Sonic Arts Ensemble

Directed by Marc Ainger, the Sonic Arts Ensemble creates computer music through interdisciplinary improvisation in-person and at a distance via low-latency distributed, networked audio and performance. I perform vocals and percussion with body and found objects.

Into the Multiverse

For this November 2020 performance, The Sonic Arts Ensemble joins remotely with performers from around the world—including The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker—for a special one-night livestreamed event. 

Though traditionally centered in Columbus, Ohio, for this performance the ensemble join remotely with performers in New York, Argentina, Indianapolis, and Florida. The performers include:

Directors and founding members Marc Ainger and Ann Stimson (laptop and flute—Columbus)

Co-director Fede Camara Halac (electronics—Argentina)

Norah Zuniga Shaw (voice and movement—Columbus)

Oded Huberman (laptop, live video—Columbus)

Jacob Kopcienski (altered saxophone and electronics—Hilliard)

Berenice Llorens (guitar—Argentina)

Madeliene Shappiro (cello—New York)

James Croson (piano—Florida)

Joe Sferra (clarinet—New York)

Scott Deal (vibraphone, percussion—Indianapolis)

Joining the ensemble is featured performer The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker. Baker is a New Renaissance Artist who embraces a constant stream of change and rebirth in practice, which expands into a variety of media, chiefly an exploration of how sonic and spatial worlds can be manipulated to personify a variety of philosophies and principles both tangible as well as intangible.

This performance constitutes various remote performance spaces, creating an ensemble performance through a combination of through-composed, semiscored, and real-time composition. The performance is made possible through new conceptual approaches to remote network performance, along with the development of new software and hardware that enable these conceptual approaches (developed through a collaboration with Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design, School of Music, Department of Dance, and College of Science and Engineering).

Through a special partnership with the Wexner Center for the Arts, audio and video from the various performance locations are mixed centrally in the center’s theater, where it will be streamed live.

Premiering at the Wexner Center for the Arts in 2020, Into the Multiverse involved creating an ensemble performance through a combination of through-composed, semiscored, and real-time composition from distant locations. The performance is made possible through new conceptual approaches to remote network performance, along with the development of new software and hardware that enable these conceptual approaches.

The event was co-sponsored by the Wexner Center for the Arts, Livable Futures and The Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design.