Bill Hsu's Art/technology Projects
Bill Hsu's art/technology projects

I work with electronics and real-time animation systems. I am interested in real-time performance systems that have some of the live, tactile qualities of good human musicians playing acoustic instruments. My work mostly involves using gestural interfaces to control animation and sound synthesis, and building real-time audio-visual systems that interact with human performers. In particular, I am inspired by improvisers who have developed rich palettes of extended techniques.

I've built systems, tools, installations and compositions in collaboration with Peter van Bergen, John Butcher, James Fei, Matt Heckert, and Lynn Hershman, among other fine musicians. I've performed in the US, Asia, and Europe, including Festival art::archive::architectures (ZKM, Karlsruhe), NIME 2011 (Oslo), Sound and Music Computing 2009 (Porto), Harvestworks Festival 2009 (New York), Fete Quaqua 2008 (London), MIX Festival 2007 and 2009 (New York), NIME 2007 (New York), Stimme+ 2006 (ZKM, Karlsruhe), and the First Hong Kong Improvised Performance Festial 2005. I am a founding member of the Beanbender's collective, which organized over 150 concerts of new music in the San Francisco Bay area.

with John Butcher at CNMAT,
Berkeley, 6/13/2008

Media/Press:

Audio-visual improvisation system demos
Audio reactive animations
Selected concert videos
Audio clips for interactive music improvisation system
Videos of Matt Heckert's machines (I wrote software for the Rotifiers (Centripetal Sound), Fencers, and Chainboxes (SFEMF 2005))
Interview with John Littler at mstation.org
Review of 3/13/2011 ATA performance


Recent and upcoming technology/art activities:

Performance of Flue with Mike Khoury and Matt Endahl, NIME 2012, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 5/21-23, 2012
Performance with SFSU Contemporary Music Ensemble, Knuth Hall, SFSU, 7pm, 4/16/2012
Performance with Tony Dryer, Jacob Heule, and special guests from Norway, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, 3/23/2012 [more info]
Visual programming and interfacing workshop (organized by SFSU ACM student chapter), SFSU, 3/2/2012 [Processing examples] [more info]
Processing tutorial at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, 2/25/2012

2011:
Performance with Matt Davignon's Droneshift, The Lab, San Francisco, 12/10/2011
Screening of Bloom in Official Competition of Punto y Raya Festival, Madrid, 11/3 - 6/2011 [video]
Performance at Grux's Organ Spectacular, The Lab, San Francisco, 9/21/2011
Performance with Michael Maierhof and Gino Robair, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, 9/15/2011
Presentation "On Coordinating Gestures, Sound and Animation in Real-time Performance Systems", IRCAM, Paris, 7/27/2011
Residency at Recollets Centre, Paris, July 2011
Guest Composers in Dialog with Ludger Brummer, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 6/30/2011
Phospheme (John Butcher/Bill Hsu/Gino Robair) performance at Festival art::archive::architectures, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany, 6/25/2011
Video installation Your Pillars in the Dead Sea Taste Like Salt in The Weaklings, Five Years, London, June 2011
Presentation at C-Base, Berlin, 6/6/2011
Performance of Interstices AP with Alain Crevoisier's Airplane controller, NIME 2011, Oslo, 6/1/2011 [video]
Performance of Flayed/Flock with Havard Skaset and Guro Moe, NIME 2011, Oslo, 6/1/2011
Two posters, NIME 2011, Oslo, May/June 2011
Installation at How Weird After-party at Roe, San Francisco, 5/1/2011
Performance with John Butcher and Gino Robair, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, 3/13/2011 [more info]
Installation at LoveTech 2nd Anniversary Party, Public Works, San Francisco, 1/28/2011
Processing tutorial at Hackerspace, Singapore, 1/2/2011

2010:
Paper "Strategies for Managing Timbre and Interaction in Automatic Improvisation Systems," in Leonardo Music Journal, 2010 [more info]
Video screenings at Berliner Kunstsalon, Berlin, 10/5 - 10/2010
Performance with Kyle Bruckmann, Gino Robair and John Shiurba, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, 10/19/2010 [More info]
Performance with Thomas Helton, Matt Ingalls, and Moe! Staiano, New Nothing Cinema, San Francisco, 10/7/2010
Poster with Marc Sosnick at SMC 2010, Barcelona, 7/21-24, 2010
Short videos at Alte Feuerwache, Berlin, 7/8 - 8/13, 2010 [More info] [Flyer]
Screening of Glories --- excerpts from a video performance at Chronotopia 2010, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, 6/8/2010
Residency and presentation at Loos Foundation, The Hague, 5/28 - 6/3, 2010
Residency and Performance at Steim, Amsterdam, 5/22-26, 2010
Collaborative project at Future Instruments, Geneva, 5/18 - 19, 2010 [more info]
Processing workshops at Metalab, Vienna, 5/11 and 13, 2010
Performance with Thomas Helton at Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin, 4/25/2010
Performance with Chris Heenan and Lothar Ohlmeier at Quiet Cue, Berlin, 4/24/2010
Performance with Birgit Ulher and friends, Stark Bewölkt in der Hörbar, Brigittenstrasse 5, Hamburg, 4/7/2010
Performance with Liz Albee and Mario de Vega, Miss Hecker, Berlin, 4/3/2010
Workshop on Processing's Physics libraries at Noisebridge, San Francisco, 3/11/2010
Performance with Birgit Ulher and Gino Robair, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, 2/19/2010 [more info]
Performance with Nelson Hiu, O-veg, Hong Kong, 1/15/2010

2009:
Processing class at Noisebridge, San Francisco, 12/10/2009
Performance at MIX festival, New York, 11/22/2009
Screening of Interstices 8.17.09 in Official Competition of Punto y Raya Festival, November 2009, Barcelona [video]
Performance with John Butcher and Gino Robair, Artists' Television Access, San Francisco, 10/14/2009 [more info]
Performance with Moe Staiano at Music for the Eyeful series, Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, 9/10/2009
Songs for Dynamical Systems Workshop, London, 8/3 - 6, 2009 [video]
Performance and Presentation at SMC 2009, Porto, Portugal, 7/23 - 25, 2009
Paper presentation at NIME 2009, Pittsburgh PA, 6/4 - 6, 2009
Performance with James Fei at Harvestworks Festival, Roulette, New York, 5/16/2009

Selected events before 2009
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