Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute?
Dear Members of the Disquiet Junto,
It’s hard for me to describe just how important the album News for Lulu was to me in 1988, the year I graduated from college. It featured John Zorn, Bill Frisell, and George Lewis — and this week, our Junto prompt was proposed by none other than Lewis, who will be the composer-in-residence at Musikfestival Bern when it takes place this coming September. Zorn was my introduction to Frisell, and that album was my introduction to Lewis, whose work I have followed avidly ever since.
This project is the first of three that are being done over the course of as many months in collaboration with the 2024 Musikfestival Bern (details at musikfestivalbern.ch). We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who manages the festival’s educational activities. This year is the sixth in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.
And because the universe can work wonders, by total coincidence, I’m going to see Bill Frisell in concert this Friday (my second Frisell concert this year). It’s a good week. (It’s also a good week because I think we finally sorted out why the automated Disquiet.com posts of projects weren’t going out as scheduled, and I think this week’s will work. Fortunately, these automated emails have gone out on time. Unless I just jinxed things.)
And that covers it. Thanks, as always, truly, for your generosity with your time, creativity, and curiosity.
Best from characteristically overcast (aka “summery”) San Francisco,
. . .
Disquiet Junto Project 0651: Why Compute?
The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis.
This project is the first of three that are being done over the course of as many months in collaboration with the 2024 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 4 through 8 (details at musikfestivalbern.ch). We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who manages the festival’s educational activities. This year is the sixth in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.
This week’s prompt was proposed by George E. Lewis, musician, music theorist, music professor at Columbia University, and artistic director of the International Contemporary Ensemble. Lewis is the composer-in-residence at this year’s Musikfestival Bern.
Lewis asks, “Why do we want our computers to improvise?”
This week’s project: record a piece of music that responds in some way to Lewis’ question.
For background, this week’s prompt question is the title of an article that Lewis contributed in 2018 to the book The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music.
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0651” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.
Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.
Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0651-why-compute/
Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you.
Deadline: Monday, June 24, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.
About: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).
Please Include When Posting Your Track:
More on the 651st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Why Compute? — The Assignment: Respond to a prompt from George E. Lewis — at https://disquiet.com/0651/
The cover image for this project uses a photo by Ioan Sameli, thanks to a CC BY-SA 2.0 license; it’s been cropped and text has been added to it.
