Female Laptop Orchestra (FLO), a music research project established in 2014 by Nela Brown, connects female musicians, artists and scientists globally, bridging continents, political boundaries, language and culture through co-located and distributed collaborative music creation. Each FLO performance is site-specific and performer-dependent, mixing location-based field recordings, live coding, acoustic instruments, voice, sound synthesis and real-time sound processing using Web Audio API’s and VR environments with audio streams arriving from different global locations (via the internet and mobile networks). From stereo to immersive 3D audio (and everything in between), FLO is pushing the boundaries of technology and experimentation within the context of ensemble improvisation and telematic collaboration.
More info about the awesomely talented peeps who have been involved with FLO since 2014 can be found below 🙂
FLO performers & collaborators 2020 –
Nela Brown (founder and creative director of FLO), is an award-winning sound artist, technologist, researcher and lecturer with a background in classical music, jazz, sonic arts, engineering and human-computer interaction. In the past decade, she composed music and designed sound for award-winning international projects including theatre performances, dance, mobile, film, documentaries and interactive installations. From 2011-2016, she was the Chair of G.Hack (an arts & technology lab for female researchers at QMUL), from 2011-2012 she was the Chair of WISE@QMUL (Women in Science and Engineering Society). From 2013-2019 she was part of the BCSWomen Committee. In 2013, she received a prestigious Highly Commended WISE Leader Award from HRH The Princess Royal. In 2014 she was profiled as part of the British Computer Society (BCS) national ‘Women in IT’ Campaign and started the Female Laptop Orchestra (FLO) project. Nela is a (founder) member of the Association of Sound Designers (UK) and OISTAT Sound Design Group (worldwide), and regularly speaks at symposiums, conferences and technology events (Music Tech Fest, Sonar, Digital Shoreditch, WSD, Campus Party, Maker Faire etc.) on topics related to sound design for different media, co-located and distributed collaborative music making and hack culture. She is currently doing her PhD in HCI and teaching courses in Transmedia and Creative Coding at the University of Greenwich in London, UK.
http://www.nelabrown.com/
Magdalena Chudy is a researcher, music technologist, computer scientist and cellist. She holds a PhD in electronic engineering from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL/C4DM). She also has a MSc in computer science and MA in performance. Her research has been focused on player-dependent aspects of musical timbre, with a particular interest in exploring the relationship between instrumental gesture, tone quality and perception in classical cello performance. As a cellist, she worked for musical theatre as well as collaborated with a number of chamber ensembles and orchestras across Poland. Her current artistic practice includes live improvisation and sound processing in search for new sonic experiences on such classical instrument as the cello. While in QMUL, Magdalena was involved in Women in Science and Technology focus groups such as WISE@QMUL and G.Hack. http://magudy.wordpress.com/
Maria Mannone, is a physicist and a composer, and she’s developing interdisciplinary research between mathematics and music. She earned her Master in Theoretical Physics; and Masters in Composition, Conducting, and Piano in Italy. In Paris, at IRCAM – UPMC Paris 6 Sorbonne, she earned her Master 2 ATIAM in Acoustics, Signal Processing, and Informatics applied to Music. In the US, at the University of Minnesota, she earned her Ph.D. in Composition. Her musical compositions have been performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, and during the Festival delle Orestiadi di Gibellina and the Arts Quarter Festival at the University of Minnesota. She’s active as a composer and as an improviser.
Ariane Stolfi is an architect, designer, programmer and musician, transits between languages and disciplines. Doctorate candidate in Sonology in the Music Department of the University of São Paulo (USP), and Master graduate in Architecture and Design (FAU-USP). She is researching interactive interfaces on web technologies, currently at Queen Mary University of London at the Centre for Digital Music. She participated in several festivals and events such as SHA, Submidialogias, Dis Experimental, ¿Música?, Virada Cultural, Bigorna, Improvise, Circuito de Improvisação Livre, Amostra Sonora, Áudio Insurgência, Web Audio Conference and Audio Mostly. She develops interactive installations and performances, maintains the finetanks.com experimental net label and collaborates with the Sonora feminist collective and with the Orquestra Errante free improvising group.
