| H. James Harkins is a composer of electronic music for live performance, based in Guangzhou, China in the Modern Music Department of the Xinghai Conservatory of Music. |
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A demonstration of live coding in SuperCollider. Youku link for Chinese readers. |
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2024-11-17: Two upcoming events
Two upcoming shows:
1/ November 21: Southern Fusion: Sound and Shadow, a faculty showcase concert for music technology teachers at Xinghai Conservatory. 7:30 PM, Lang Lang Concert Hall, Xinghai Conservatory University Town campus.
2/ November 24, 2-8 pm: Workshops and performances by myself, Tate McNeil, and Michael Garza, under the sky on the rooftop of the Tianhe Book Center, Guangzhou, in a stylish music club called Enlightening. Part of a series of electronic-music themed events, P.L.U.R., sponsored by Enlightening and Hoodoo Techno.
Workshops: Live coding improvisation (me) and mobile technology for jams (Tate).
2024-01-28: January 28: Process Prototype at Butler University
As coincidence would have it, I am back in Indiana at the same time that my old alma mater is hosting its annual Elektronik Musik fest… so… I’m on the program, with my 2023 piece “Turning in the Breeze” (US premiere).
Facebook event link: Butler University Elektronik Musik Fest
2024-01-11: January 13: Process Prototype at Guangzhou Outdoor Arts Festival
The Guangzhou Outdoor Arts Festival is a just-about-ideal public performing arts event: a central venue with lots of foot traffic, free admission, people can stop and listen for as long as they want, while the stage is one floor below ground level so that the performance area is separated from casual foot traffic, while being easily accessible. It’s a perfect place to take experimental music out to where people are. January 13, my dear friend Michael R. Garza (bassoon) and I will kick off the afternoon performances — very much looking forward to this!
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ExUM2SBCTyEB41wPakzQ
2023-10-11: Process Prototype at ICMC 2023 International Computer Music Conference
The International Computer Music Conference is the largest worldwide conference in the field… and this year, it’s in Shenzhen (only 90 km away), October 15-20.
I’m presenting a new live-coding work, “Turning in the Breeze,” on Wednesday afternoon, October 18. It’s a gentle, atmospheric work featuring just-intonation piano (with unstable tuning). It ended up being something of a Ryuichi Sakamoto tribute, nodding to his ability to blend simple piano materials with experimental electronics.
Excerpt:
Conference website: https://icmc2023.org.cn/pc/home_page/index
2023-06-01: Xinghai Conservatory Electronic Ensemble Concert
Ambient and house, performed by 11 students and myself on Ableton-Linked computers.
2023-03-24: Hoodoo Techno opening with live-coding jam
I have (embarrassingly) neglected to post events for the last couple of years. With Covid controls receiving in the rearview mirror, I hope to perform more often.
This Friday’s event is a semi-regular techno party by the Hoodoo DJ collective based in Guangzhou. Always excellent music! They are committed to live performance as well as DJ sets. This time out, they’ve invited me to join Senonix for the opening live jam: me live-coding on SuperCollider, him providing beats on a Digitakt drum machine.
It’s improvised, but some of it could be like this:
2020-08-09: Process Prototype at Oil Club, Shenzhen
I’ll play a live-coding improvisation starting shortly after midnight.
Read about the event here—mostly Chinese but some English.
2019-08-06: Quietcode #1 event in Guangzhou
Quietcode is live-coding improvisation of meditative, ambient music. I plan this to be the first in a series of concerts, with later events including collaboration with local producers.
Poster and teaser after the jump.
2019-01-26: ddwChucklib-livecode v0.4.1 released
In my semester-break rush of tidying things up, I’m pushing out a point release of my live coding framework. This is the version used in my recent performances.
Quarks.install("ddwLivecodeInstruments");
(Actually “ddwChucklib-livecode” is the name of the framework itself, but if you install ddwLivecodeInstruments, it will install the framework as a dependency — one step instead of two.)
The last tag release was October 2016. It’s a lot more stable and usable now. Also, I spent a lot of time in the last couple of weeks updating and expanding the documentation.
Download the PDF manual.
Demo jam after the jump.
2018-12-11: November/December performances
November 17, an improvised live-coding set at Hoodoo’s monthly Guangzhou techno all-nighter. I started in ambient style, and ended up in the straight-ahead techno territory in this excerpt:
December 16 (upcoming), an appearance at the Guangzhou International Outdoor Performance Festival.
CC-BY-SA 4.0 by H. James Harkins (2015): Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike
Acknowledgment to the php-markdown library © 2004-2015 Michel Fortin.
The Dream Orphans font is used according to its noncommercial license.
The Vera Humana 95 font is distributed apparently without a license.