Computer Music and Augmented Reality
I have an Interdisciplinary PhD in Computer Science and Fine Art (I graduated from the University of Regina in 2021), specializing in the design and development of interactive computer music systems.
My PhD thesis explored the impact of such systems on humans' capacity to express themselves creatively - what happens when we compose through acts of coding?
I am an experienced programmer and software designer in Unity, MaxMSP, and Pure Data. I focus my development on audio engines and augmented reality systems.
Other projects have included a software-driven soundscape for a museum that used motion sensors to determine the locations of patrons in the exhibit, triggering and adaptively remixing audio content accordingly.
The following video showcases some of my recent AR/Music work:
AR Music Example
This demo showcases "Mind's Ear," an Augmented Reality based installation I created as part of the Small New Universe exhibit for the Tangled Art + Disability gallery in Toronto, ON, 2024.
I designed, coded, composed, and drew the content for the app. The experience centres around how music is like a prism that can take painful feelings like fear or traumas and refract them into something beautiful.
People using the app actually create music to dispel uncomfortable feelings, represented by three floating apparitions which I drew to represent my own experience of fear and trauma.
Locative Music Example
This demo showcases the 2020 and 2023 versions of my locative music app, "Shards of Memory."
A soundtrack for real-world sites, "Shards of Memory" allows users to travel a familiar or unfamiliar location, and encounter memories contributed by strangers. The persistent score shifts in its emotional expression to fit the emotions that the memory contributor associates with their memory, with the effect getting stronger as the user gets nearer to the site of a memory's formation. This is a site-soundtrack, governed by GPS.
Composition
I have been a composer since the 1990s, when I scored my first theatrical productions professionally. I have written both for live musicians, creating notated scores, and with digital audio workstation software, producing convincing, expressive rendered recordings from samples.
Career Highlights:
- Won two Western Canadian Music Awards (2013, 2016) for my albums of original classical music.
- Won Grand Prizes in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (Jazz) and UK Songwriting Contest (Instrumental).
- My music has been performed by the Winnipeg, Victoria and Regina Symphony Orchestras, the Luther Bach Choir, and numerous chamber ensembles.
- Received music project funding from the Canada Council, Saskatchewan Arts Board, FACTOR, the SOCAN Foundation, and SaskMusic.
Selected Works:
- 2023: “Fifty Yards to Freedom”, a prototype of an augmented reality opera created in Unity and composed (with lyrics) by myself.
- 2023: “Fable Deaf”, a short film featuring an all-deaf cast.
- 2022: “Memory Mine”, an album of classical music.
- 2016: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, a new score for the classical silent film, presented in concert at Regina's Centre of the Arts with eight musicians performing in sync to a screening of the 70-minute long film.
- 2016: “Along the King's Road,” an album of orchestral music rendered on computer. Won the 2016 Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Composition of the Year.
- 2013: “Cinematic Symphony and Gamescores,” an album of cinematic classical music inspired by favorie film and video game scenes. Won the 2013 Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Recording of the Year.
- 2006: “Crossfiring," a site specific arts event in Claybank, SK, featuring the work of over 70 artists and craetors. I was music director, repsonsible for composing and organizing music for the event and its various exhibits and presentations.
- 2005: “No Limits: The Artist Program of the 2005 Canada Summer Games.” I was music director for this major theatrical event featuring dozens of emerging artists from across Canada, and I composed much of its score while shaping its overall sound world.
Film Music Example
The video to the left shows two clips from “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, a 1920 silent horror film for which I wrote a new score.
The score was performed in concert in 2016 by an ensemble of eight performers, in sync to a screening of the film.
The performance was very well-received, and was a successful conclusion to the Caligari Project, a festival of new art, music, film, and scholarship inspired by German Expressionism, that proceeded over several months in Southern Saskatchewan, Canada.
The tracks below are representative of my approach to concert music, soundtracks, and electronic music composition.
I have composed classical music since my youth. Since then, I have become an expert in the use of digital audio workstation software and contemporary sample libraries and software synths.