Sonia Wilkie is a researcher, sound designer, and educational technologist. She joined G.Hack and FLO whilst undertaking her PhD at Queen Mary, University of London where she met like-minded musicians and researchers. Her current research in Human-computer interaction investigates educational technologies and their impact on student engagement and success. Her musical interests range from classical performance on the flute, to live coding electronica and digital sonic arts.
Léa Ikkache graduated from the Georgia Tech Music Technology Masters program, where she co-founded the Women in Music Tech group. She studied engineering in France (MS in Engineering from Ecole Centrale Paris) and came to the US to incorporate more music into her education. Her research focus is robotic musicianship, interactive music systems, and educational technology (she now works in the EarSketch team). She previously worked on the relationships between music, space, and memory in collaboration with IRCAM on the Memory Palace exhibition.
Ada Mathea Hoel is a Norwegian noise performer and producer. She is currently doing the Music Technology Master’s program at NTNU, Trondheim, where she’s researching cross-adaptive processing as a production and composition tool. She creates software to do this and processes vocal, acoustic and electric bass, drum, synthetic sounds and field recordings. As a live performer, she focuses on processing and soundscapes.
Rosario Domingo is a musician and multimedia artist from Valencia. 
She develops her artistic practice in the area of sound, audiovisual and graphic art, a field in which her personal interests and her academic training converge. She has recently carried out several artistic residencies for the City Council of València, investigating the relationship between sound and image, as well as the synergies between art and science. She has developed the process and exhibited the results in different venues in the city, in educational environments and in multiple conferences (CEIP Benimàmet, La Mutant, Espai Jove VLC, Veles e Vents, Teatre El Musical and Radiocity, among others). In addition, her works have been exhibited and awarded prizes in various competitions. She also participates in several training programmes. As a musician, she is a flautist and a member of different groups in the Valencian Community, with whom she has released two albums. She currently collaborates with the Soundcool project of the Universitat Politècnica de València and works as a graphic designer in the València City Council.
Ethernet Orchestra is an Internet-based musical ensemble that explores intercultural improvisation through networked musical performances on the web. Among many collaborators, the ensemble features internationally acclaimed improvisers including guitarist Chris Vine, best known for his work with Elliott Sharp, Bobby Previte, and Bob Boilen in the downtown music scenes of New York and Washington D.C. Trumpeter Roger Mills, who came to prominence during the 1990s for his work with the UK Bristol-based free-jazz ensemble Space Ways, and trip-hop collective Statik Sound System (Cup of Tea Records), Bassist Paulo Hartmann who runs the notable São Paulo improvisatory music series Improfest, and Saxophonist Fábio Furlanete. Ethernet Orchestra performs live from Sydney, Australia, Londrina & São Paulo, Brazil, Germany, the USA, and the UK. The ensemble have released 3 recorded albums, including the much lauded Oceans between Sound, and follow-up remix album, Oceans Reimagined, through the Chilean netlabel, Pueblo Nuevo.
