Jarosław Kapuściński – Composing Intermedia: from Audiovisual Piano to VR
Composer Jarosław Kapuściński will discuss his VR work Point Line Piano, followed by a hands-on session where you can explore Jaroslaw’s audiovisual work with VR kit, experiencing music, visuals, and interaction firsthand.
Jarosław Kapuściński specializes in creating audiovisual works across various media. Many of his compositions are interactive, often involving musicians—particularly pianists—who control visual content, or more recently, general audiences who paint audiovisual worlds in VR. In this presentation, Kapuściński will discuss his work focusing on the VR collaboration with the OpenEndedGroup, Point Line Piano, a project that reimagines the composition, performance, and reception of piano music by fusing the three modes. As you interact with it, your ears, eyes, and hands act in concert. The work enables a spatial and full-body experience of abstraction not found in any other medium. In a live concert setting it can also be used as an audiovisual instrument.
Info and trailer: https://www.jaroslawkapuscinski.com/works/point-line-piano/
Biography
Jarosław Kapuściński is an Associate Professor of Music at Stanford University, where he is affiliated also with the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures. His research focuses on intermedia composition, performance, and Japanese traditional aesthetics.
Kapuściński has received grants and commissions from numerous international organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the Governor General of Canada, and Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) in France. His works have been awarded prizes at festivals in Canada, France, Switzerland, and the United States, and have been presented at venues such as New York MOMA, Spoleto USA, EMPAC NY, Logan Center in Chicago, ZKM in Karlsruhe, Reina Sophia Museum in Madrid, Media Biennale Wroclaw, Warsaw Autumn Festival, Creative Media Center in Hong Kong, Benz Arena in Shanghai, and National Art Centre in Ottawa.
In addition to his artistic work, Kapuściński has collaborated on scholarly websites about Japanese Gagaku music (gagaku.stanford.edu) and Noh Theater (noh.stanford.edu).
https://jaroslawkapuscinski.com/
Marc Downie and Paul Kaiser have collaborated as OpenEndedGroup since 2001. Working in a broad variety of media and venues:, they make art for façade, gallery, dance, stage, 3D cinema, print, and virtual reality. Their works respond to a wide range of materials — drawing, film, motion capture, photography, music, and architecture. They frequently combine three signature elements: non-photorealistic 3D rendering; the incorporation of body movement by motion-capture and other means; and the autonomy of artworks directed or assisted by artificial intelligence.
OpenEndedGroup’s films, installations, stage works, and VR pieces have premiered in such venues as MoMA, Lincoln Center, the Barbican, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Hayward Gallery, Sadler’s Wells, and the Berlin, New York, and Rome film festivals. Eight of their 3D digital films were the first of their kind to enter MoMA’s permanent collection.