While all of the compositions on this page were rendered using such software, my works have also been performed by several Canadian orchestras, chamber ensembles, and choirs. I consider the computer to be my primary musical instrument, and love to engage in creative processes where the computer and its capabilities are an inspiration as well as a tool.
Below is a playlist of my original music. Most of the music is from 2023-2024, and all are original compositions written and produced by myself.. The music is cinematic classical orchestral music, one of my favorite styles to compose.
Digital Art
I am an avid digital artist with a distinctive, surreal style influenced by H.R. Giger and fantasy artists of the 1970's such as Roger Dean. I specialize in depicting monstrous creatures and alien landscapes, reflecting my interest in speculating about worlds existing beyond our own.
My art has been exhibited in Regina's Fifth Parallel Gallery and at an event at the University of Reginas Congress 2018 conference.
See the gallery below for some of my original artworks:
Education
I have an Interdisciplinary PhD in Computer Science and Fine Art from the University of Regina (2021). Some highlights from my time at the University of Regina:
- Won numerous scholarships, including a prestigious SSHRC Bombardier Fellowship.
- Developed and taught two undergraduate courses: “The Psychology of Music” (2012-2014, through Luther College) and "Music and the Computer (2018).
- My thesis, “On the Automation of Agency in Algorithmic Music Composition”, introduced three highly-innovative original works I created: an app-bourne score for the university campus experinced as an augmented reality app called “Shards of Memory”, a machine learning application for generating chord sequences called "Q-chords," and a motion-sensor enabled score for a museum exhibit that scaled in complexity based on the locations and number of patrons in the exhibit.
- Had an exhibition of my original new media and visual art at the Fifth Parallel Gallery (2017).
- Represented the University of Regina at the SSHRC Fall Forum in Ottawa, 2018.
- Held an event at Congress, 2018, presenting my art, music, and new media works.
- Took graduate courses in both Computer Science and Fine Arts, ending my coursework with an average of over 90%.
- Published papers in the proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference and the Sound and Music Computing comference, and presented my work in Athens, Greece, Calgary, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Lethbridge, Alberta.
I have a Master or Arts degree in Psychology from Queen's University (1999), during which I specialized in music psychology.
- My thesis explored the cognitive representation of musical harmony.
- Served as a reseach assistant, marker, and teaching assistant.
- Funded by a prestigious NSERC PGS B scholarship.
My B.Sc. (Hons.) Degree is in Biology, also from Queen's University (1994).
Other academic work:
Course Facilitator (2021-present) at the Collaborative Learning College, Toronto, ON.
- Has taught popular courses in Generative AI, Music Technology, Video Games and Culture, Music Psychology, and Film Music.
- Presented courses through Zoom And Webex.
- Works with diverse learners, presenting courses in an engaging seminar format where lecture and class discussion help students to get the most out of the experince.
Innovator in Residence for Music Theory and Technology (2022) at the Toronto Public Library in Toronto, ON.
- Presented a ten-week program of workshops (composing with GarageBand, Reaper and Pure Data), lectures on music technology and AI, and mentorships for the library community.
- Presented programs in person at the North York Central branch of the Toronto Public Library, and online.
- The residency was funded by the Holdbest foundation.
Biography
I was born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. I began composing and programming in earnest in high school, with my first compositions recorded on my computer.
I earned a B.Sc. in biology and an M.A. in music psychology from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. During those degrees I scored local theatrical productions and student films.
When my studies concluded, I returned to Regina, where I began working as a composer within the thriving artistic and film communities in the city. These connections afforded me opportunities to write concert music, soundtracks, and album works that won awards and helped me to develop a successful professional composing practice.
In the 2010's, I embarked upon a new challenge, an Interdisciplinary PhD in computer science and fine arts. Through that program, from which I graduated in 2021, I combined my compositional practice with a new practice of coding in Unity, Max, Pure Data and Arduino. I developed original algorithmic music based machine learning applications and interactive scores which pushed my composedly activities into exciting new directions. I created an interactive museum soundtrack, a location-governed score for the University of Regina campus in augmented reality, and a machine learning based chord pattern generator.
I am now based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where I am building my career scoring films and developing new musical experiences in the form of iOS apps which I code in Unity.