TEACHING
I taught regularly at the Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University from 2008 to 2016. If you’d like to see the breadth of projects that students produced in my classes, you can view a lot of them on my YouTube Channel.
Please feel free to contact me for more information.
Public Workshops
MetaPiano: Aspects of Sound in Art (ASA) // 2016 dates TBD
Join us in MetaPiano where we will deconstruct and build an entirely new sound sculpture from two upright pianos. Whether you are an artist who wants to incorporate sound into their art or a musician looking to compose an installation, come spend a week playing and learning with us. Elaine Buckholtz and Sasha Leitman enjoy blurring the relationship between sound and image and share a passion for creating supportive learning environments where curiosity provokes innovative idea to take shape.
This is a project based class where hands on skills will be taught along side technical, theoretical and artistic learning. People of all computer skill levels welcome in this learning environment. Concepts and processes of sculptural form as related to sound and acoustics will be introduced through daily, short presentations and screenings. MetaPiano offers a chance to work collaboratively with students from different disciplines – artists, engineers, designers, etc. – to integrate kinetics, sculpture, and sound in an experiment that will result in a newly imagined, interactive sound sculpture.
Read more about this…
New Music Controllers // 2016 dates TBD
In this workshop, you will learn how to construct novel musical controllers and sound art objects. Alongside physical interaction design, the workshop integrates programming, electronics, audio, and interactive music. Participants will learn how to use some of the basic tools of Maker community, including the Arduino platform, sensor technologies, communication with MIDI and Open Sound Control (OSC), and physical interface design. I will be co-teaching with the incredible Michael Gurevich.
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Classes taught at Stanford University
Current Classes
Music 250A
An exploration of how we physically interact with electronic sounds in real time. A series of exercises that introduce sensors, circuits, microcontrollers, communication and sound synthesis. We discuss critically what the merging of these technologies means for music and art. Along with new technologies, what new music practices or art forms may emerge?
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Art and Science of Sound
An exploration of sound and sound-related technology from the perspectives of mathematics, physics, and acoustics while applying these lessons to individual work in sound design and musical composition.
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Previous Classes
Interactive Art & Performance Design
This class is for those who want the experience of designing and creating interactive art and performance pieces for public audiences, using design thinking as the method, and supported by guest speakers, artist studio visits and needfinding trips to music festivals, museums and performances.
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Music 250B
A project based course on Interactive Sound Art. In 2011, we focused our work around the work of visiting artist Trimpin as part of his year long residency with Stanford Lively Arts. In 2013, the course explored Resonance and Reverberation with Jonathan Abel.
To learn more about Trimpin, watch this documentary
Music 201
Weekly review of work being done in the field, research taking palce at CCRMA, and tools to make the most of the CCRMA technical facilities.
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SPEAKING/WRITING
NIME, 2016
Presenting on education and music, as it relates to Music Maker.
SF Music Tech Summit, 2011
Speaker for ‘DIY Instrument Inventors’ Panel
About the Summit: The SF MusicTech Summit brings together visionaries in the music/technology space, along with the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. We meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to dealmaking environment.
Trimpin: Contraptions for Art & Sound
Compiled and edited by: Anne Focke
Contributing writers: Charles Amirkhanian, Jenny Bilfield, Chris Bruce, Kyle Gann, David Harrington, Sasha Leitman, Hans Lauber, David Mahler, Reynold Pritikin, Beth Sellars, and Jean Strause.
About the Book: Trimpin, the sound sculptor and composer, has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships; been the subject of a full-length documentary film and a profile in The New Yorker magazine; been included in hundreds of shows, performances, and new music festivals; and has had installations and exhibitions around the world. Despite all this, access to Trimpin’s work is limited. He doesn’t record his music and very few of his sculptural works are in public or private collections.
For more information visit:
http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/search/books/FOCTRI.html
http://blip.tv/nwlivetv/trimpin-contraptions-for-art-and-sound-5370112
Computer Music Journal,
Winter 2011, Vol. 35, No. 4
Interview with Trimpin, and biographical article
View the full article here:
http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/COMJ_a_00088
NIME Conference - Japan, 2009
In 2009, I travelled to Japan to present on my project Playground Sound.
http://www.nime2009.org/schedule.pdf