Robin Whittaker (bio coming soon …)
Fumi Tomioka improvises, dances and choreographs. Her interests are in small emotions, feelings, thoughts or our inner condition, which might not be manifested in our daily life. These emotions, feelings or thoughts, however, definitely make ourselves as we are and Fumi believes that they often come out when we move. Fumi started modern ballet when she was 9 years old. Fumi studied at Laban Centre, London in 2001-2002. Between 2006 and 2007, she received a scholarship, Overseas Study Programme for Artists, by Japanese governments to research Candoco Dance Company’s foundation course. From 2008 to 2009, Fumi worked as one of Aki Kawashita’s assistant for inclusive dance improvisation workshops and performances. In 2010-2011 she completed MA Choreography at Middlesex University, London. She also has a BA (History) at Yokohama City University and MA (History) at Meiji University. https://fumitmovementdance.com
Aki Kawashita 
has familiarised herself with dance since she was small. In 1989, Aki graduated Osaka University of Health and Sport Sciences. From 1992 to 1997, Aki danced nationally and internationally in Kei Takei’s Moving Earth Orient Sphere. Aki danced a lot of improvisation. In 2000, Aki completed an inclusive-art-workshop facilitator-training course organised by Muse Company. After that, Aki was learning mainly from Wolfgang Stange and Fuminori Wakaguri and started organising dance workshops for those with disabilities. Currently, Aki organises dance workshops focusing on free movement emerging from playing with our bodies. Since 2013, Aki started Tear Dry Dance Company and has been performing as a dancer and a choreographer.
When Hiromi Hijikata was little, she liked drawing, singing, and running. At the age of 10, she got sick and at the age of 19, she dropped out of design school because she couldn’t walk. She got bedridden with severe pain throughout her body, her bones deformed and she became disabled, which made her suffer from social phobia, diminished ability to think, and feeling of alienation and differences in the common thinking ground with other people in the society. While overcoming them on her own, she realized the importance of the first impressions people give to others. For more than 10 years, she had been looking for support in provincial areas where public welfare service is scarce, learned about a helper system, connected with networks of people with disabilities, and faced welfare problems in prefectures and cities. After fighting with red tape for an opportunity to create a simplified electric wheelchair, when she finally managed to create one, she started living in Tokyo with the aim of becoming a fashion stylist. Working as a stylist, or any work with a severe disability, is difficult, so whilst Hiromi was looking for a way to continue working as a stylist, she was scouted as a disabled performer and became a rare performer/dancer using a simplified electric wheelchair.
http://harekumoriame.com || https://m.facebook.com/hiromi.natumi
is a saxophonist, improviser, and a senior lecturer at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast.. She is the co-author of LiveSHOUT, funded by the AHRC (Follow-on Impact fund). Franziska performed with many international musicians including Joan La Barbara, Pauline Oliveros, Stelarc, the Avatar Orchestra, and Evan Parker. She has released two CDs on the creative source label, a CD with Slam records, and a 2015 album (entitled ‘Barely Cool” with improvisers from Brazil) on the pfmentum label.
is a musician, ethnomusicologist, free improviser and lecturer. Her areas of interest are: electro-acoustic composition, sound design and sound art. She has a BA in musicology, MA in ethnomusicology and discontinued PhD in Sound Engineering and Design. She plays electronics, flute and sings. She performs her music solo and also collaborates with others in an improvised manner, where she composes live, using the elements that build her music from scratch. She performs in concerts and festivals, and participates in projects in Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. She collaborates with other free improvisers, visual artists and dancers from many different countries. She has solo and collaborative albums. She also appeared on “The Anthology of Turkish Experimental Music” with her piece Nefes which is published by Subrosa. She teaches Audio Culture, Audio Craft, World Music and Popular music in Istanbul Bilgi University. https://tunapase.com/
is a visual artist, creative technologist and educator specialised in high-impact images. Her transdisciplinary approach combines photography and visual strategies with coding, biosignals and human-computer interaction technologies. Her work focuses on integrative experiences merging art, science, technology and society. In 2015 she started the project Aquaquinta with the collaborator of Massaru Emoto in Europe, merging biomedical technologies with photography; leading her to experiment with biosignals, music and visuals. She has exhibited and performed, among others, at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Academia Soho, Rome; LOOP Festival, Barcelona; Espronceda Center for Art and Culture, Barcelona. She is currently working on a thesis on human-computer interaction technologies and virtual reality at CMTECH Lab, University Pompeu Fabra.
