Uploaded February 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The spaces we inhabit, for living, eating, and all manner of aesthetic experience, have a profound but often subconscious effect on our emotions. The "new frontier" in sound involves the foregrounding of spatial effects through the enlargement of the possible interconnections between sonic events and their encompassing ambience, the exploration of active virtual architectures that, while referring, sometimes, to real places, explode meaning through their constant and unpredictable shifts in aural context. The Portable Multi-Channel Sound System is a unique musical instrument designed specifically for Michael J. Schumacher’s spatialized compositions. It sets up in less than an hour and can be carried in a single suitcase, yet provides up to 12 fully discrete audio channels, complete with speakers, amplifiers and sound sources. Building on the pioneering work of composers such as Alvin Lucier and Maryanne Amacher, presentations explore the relationship between musical form and architectural space and how this relationship can inform listening. Combining installation and performance, algorithmic composition and improvisation, this goes beyond acoustics to the way
people inhabit and use spaces, creating paradigms for listening and formal expectations.
The spaces we inhabit, for living, eating, and all manner of aesthetic experience, have a profound but often subconscious effect on our emotions. The "new frontier" in sound involves the foregrounding of spatial effects through the enlargement of the possible interconnections between sonic events and their encompassing ambience, the exploration of active virtual architectures that, while referring, sometimes, to real places, explode meaning through their constant and unpredictable shifts in aural context. The Portable Multi-Channel Sound System is a unique musical instrument designed specifically for Michael J. Schumacher’s spatialized compositions. It sets up in less than an hour and can be carried in a single suitcase, yet provides up to 12 fully discrete audio channels, complete with speakers, amplifiers and sound sources. Building on the pioneering work of composers such as Alvin Lucier and Maryanne Amacher, presentations explore the relationship between musical form and architectural space and how this relationship can inform listening. Combining installation and performance, algorithmic composition and improvisation, this goes beyond acoustics to the way
people inhabit and use spaces, creating paradigms for listening and formal expectations.
![Recording of [June 16] INHERENT UNCERTAINTY by Paul Geluso, Clinton Van Arnam, Ivana Dama](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tjDC2OEBwis/mqdefault.jpg "Recording of [June 16] INHERENT UNCERTAINTY by Paul Geluso, Clinton Van Arnam, Ivana Dama
Live data analysis of Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 worldwide data is used to create this generative sound piece. Data is sent through custom software into analog and digital synthesizers which trigger visuals formed by news clips recorded on June 1st, 2020 during the protests that followed the death of George Floyd.
The title Inherent Uncertainty represents our current state of affairs and the systems we are seeing crumble before our own eyes. As the viewer listens to the sound shift and change, these shifts are simply the analysis of the destruction of the virus. This project explores the unpredictability of our future and the thin veneer that we define as a ‘civil’ society.
Software engineering by John Brumley. Music by Paul Geluso and Clinton Van Arnam. Visuals by Ivana Dama in collaboration with Clinton Van Arnam. Creative collaboration with Harvestworks, New York including Carol Parkinson, and Paul Geluso. Mentorship and creative vision in partnership with Victoria Vesna, UCLA.
SOUNDING CORONA series is co-conceptualized by the UCLA ArtSci Center, and Harvestworks NY with the intent of composing and amplifying the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 worldwide data live data analysis including total recovered, deaths, and cases. Throughout this ongoing summer series, sound artists will be invited to use the texture of this data as an underlying vibration for engagement. With this collective sound and image exploration we seek to illuminate the interconnectivity of events around the world.")
