2019


December 21st, 2019

5:30-7:00pm
Music to Play in the Dark #1 

An immersive, spatial audio-haptic concert in total darkness for the Winter Solstice!

This concert will feature existing pieces by invited composer Darren Copeland and Doug Van Nort that are re-imagined for the 28.2 audio and 56-channel haptic floor of the DisPerSion Lab. It will also include a new piece by lab member Rory Hoy created for this event.

Copeland’s piece will feature a small amount of light in order to see his performative gesture-based spatializations sound. Van Nort’s piece, originally composed in 2012, will be the first full use of the haptic floor that he has created over the past few years. Hoy’s piece will be a new construction created in the space leading up to the event.


December 6th, 2019

5:30-7:30pm
Dispersion Relation #4: Doug Van Nort with the Electro-Acoustic Orchestra
Dispersion Relations
(or, dvnt and friends)

In this semi-regular series, every other Friday (+/- 1 week) in the Dispersion Lab, Doug Van Nort performs with curated and invited guests.

All are welcome to come and listen in this immersive sonic space.

The fourth event welcomes a special performance with the Electro-Acoustic Orchestra. Two pieces will explore new modes of composing for attentional strategies that blend Soundpainting conducting, cross-performer live processing, interactive spatialization and lighting.


November 15th, 2019

5:30-7:30pm
Dispersion Relation #3: Doug Van Nort with guests Brian Abbott and Lauren Wilson

Dispersion Relations
(or, dvnt and friends)

In this semi-regular series, every other Friday (+/- 1 week) in the Dispersion Lab, Doug Van Nort performs with curated and invited guests.

All are welcome to come and listen in this immersive sonic space.

The third event welcomes a pair of Dispersion Lab members who traverse electroacoustic and contemporary classical practices with focused and careful attention to the boundaries of sound, space, noise and silence.


November 9, 2019

The Array Space, 155 Walnut Ave
3pm | $30 or PWYW
Telematic #1 linking Arraymusic (Toronto) with NowNet Arts Conference (Stony Brook, New York)

Connected digitally across borders, Doug Van Nort presents his SSHRC Partnership Engage project with Arraymusic and cellist Anne Bourne in the first of three telematic concert events. Connecting with NowNet Arts Ensemble in New York (Sarah Weaver dir.), invited musicians at two sites join to explore senses of collective presence via the shared acoustics of a virtual performance space.

Note from Doug Van Nort: “This piece, Innerspace, is a structured improvisation wherein different virtual acoustic conditions/reverberations will envelop the two-location ensemble sound throughout, with dynamic changes over the course of the piece. Text-based structures of rolling duos/trios/quartets/whole group with varying shapes and qualities (e.g. conditions of noise, tone, pointillism, sustained sound, pitch ranges.) will help focus our inquiry into playing together in this shared real/virtual musical space.”

Array Space Performers:
Anne Bourne (cello)
Rick Sacks (percussion)
David Schotzko (percussion)
Doug Van Nort (greis/electronics)

Stony Brook Performers:
Ethan Cayko (percussion and electronics)
Taylor Long (percussion)
Kevin Kay (bass clarinet)


November 8th, 2019

5:30-7:30pm
Dispersion Relation #2: Doug Van Nort with guests Rory Hoy, Kieran Maraj, Danny Sheahan

Dispersion Relations
(or, dvnt and friends)

In this semi-regular series, every other Friday (+/- 1 week) in the Dispersion Lab, Doug Van Nort performs with curated and invited guests.

All are welcome to come and listen in this immersive sonic space.

The second event welcomes a trio of Dispersion Lab members who are pushing the envelopes of their improvised electroacoustic practice, taking this in new and interesting directions both in EAO and in their solo/ensemble projects.


May 18th, 2019

Mycelia, Mi.Mu and the Future of Music: a keynote by Imogen Heap

 

Please join us for a keynote talk, followed by Q&A conversation, with internationally-acclaimed musician Imogen Heap. The talk will include Heap’s thoughts on the future of music, ranging from her new blockchain-based project Mycelia for artist/music rights to her Mi.Mu interactive glove-instrument.

