Andrew Schloss - A history of the radiodrum and robotics in musical performance: The art installation as a musical instrument

 Abstract: Originally created at Bell Labs in the 1980’s by Bob Boie and Max Mathews, the radio baton, radio drum, or radiodrum has gone through many iterations, including two new ones that I have been working on recently; both are currently “one-of-a-kind.” I will demonstrate an entirely analog version of the instrument created by Bob Boie, and a new SDR (software defined radio) version that is in the process of being tested. Both of these instruments differ from Max’s versions, in that they are designed to be more of a 3D percussion instrument than a conducting device. All versions of the instrument are based on the original work of Bob Boie and Max Mathews that began at Bell Labs in the 1980’s and continued over many years at CCRMA by Max and Tom Oberheim. In this presentation I will present a historical account of my work, along with demonstrations of my use of capacitive sensing in live performance, my work in public art, and collaborations with Trimpin and David A. Jaffe. In an effort to put the instrument through its paces, I have worked with some world-class Cuban pianists, experimenting in the area between Afrocuban jazz and electroacoustic music. These experiments began in Paris in the 1980's with pianist Jeff Gardner, and have continued with Chucho Valdés, Ernán López-Nussa, and most recently with Hilario Durán in concerts in the US, Canada and Cuba. I have also been collaborating extensively with David A. Jaffe on numerous projects over the years, since meeting him at CCRMA in 1979. More recently, I began a collaboration with sound artist Trimpin, in which I have curated and composed music for concerts that treat his installations as musical instruments to be performed live.

Bio
Andrew Schloss is known primarily as a performer, improviser and virtuoso on the radiodrum, an instrument based on Max Mathews’ radio baton, but optimized for percussive gesture-sensing. Using this instrument, he has tried to push the envelope of electroacoustic music combined with Cuban jazz. He has performed extensively with Cuban pianist Hilario Durán, as well as maestro Chucho Valdés and Ernán Lopez Nussa. In public art, he has collaborated with Trimpin, Nobuho Nagasawa, Buster Simpson, and Don Fels. Schloss was a Fulbright Scholar at IRCAM per invitation of David Wessel in 1987, which is when he began working on the radiodrum combined with the very first version of Max/MSP (originally called “Patcher”). He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the BC Advanced Systems Institute (ASI), La fondation Daniel Langlois, The Canada Council for the Arts, NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council), SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council), along with commissions from the British Columbia Arts Council, Jack Straw Foundation, among others. Schloss studied at Bennington College, the University of Washington, and Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in 1985 working at CCRMA. He has taught at Brown University, the University of California at San Diego, The Banff Centre for the Arts, and currently at the University of Victoria. Along with colleagues George Tzanetakis and Peter Driessen at the University of Victoria, he created a new combined program in Music and Computer Science, which has opened up new avenues of study for many students in the age of digital media and the internet.