USITT SoundLab 2016 Project Files

This past March, the annual USITT conference was held in Salt Lake City. This year, the Sound Commission hosted a version of its biennial SoundLab that was focused on multichannel sound for theatrical playback.  A number of people collaborated on the design of the lab, and Jim Van Bergen did the delivery system design.

(link to the pdf)

I served as Director of Programming for the SoundLab, which meant that I ran two projects.  The USITT SoundLab Student Project (which I ran in partnership with Drew Dalzell) was a six-month long script analysis project using Caryl Churchill's Fen as the source text.  Twenty-four students from around the country worked with mentors to read, analyze, and conceptualize a sound design for Fen. At the end of the project, six students were invited to take time during the conference to build their designs for an excerpt of the play in the SoundLab environment.

Concurrently, I also ran the SoundLab Professional Project, which was similar in scope. Three professional sound designers each took a portion of a different play, conceptualized a design, and had a chunk of time at the conference to install their design. While those designers were working, sound designer Brad Berridge and I hosted a real-time Iron Chef-style analysis of what the professional designers were doing, examining how they used the multi-channel system, how they strategized their designs, and how they organized their programming sessions in QLab. It was a terrific opportunity for the student designers to watch professionals work in real-time in a complex environment.

Student Kate Fraser and I have a conversation while she programs her design.

Dave Mickey, Elisheba Ittoop, and Brad Ward were the three professional designers.

Brad Berridge and I lead a conversation about while one of the pros installs their design.

After all nine designers had completed their programming, the designs were available for any SoundLab visitors to listen to in order to get a stronger understanding of how different designers each approach the same text. I also made recordings using a SoundField microphone of each piece for archival purposes.  The SoundField makes a B-format recording, I've decoded into multiple formats for your downloading pleasure.  You can download the work of these designers as stereo, 5.1, and b-format recordings:

Student Sound Designers:

Elisheva Anisman, Western Washington University: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Katherine Fraser, Virginia Commonwealth University: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Daniel Grayvold, Michigan Technical University: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Josh Samuels, Ithaca College: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Eric Smith, Michigan Technical University: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Lindsey White, Ohio State University: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Professional Sound Designers:

Elisheba Ittoop: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Dave Mickey: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Brad Ward: stereo, 5.1, b-format W, X, Y, Z

Here's a great vid that the fine folks at Stage Directions made about the SoundLab:




I want to thank the all of the sound designers and USITT folk who helped make these SoundLab projects happen. This was an extraordinary amount of work, and I'm appreciative of everyone who pitched in! Special thanks also go to the UC Irvine actors who voiced the roles, Sam French, who licensed us Churchill's Fen, and Figure 53, who provided the student designers with temporary licenses of QLab.

USITT SOUND COMMISSION ANNOUNCES 2016 SOUNDLAB STUDENT PROJECTS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The USITT Sound Commission is excited to announce the 2016 SoundLab Student Project.  Building on previous success, the 2016 SoundLab will focus on sound design content and creation for multi-channel theatrical playback. The SoundLab Student Project is a six-month long sound design project that culminates in opportunities for students to design in the 2016 SoundLab.

Beginning in summer 2015, USITT will take applications from student sound designers from high school, college, and graduate school programs. Each student will work with a mentor to analyze a play and develop a sound design concept. In December, students will submit their research and concept to the SoundLab Student Project organizers. The organizers will review all of the student submissions and invite selected students to move on to the second phase of the project.

In the second phase of the project, students will work with their mentors to turn their sound design concept into a realized piece of sound design. Again, students will submit their work to the SoundLab Student Project organizers, who will review the submissions. From the submissions, a small group of students will be invited to install their design in the 2016 SoundLab at the USITT Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In Salt Lake City, each student will have a reserved time slot to work with their mentor and USITT SoundLab staff to implement their design in the custom-built multi-channel SoundLab. Each design will then become a permanent part of the 2016 SoundLab, accessible by any attendee at the conference and possibly archived on the web.

Mentors can be current teachers or professors of the student, but if a student needs a mentor, USITT will help match students with mentors.

SoundLab 2016 Director of Programming Vincent Olivieri says that “the Student Project in Salt Lake City will be an exceptional opportunity for students from a wide range of backgrounds to work on a challenging project and make connections with sound designers from across the country.” Student Project Coordinator Drew Dalzell adds that students who participate “will have a unique opportunity to see a project through from conception, through research, and finally to its execution.”

Registration information can be found here.

Additional support for this project comes from Figure 53 and Samuel French.

For more information, email Olivieri at olivieri@uci.edu.

UCI Students Looking Good!

The Annual Report by USITT has come out, and the Sound Lab, which Prof. Mike Hooker helped to organize, features prominently in the publication. But when I was thumbing through the document this morning, Mike wasn't the only UCI person to make an impact in the document.  On page 13, wearing headphones and standing to legendary mix engineer Buford Jones' right, is Mark Caspary '15. Mark was part of a series of mixing intensives run by Jones and Jim VanBergen to mentor young designers and engineers in mix techniques. 

And I may be wrong, but on the cover of the report, that profile, hat, and stance look an awfully lot like Matt Glenn '14. 

Looking good, gents!

USITT: Guerrilla Sound Challenge '13

A handful of UCI folk just got back from the annual USITT conference.  The conference is an annual gathering of theatre designers, stage managers, and technicians from around the country. For four days, we attend workshops, panel discussions, seminars, look at new products, and socialize with our colleagues around the country.  Mike and I go annually, and this year, Josh and Matt Eckstein were also there.

Every other year, the Sound Commission at USITT runs a program called the Guerrilla Sound Challenge, and this year, I took it over.  The GSC works like this: At a certain time, I give each participant a stimulus. That participant then has three hours to create an aural response to the stimulus. The trick is that they are not allowed to use any pre-recorded audio or music. Everything that goes into their aural response has to be wholly original.

This year, the stimulus was a 60-second video piece by video designer Daniel Vatsky. At 2.30pm last Friday, I passed the video clips out to nine different respondents, and they had three hours to create their response. The respondents this year represented a wide cross-section of the Sound Community at USITT.  We had undergraduate students, sound technology professionals, professors, and even a high school student!  The aural responses were wide, and I present them to you here:

















I was really pleased with how different each of these pieces are, and yet they still each are deeply connected with Vatsky's imagery.

If you're interested in participating in the Guerrilla Sound Challenge at USITT, you'll have to wait until the 2015 conference in Cincinnati!  But we'll see you then, for certain!

USITT SoCal section - Design Competition

The SoCal USITT section is hosting a design competition on January 21 at Pomona College. Contest entrance is free. Even if you don't have an entry, it's worth going to (size up your peers and future competition from other schools!). A job fair and master classes are also part of the day. The SoCal section is very active and worth joining, too.

Contest and Job Fair entry form:

http://socalusitt.org/CUSITT_2012_Job_Fair.pdf

The SoCal website:

http://socalusitt.org/