Attendees are also strongly encouraged to attend a Creative Passport workshop hosted by Imogen and the Mycelia group from 2:00-4:30pm in the same room, focused on their new blockchain-based approach to digital rights management for artists. Snacks and coffee will be provided between the keynote and workshop. Please sign up for the workshop here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-passport-forum-toronto-tickets-59993602480

Time/Date: May 18th
Keynote: 11:30am – 1:00pm
Workshop: 2:30pm – 4:00pm

Location:
Transmedia Lab, 103 Accolade West Building, York University

Presented by the DisPerSion Lab, Mycelia4Music and Patrick Twaddle

Special Thanks to the Departments of Music and Computational Arts

About the speaker: 

London based recording artist Imogen Heap blurs the boundaries between pure art form and creative entrepreneurship. Writing and producing 4 solo albums, one as Frou Frou (with Guy Sigsworth), and collaborating with Jeff Beck, Mika and Josh Groban amongst others, Heap has penned tracks for movies, TV shows and produced the score for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, winning the ‘Outstanding Music in a Play’ Drama Desk Award.

Counting 5 Grammy nominations, winning one for engineering and another for her contribution to Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’, Heap also received an Ivor Novello Award, The Artist and Manager Pioneer award, the MPG Inspiration Award and an honorary Doctorate of Technology for her MI.MU gloves work: a ground-breaking gestural music making system.

In 2014 she envisioned a flourishing music industry ecosystem through Mycelia and released ‘Tiny Human’, the first song to use smart contracts on a blockchain.

Creating an artist-led, fair and sustainable decentralized ecosystem, Mycelia’s ‘The Creative Passport’ provides an ID for music makers to connect digitally with the music industry.With three world tours, sold out Royal Albert Hall and Greek Theatre shows and thousands of 5* reviews, last September Heap embarked on a year-long music and technology world tour.

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/mycelia-mimu-and-the-future-of-music-a-keynote-by-imogen-heap-tickets-60935582969


May 8-10, 2019

VESSELS

An Exhibition by MFA Designer and lab supervisee Sharon Reshef

VESSELS is an experimental meditation on the power of sound. Captured in five sculptural objects, binaural recordings, and documentary photography; resonance is enshrined in a gallery exhibition. Activating the ear as a portal, visitors are transported through sonic memories held sacred to the artist, the vessels, and the landscapes they originate from.


April 18th, 2019

Electro-Acoustic Orchestra (dir. Doug Van Nort)

@

Toronto Media Arts Center

 


April 8th, 2019

DisPerSion Lab Open House/Vertical Studio-Lab Demos

Come to hear about and experience recent and in-progress lab projects

including the lab in it’s sound-responsive “listening room” state, our interactive lights, wearable haptics and the audio-haptic floor.


April 5th 2019

Doug Van Nort: “Soundpainting: More than Meets the Ear”

a presentation of the piece Intersubjective Soundings vol. 3, for the Electro-Acoustic Orchestra

featured performance of the of CBC-produced CRAM event

Vari Hall Rotunda, York University


January 27th, 2019

Doug Van Nort and the Electro-Acoustic Orchestra, with the Nilan Perrera Quartet

Synaptic Circus Series, Tranzac Club, Toronto


January-February 2019

Calling all sound/code artist-hackers!
What:
This is a call for sound artists, digital musicians and composers to participate in a distributed, pro-hacking and open-source electronic music composition and instrument design experiment under development and direction by Michael Palumbo and Dr. Doug Van Nort of the Distributed Performance and Sensorial Immersion (DisPerSion) Lab. This research-creation project will comprise brief phases of programming and hacking of software-based digital musical instruments, composing etudes, and engaging in short group improvisations. Improv sessions will be held in January and February 2019, culminating in at least one public performance (participation in the public portion is optional).
Please use the contact form in order to express interest in taking part.