2022
Ralph Lewis
“The purpose of my 2022 CREATE Grant application was to enable access to Travis Thatcher’s photon tricorders so they could be used during a grant-funded All Score Urbana project (All Score Urbana: Live and In-Person), which took place in Urbana, Illinois.
After receiving the photon tricorders, we used them in the three “All Score Urbana: Live and In-Person” community composition workshop sessions in Summer 2023. Participants explored them on-site, finding them to be intriguing opportunities to create electronic musical moments without screens. They were of particular interest to walk-in participants who found this to be an exciting first step and to improvisors who mixed them with their existing practice. Two of the teaching artists trombonist Peter Tijerina and cellist briar darling were inspired to include them in improvised works at the end of the sessions, shown in the video links below.
The tricorders remain functional and will be featured again in the next grant-funded program that All Score is presenting later this year, “All Score Music and Dance”, which will feature Tijerina and darling again, as well as composer/flutist Dr. Kerrith Livengood and dancer Jacob Mark Henss. This grant has provided All Score Urbana with a significant and ongoing resource that has helped us communicate about electronic music with Urbana residents and inspire their creativity.” – Ralph Lewis
Anna Elder
As a recipient of a SEAMUS Create Grant, soprano Anna Elder formed a collaboration between her duo ensemble, SydeBoob Duo and the composer Hannah Selin. SydeBoob Duo features Elder on soprano voice, autoharp, electronics and Sarah Steranka on flutes.
As part of the collaboration, Selin wrote the work Evil Trees for the duo, which was inspired by cell towers Hannah viewed on her commute along the highway. The piece was premiered in February of 2023 and recorded in 2024 for a release on Gold Bolus recordings. The work combined fixed media based on improvisations that the duo recorded with Hannah and their live playing; Elder’s soprano vocals and Steranka’s alto flute playing.
More about the record on which Evil Trees is featured can be found here: https://goldbolus.com/dreamjournal/
Kel Smith
Kel Smith’s winning 2022 Create Grant proposal was to research the praxes of sound artists who have disabilities. According to Smith, portions of this research were presented at the New Media Caucus “Future Bodies” conference in 2022 and his work was featured on the Quebec CKRL radio program “La Croche Oreille”.
In February 2024 he began a second edition to his book Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward Without Leaving People Behind, originally published in 2013. The new edition will include a chapter on accessibility and culture, with the bulk of content to be pulled from the research he conducted. The book is scheduled for a 2026 publication date.
In 2023, his work We’re Drowning in Information, which was inspired by his research, was exhibited at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in Gimpo-Si, South Korea. The work marries dysfluent language patterns with electroacoustic composition. The text was Eric McLuhan speaking about the impact of communication media on society, used by kind permission of The McLuhan Institute. The visuals were images of the sky representing eight historical forms of mechanical reproduction.