Donna Hewitt is a vocalist, electronic music composer and instrument designer. Donna’s research has been primarily exploring mediatized performance environments and new ways of interfacing the human body and voice with electronic media. She is the inventor of the eMic, a sensor enhanced microphone stand for electronic music performance and more recently has been creating wearable electronics for controlling both sound and lighting in performance. Her work has attracted funding from the Australia Council for the Arts, most recently with all female collective Lady Electronica. Donna has held academic positions at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and Queensland, University of Technology and is currently the Convenor of Music at the University of New England, Sydney Australia. In 2018 Donna has performed her work as part of the VIVID Festival, The Bondi Feast Festival and the Sydney Fringe Festival and in November 2018 she will be presenting her work at the MINT (Music in New Technologies) Conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she will also collaborate on a performance with the Concordia Laptop Orchestra – ClorK. https://donnahewitt.net
ReVerse Butcher is a multi-disciplinary artist with focuses in making unique artist’s books, collages, visual art, writing & performance. She will use any medium necessary to engage and subvert reality until it is less dull and oppressive. When she grows up she wants to be a well-read recluse. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia. www.reversebutcher.com || https://twitch.tv/reversebutcher || https://twitter.com/x_rVb_x || https://instagram.com/reversebutcher || https://instagram.com/ontherod_artistsbook
Kylie Supski is a Polish-Australian poet, playwright, & spoken word artist. She is greatly concerned with using art as a method of speaking out about social, economic and political inequality. Many of Kylie’s poems discuss her experiences as a transgender woman. In 2016 she was the winner of the Melbourne Spoken Word Prize. Kylie is passionate about personal autonomy and exploring the beauty of being alive. https://www.instagram.com/kylie.supski/
Susannah Langley is a visual artist whose practice is rooted in experimental drawing, installation and sound, often using unconventional media such as conductive material, touch technology and virtual reality to explore ideas of history, memory, movement, feeling and space. Since 2013, she has collaborated on works that people can move through, and touch, to summon stories and soundscapes. These can broadly be divided into two types: physical installations and virtual reality experiences. Contributing works in 2019 to Whakatane Artist in Residence program NZ, Vrystaat Arts Festival ZA, Vivid Ideas, Sydney and Gertrude Street Projection Festival Melbourne. Currently, Susannah is studying a Masters of Research with Victorian College of the Arts Melbourne investigating the visual nature of sound in virtual environments. She was fortunate to contribute to a FLO event at Testing Grounds, Southbank Arts Precinct, Melbourne in 2019.
Maria Papadomanolaki is a Greek artist who works within the fields of sound design for dance and film, networked performances, exploratory workshops, installation and transmission art. She has a background in literary and sound studies. She has presented her work and research at galleries, conferences and festivals in Europe, UK and the US. Maria completed her PhD research on urban sonic perceptual ecologies at CRiSAP, UAL, London. She is the co-founder of SoundCamp and producer of Sensing Cities, an ongoing series of interviews broadcast on Resonance FM. http://www.voicesoundtext.com (Image courtesy of uho; oko:)
FLO performers & collaborators 2018 –
Anna Xambó Ph.D. is a researcher and musician with a background in computer science engineering, digital humanities and digital arts. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London, working on the Audio Commons project. She defines herself as a musician by heart with computer geek interests. Her musical practice includes live coding, multichannel spatialization, tangible music, collaborative interfaces, audience participation with mobile devices, and real-time music information retrieval. She has performed in Spain, the UK, USA, and Denmark. Anna works actively in the music tech and experimental electronic music scene, as a co-founder of the online music records Carpal Tunnel in Barcelona (Spain), co-founder of Women in Music Tech at Georgia Tech (USA), and co-organizer of international concerts including live coding and participatory concerts. She has published two solo recordings under the alias peterMann: “init” (2010, Carpal Tunnel) and “On the Go” (2013, Carpal Tunnel). http://annaxambo.me/
