with Grace Grace
Sunday Nov. 8, 11-5p (with a break)
at PS1 Close Main Hall (538 S. Gilbert)
pay-what-you-can: $0-175
This workshop provides participants with foundation to analog approaches to electronic music making with synthesizers. Through hands-on experimentation and rehearsal with custom modular synthesizers, participants will learn basic synthesizer concepts and techniques such as control voltage, randomness, parameters, patching, clocking, sequence, filtering, and more.
After a brief introduction, participants will be led through the different modules of CCAM’s Futurhythmachines synthesizer system (percussion, keys, and bassline), learn how to change their parameters, and how they interact. In small groups, participants will identify musical gestures through modulating parameters by twisting dials, flipping switches, or repatching. Small groups will develop their own short composition which they will perform for the larger group. The workshop concludes with a discussion about participant’s experience with this analog approach to music making.
The workshop comes with a zine developed by CCAM with helpful definitions and instructions for the synthesizer. All other tools and equipment will be on hand.
For the already-initiated: the synthesizers designed for this workshop, the Estuary module, are built in the Eurorack format and use a digital microcontroller called Daisy Patch SM. They run at +/-12 volts and are fully reprogrammable in C++, MaxMSP (Gen~). We are developing materials on how to program them and host a code commons where people can upload their own code for these synthesizers. Feel free to reach out if you are interested in getting involved!
Open to ages 14+. No prior experience needed! Open to total beginners.
Registration deadline: November 6th
PS1 workshops are pay-what-you-can thanks to support from Hills Bank, a Johnson County Quality of Life Grant, and individual donors. $80 is the true cost of the workshop for each participant. We encourage you to review the payment options and select the cost you can afford. If you have expendable income, please do not select the no-cost option and leave space for others. When you are able to pay on the higher end of the sliding scale, your payment helps others gain access who might have a more challenging financial situation.
If you are unsure about which fee to select, please reach out to workshops@publicspaceone.com.
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TEACHING ARTIST:
I am a queer installation and performance artist working with real-time sonic, visual, and haptic digital and analog computational media. My work deals with themes of countercultural collectivity, more-than-human perception, and queer spirituality through the lens of non-linear chaotic systems and process-oriented philosophy.
I teach media theory-philosophy seminars as well as studio courses in the Art Technology / Sound Practices department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in the new media area at the University of Illinois Chicago.