Max/MSP/Jitter 2: Really Understanding Max: program logic, abstraction, data manipulation and conversion, development workflows, and a substantial project

SUMMER 2020 online workshop $225 (detailed below).

About the Class

Max is a powerful platform that accommodates and connects a wide variety of tools for sound, graphics, music and interactivity using a flexible patching and programming environment. Max allows most computer users to write a simple, meaningful program within a few minutes, even with limited programming knowledge. But to do something more substantial it's necessary to approach Max as an actual programming language, by taking advantage of its various mechanisms for abstracting program elements into scalable, reusable components that can be combined in increasingly powerful ways.

Matt Wright's online Kadenze course gives a thorough overview of Max's capabilities emphasizing how to reason about designing Max software, over the course of about 24 hours of online lectures divided into 10 sessions each with a project.  Anyone on the Internet can sign up for a free (or Premium) membership to watch these lectures and download the class' software, assignment prompts, and other materials.  

The online 2020 CCRMA Summer Workshop will be a "flipped classroom": everyone will agree to watch (at least) certain lecture videos prior to each meeting, and we will then spend workshop time together in hands-on lab sessions addressing questions, exploring further discussion, and mentoring student project(s).  

We strongly recommend you bring your own Mac or Windows computer (preferably a laptop); let us know if this is not possible for some reason.

Course Outcomes:  You will design and build a project of your own choosing, e.g., a game, live performance instrument, installation, generative audiovisual artwork, web crawler,  robot brain, or alarm clock.  You will also achieve the learning outcomes of the online class:  proficiency as a Max programmer, an understanding of some best practices, and the confidence to continue learning and troubleshooting on your own.

This class offers two Diversity in Computer Music Scholarships.

Info about the 2020 online version of this Workshop

We offer the online 2020 workshop at $225/person, half the usual registration fee. All instruction will be conducted remotely via Zoom conferencing, with three approximately-90-minute sessions each weekday (MTWTF): lecture, “crit”, and “office hours” (detailed below).There will also be 3 or 4 short “sidelobe” meetings in the weeks before and after the workshop. Note that this is part 2 of a 2-part series.

July 13ish (4 weeks before) we will meet for 30 minutes (to be scheduled via online poll). This is required attendance for those who have registered by then and can make the meeting time. Meeting agenda will be distributed as part of the syllabus you will receive upon registration, and will include introductions, course expectations (including one assignment due 2 weeks before the workshop and another 3 days before), and screen/audio sharing protocols over Zoom.

July 27ish (~2 weeks before) - required (as above) 60 minute meeting (to be scheduled as above)

August 10-14: the workshop itself. Daily schedule (California time = PDT = UTC -7):
1:00-2:30pm Lecture (days 4&5 - voted topics)
2:45-4:15pm “Crits” of homework submissions
4:30-5:45pm “Study hall”

“Crit” is short for “critique”. One student work at a time is investigated by the entire class led by the instructors. We assess correctness and style, and offer constructive feedback on potential improvements and related ideas in a friendly, supportive, and time-efficient workshop environment. Crits offer focused feedback within the context of the class, both about the assignment in terms of its own goals, and about building a good practice of Max programming. For more info see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critique (general) and https://www.nua.ac.uk/about-nua/blog/the-crit (Art & Design School).

“Study Halls” will provide a space for group work time along with sequential one-on-one engagement between an instructor and a student, while also open to the entire class. Everyone in the class is welcome to keep working together online 24/7 as desired.

August 28ish (2 weeks after) - meet for 90 minutes (optional, TBD)

September? Maybe one last 60-minute milestone/check-in? (optional, TBD)

Testimonials

"I tried to learn Max/MSP/Jitter for years, but it wasn't until I took this immersive workshop that it finally clicked for me. The combination of self-directed video lectures, real-time feedback from expert instructors and exercising your creative muscles towards a final class project is the best way to get comfortable with this complex language in a short period of time." - H.F., 2019 participant

About the Instructors

Dr. Matthew Wright is a media systems designer, improvising composer/musician, computer music researcher, and the Technical Director of Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He was the Musical Systems Designer at U.C. Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technology (CNMAT) from 1993-2008, where he became known for his promotion of the Sound Description Interchange Format (SDIF) and Open Sound Control (OSC) standards, as well as his work with real-time mapping of musical gestures to sound synthesis. His dissertation at CCRMA concerned computer modeling of the perception of musical rhythm: "The Shape of an Instant: Measuring and Modeling Perceptual Attack Time with Probability Density Functions." He was the Research Director of UCSB's Center for Research in Electronic Arts and Technology (CREATE) for eight years, where he taught classes, advised students, founded and directed the CREATE Ensemble dedicated to research and musical creation with technology in a live performance context (which he still directs remotely), as well as being Principal Development Engineer for the AlloSphere, a 3-story full-surround immersive audiovisual instrument for scientific and artistic research. As a musician, he plays a variety of traditional plucked lutes, Afro-Brazilian percussion, and computer-based instruments of his own design, in both traditional music contexts and experimental new works.
 

Chris Lortie is a composer and computer musician. His compositions regularly involve the use of live electronics in Max/MSP and Jitter as a means of augmenting and disrupting both sonic and visual cues; as such, Chris' music often explores the subjects of fakery, deception, and hyperrealism in the electroacoustic domain, often with the directive to blur the boundary between reality and performance. His pieces are informed by his interests in spatial audio, performance art, theatre, intermedia, gestural interactivity, and improvisation. Chris’s music has been performed nationally and internationally at festivals and conferences such as SEAMUS, N_SEME, Electroacoustic Barndance, SPLICE, soundSCAPE, Etchings, and MA/IN by artists and ensembles including Quatuor Bozzini, JACK Quartet, Line Upon Line Percussion, Mari Kimura, Marco Fusi, Karen Bentley Pollick, Sō Percussion, Ekmeles, Ensemble Proton, and the Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Chris Lortie began his musical studies at Bowling Green State University where he received his Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition. He is currently pursuing a DMA in Music Composition at Stanford University.

 

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