World-leading composer Natasha Barrett, widely known for her work in electronic, acousmatic, and live electroacoustic music, also a City alumna, is offered carte blanche to introduce listeners into her 3D sound world with SPARC Lab’s Ambisonic dome, a 24.4-channel loudspeaker system surrounding the public.
Space is limited, so please sign up to attend this event using the "register now" button above.
As part of the symposium, we will launch SPARCLab, a new environment for immersive sound and movement that is now permanently housed at City’s Department of Performing Arts. SPARCLab includes a 24.4 channel loudspeaker system that surrounds the audience, and the IKO, a unique 20-sided loudspeaker array.
Further events launching SPARCLab take place on Monday 21 May, with a concert of work from City's Sound Studios, and on Wednesday 22 May, with a concert curated by Gerriet Sharma.
SPARC is Sound Practice and Research at City, University of London. To read more about the research centre's work, please visit the dedicated SPARC website.
About Natasha Barrett
Natasha Barrett is a composer exploring new technologies and experimental approaches to sound in a broad range of contemporary music, including concert works, public space sound-art installations and audio-visual live electronics. She is internationally renowned for her application of 3D sound technology in composition. Her work is commissioned and performed throughout the world and has received 29 international awards including the most prestigious prize available for Nordic composers The Nordic Council Music Prize in 2006, the honorary Thomas Seelig Fixed Media Award for 2023, and the 2024 ISAC competition (International Sonosfera Ambisonics Competition). She has been described as a vanguard of her field, and her latest release the Reconfiguring the Landscape CD was rated as Number 1 in the Wire Magazine's Contemporary Classics of 2023.
In addition to her solo career, she regularly collaborates with performers, visual artists, architects and scientists, and often draws on data as a source for both musical and scientific exploration. Some of the highlights include 3D audio-visual art-works with the USA-based OpenEndedGroup jointly commissioned by IRCAM (FR), EMPAC (USA) and the Ultima Festival (NO), sound-architectural installations in collaboration with OCEAN Design Research Association (NO), science-art applications of sonification in collaboration with the department of geosciences at the University of Oslo (NO), and live electronics collaborations with many soloists and ensembles including Ensemble l’Itinéraire (IRCAM, FR), and Norway’s Cikada quartet. She is also active in performance, education and research, and is joint director of the Norwegian electroacoustic music performance group Electric Audio Unit.
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