Ambisonics Symposium 2010
Proceedings
Title:
Pacific Slope
Artist(s):
Joseph Anderson
Bio(s):
Joseph Anderson (b. 1970, USA) first began contemplating the possibilities of a new art of sound after encounters with Edgar Varèse's Poeme Électronique and the music and writings of John Cage. Interests in the application of mathematics to practical problems led to entering university study for a degree in electronics engineering, presuming the course could lead to applications in electronic musical instruments. With the encouragement of Russell Pinkston, with whom he'd been studying computer music, he left the engineering school for the music school and began a concentrated study of music with emphasis on applications of computing and electronics. Study with Pinkston led to encounters with the British Acousmatics, and in particular the music of Jonty Harrison and the Birmingham Electroacoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST). Four years in Britain followed with membership of BEAST and study with Harrison. With a return to the US in 1998, he has been active in the San Francisco Bay Area promoting this new art of sound through the auspices of a collective of like-minded artists calling themselves the New San Francisco Tape Music Center. Recognitions for his efforts have included the Grand Prix from the 1997 Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition for Change's Music, and he has been commissioned by organizations such as BBC Radio 3 and the Society for the Promotion of New Music. In 2003, he left employment with Analog Devices Audio Rendering Technology Center in California as a signal processing engineer, and has returned to the UK to lecturer in music at Hull University's >Scarborough Campus. His compositional work is focused on acousmatic music created through self-authored tools and signal processing algorithms: Ambisonic imaging algorithms known as the Ambisonic Toolkit (ATK). Since 1997 principal output has been rendered in periphonic (full 3D) Ambisonic surround sound.