The Thursday Club

Atau Tanaka

Music One Participates In: Performance from Stage to Street to Pocket

6 May 2010, 6:00pm
Ben Pimlott building,
Goldsmiths University of London

Digital music has undergone fundamental shifts – it has gone real time, it has become interactive, it has become miniaturized, and completely democratized. I’ll map out my personal trajectory in this time to look at broader evolutions in the field with sensors, networks, and mobility. These are not just technological changes, but changes that bring about shifts in musical approaches. Form factors change, analogue is reconciled with digital, and new directions in Open Source and DIY culture continue to challenge our assumptions on what it means to be an artist, composer, performer, participant, in these evolving musical/technological landscapes.

Atau Tanaka bridges the fields of media art, experimental music, and research. He worked at IRCAM, was Artistic Ambassador for Apple France, has been researcher at Sony Computer Science Laboratory Paris, and was an Artistic Co-Director of STEIM in Amsterdam. Atau creates sensor-based musical instruments for performance, and is known for his work with biosignal interfaces. He seeks to harness collective musical creativity in mobile environments, seeking out the continued place of the artist in democratized digital forms. His work has been presented at Ars Electronica, SFMOMA, Eyebeam, V2, ICC, and ZKM and has been mentor at NESTA. He is Chair of Digital Media at Newcastle University and is Director of Culture Lab.