Ximena Alarcon is a Colombian sound artist and Research Fellow at CRiSAP. Her practice-based research focuses on the creation of telematic sonic performances and networked environments to expand our sense of place, using field recordings and spoken word in urban and migratory contexts. She has a PhD in Music, Technology and Innovation, from De Montfort University, and was awarded with a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship 2007-2009. Her art projects include the online environment Sounding Underground (London-Mexico-Paris), Networked Migrations – a series of telematic performances exploring through Deep Listening migration and dislocation in UK, Colombia, Mexico, Troy, and Bangalore, and Sound Matters Framework for the use and re-use of field record- ings and speech through interfaces for relational listening. http://www.crisap.org/people/ximena-alarcon
http://ximenaalarcon.net
Liz Dobson has a research background in the social psychology of collaborative creativity and learning within music technology. She is a strong advocate for collaborative learning environments that support girls and women in music technology: delivering summer schools and weekend events for girls at The University of Huddersfield, Youth Music Funded ‘Go Compose’ weekends in conjunction with Sound and Music, and working as a director for the Yorkshire Sound Women Network. Liz is a composer and a National Teaching Fellow situated at The University of Huddersfield. Most recently she has been investigating the sociality of diverse feminist music technology practices and how this intersects with formal education and creativity theory.
Anna Weisling explores the relationship between sound and image and the performance possibilities shared by both. She has a Master’s degree in Sonic Arts from Queen’s University Belfast and is currently pursuing a PhD in Digital Media at Georgia Tech
FLO performers & collaborators 2017 –
Women in Music Tech (WiMT) founded in 2016, is the first student organization of the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology. WiMT aims at bringing more women into the program and promoting Music Technology to a diverse audience with concerts, conferences, high school outreach, a newsletter etc. https://womeninmusictech.gatech.edu/
Jason Freeman is a Professor of Music at Georgia Tech. His artistic practice and scholarly research focus on using technology to engage diverse audiences in collaborative, experimental, and accessible musical experiences. He also develops educational interventions in K-12, university, and MOOC environments that broaden and increase engagement in STEM disciplines through authentic integrations of music and computing. Freeman received his B.A. in music from Yale University and his M.A. and D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University.
Somesh Ganesh is a student at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology pursuing his Masters degree in Music Technology. He studied Electronics & Telecommunication engineering as an undergraduate in India (Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology). Most of his work now involves digital audio signal processing and music information retrieval. He plays the keyboard and is interested in the production of electronic dance music. He is interested in combining his skills to push and explore the boundaries of music creation, performance and experience.
Agneya Kerure (WiMT, Georgia Tech)
Jyoti Narang (WiMT, Georgia Tech)
Takahiko Tsuchiya (WiMT, Georgia Tech)
FLO performers & collaborators 2016 –
Zagreb Flute Ensemble – ZAF, the only ensemble of the sort in Croatia, has been founded in the year of 2012. The very core of the ensemble is a flute quartet but, depending on the piece that is being performed, the number of the players can be multiplied without limitations. This unique ensemble unites experienced performers with the young aspiring artists and flute students, thereby giving these young musicians a rare opportunity to gain experience and expand their own repertoire, all of that with the support of more experienced colleagues. Beside Renata Penezić and Tamara Coha permanent members are Jelena Geček, Lidija Ljubičić, Marija Esih, Danijela Klarić Mimica, Ivana Vukojević, Katarina Horvat and Ana Batinica. They were all educated at various musical institutions and specialised at home and abroad. ZAF gives particular attention to performing musical pieces composed by native composers, in a hope of ensuring even more pieces that will continue to explore auditive and interpretative possibilities and combinations of the various instruments of the flute family. Miljenko Prohaska, Tomislav Uhlik, Alfi Kabiljo, Ivan Josip Skender, Bruno Vlahek, Gordan Tudor and Branimir Rezić composed pieces for the ensemble. Besides the classical repertoire adapted for the ensemble, future projects will also include pieces of the 20th and 21st century composers that use exceptionally advanced playing techniques which create fascinating new auditory landscapes. The following projects include collaborations with Museum of contemporary art, Zagreb concert management, Faculty of textile technology, Academy of dramatic art and „Female Laptop Orchestra“ organisation, which will give a new dimension to already existing works, emphasizing their character and with the synergy of related arts create a completely new piece.
