a new face! The sleek new design launched 1 July 2009 makes navigation...