Moogfest 2014: Daytime Event Highlights

By Brian Parker

Moogfest, the electronic music festival honoring the legacy of music technology pioneer Bob Moog, is just over a month away. This year’s exciting, innovative festival is centered around both day and night programming, featuring panels, workshops, sound installations, and conversations during the first part of the day, and live performances, DJ sets, and impromptu musical experimentations slated for the night.

Moogfest recently announced its full daytime programming, featuring a variety of speculative, insightful, and educational events that will stimulate the mind of any musician or engineer with an eye on the future. In anticipation of our trip down to Asheville, N.C., we’ve picked a few highlights from the festival’s day schedule, and look forward to reporting back on the prospects of technology, music, and creativity to come.

The Future of Creativity

One of Moogfest’s biggest objectives is bringing together forward-thinking creators to discuss the future of music. Unlike other festivals and meet-ups, Moogfest is less concerned with the often stale topics of music business and consumption (streaming, licensing, bluetooth speakers), and more concerned with actual modes of creation and artistic progression.

World-renowned futurists, philosophers and artists tackle the big questions: What will art look like and sound like 20, 50, 100 years from now? How will it be made and how will it be consumed? What will be the tools of creative expression in the future? Three keynote addresses by Oxford University philosopher Nick Bostrom; Jerome C. Glenn, CEO of the Millennium Project; and bioethicist, transhumanist, and futurist George Dvorsky.

Google and the Future of Audio

With the exciting Glass, Chrome Experiments, Labs, and mobile applications, Google seems to be holding back its big break into the music industry while bubbling underneath, developing proprietary technologies that will eventually (and likely understatedly) dominate the scene.

Come hear firsthand accounts of Google’s foray into the intersection of music and technology from members of the Android, Creative Lab, Data Arts, and Doodle teams. Witness and engage in a dialogue about the challenges, triumphs, adventures, and aspirations of mixing sounds and code. With Ryan Germick, Leon Hong, Joey Hurst, Aaron Koblin, Raph Levien, and Alexander Chen.

Sonification and Cybernetics

At the risk of belittling this event, we’ll keep it simple — the first human cyborg is going to perform.

Can you visualize music as data? Professor Bruce Walker of Georgia Institute of Technology’s Sonification Lab discusses new technologies that illustrate information with sound. Can you see colors as sounds? Contemporary artist Neil Harbisson was born with the inability to see color. With a prosthetic device called an “eyeborg,” he can now hear the spectrum and create symphonies out of everything he sees, and has become the planet’s first human cyborg. Harbisson will perform live and talk about the launch of the Cyborg Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to help people become cyborgs and promote cybernetics in the arts.

Immersive, Improvisatory, Durational Performances

The best rockstars are the ones that can keep up with the times, optimistically taking advantage of new technologies and appropriating the old. This experimentation, all on Moog equipment, will not be one to miss.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner and Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox on Moog pedals. LCD Soundsystem’s Gavin Russom on Moog synths. Dan Deacon on Moogs across all platforms, from hardware to software, pedals to apps. Each performance lasting up to four hours. Anything can happen. Plus an immersive visual installation with films, projections and art by Hisham Bharoocha.

How to Hear

From the most pretentious cynics to the most casual background listeners, everyone could take a lesson on how to hear better. This workshop will guide listeners to actively engage with music, while opening the mind to a more well-rounded listening and comprehension experience.

Immersive, participatory exercises with Lucky Dragons focused on “engaged” or “active” listening. Building on techniques used by environmentalists, artists and composers, takeaways include new strategies for music making, a better understanding of our sonic environment, and an open perspective on the feedback loop between listening, attention, and action.

I Dream of Wires (U.S. Premiere)

Since SoundCtrl is all about modular and analog synthesis, we’re excited to catch the US premiere of this interesting flick.

The ultimate documentary exploring the history of modular synthesizers and modern day communities of analog explorers. U.S. premiere screening with director Robert Fantinatto and producer Jason Amm.

These are just a handful of many events going on at Moogfest, and you can check out the rest of the day and night programming HERE.