After two concert seasons Three seasons in Matis absolute lounge there are nine premiered pieces, numerous successes in the country and two international tours: La Perle du Nord (Novi Sad, Beograd, Skoplje, Bitola i Solun) and Karusel (Sevilla, Malaga, Benalmadena i Barcelona), every time followed with excellent critics;
HRT- Radio Rijeka, 16.07.2013.
If we knew the sound of angelic flutes in the stories about heaven, we would say we were there last night. Twelve beautiful women merged with their flutes in an unbelievably acoustic space of Trsat’s cloister, twelve balanced, clean, crystal clear tones of all colors flute can produce, spilt their chords all around the thrilled audience with every musical number. Very attractive and professionally chosen programme…
…Rhythmically well-coordinated, with melodical interpretations, dinamically playful and in love with their instrument, the girls from the Zagreb flute ensemble mesmerised the audience on whose request they performed an encore – Argetinian tango. It was a night to remember…
http://zaf.website/en_US
David Mastikosa (composer) is a young prolific Bosnian composer. He was born in 1992 in Prijedor, where he started his musical education by studying clarinet and music theory at the Secondary Music School “Savo Balaban” in Prijedor, before moving to Banja Luka to study Composition at the Academy of Arts in the class of Tatjana Milošević Mijanović. At the Banja Luka Academy of Arts he won the ‘best student’ prize as well as the third prize in the competition for his composition titled “Edict of Milan of 313”. David was elected twice, among the fifteen composers whose works have been performed in concerts that are organized by Vox Novus, held in New York titled “15 Minutes of Fame”. His compositions were performed in different countries around the world (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Japan and the United States), as part of different cultural and musical events (such as: “Dani Vlade S. Miloševića“, “Noć muzeja“, “XIX Curso Internacional de Clarinete – Julian Menendez“, “The Basement Concert“, “Make Music New York“ and “Festival Note tra i Calanchi” and his composition “Unknown flow” was premiered in 2014 at Branko’s Award Ceremony at Sremski Karlovci) and by different musicians and ensembles (Sauro Berti – bass clarinet (Italy), Quator Girard – string quartet (France), Matthew Rosenberg – bassoon (USA), Novosadski duvački kvintet – wind quintet (Novi Sad), Ken Kunita – bass clarinet (Netherlands / Japan), Robert Botti – oboe (USA), Aleksandra Kopić – flute (Serbia / Bosnia and Herzegovina), Zagreb Soloists – string orchestra (Croatia), Ana Batinica – flute (Croatia), etc.). His compositions were also published in publishing houses Alea Publishing (Tacoma, Washington, United States) and Ayotte Custom Musical Engravings (Detroit, Michigan, United States). He participated in seminars and masterclasses: KompArt 2, Novi Sad 2012; Academie Musicale de Villecroze in 2013, France, Villecroze 2013; Sarajevo Sonic Studio 2013; Workshop for Contemporary Music, Novi Sad 2014; Workshop for solfeggio, Banja Luka in 2012 and Workshop for clarinet, Gučevo 2010 and he worked with Philippe Hersant, Philippe Manoury, Tamara Basarić, Vinko Globokar, Wolfgang Heiniger, Aleksandra Vrebalov – Composition; Nikola Srdić, Milan Milošević, Đuro Pete – Clarinet; Slavica Smiljanić Marković – Solfeggio. David was part of Academie Musicale de Villecroze (France) in 2012 and he was a scholar of Fond Dr Milan Jelić, the most important scholarship in the Republic of Srpska. He is currently studying for a Masters Degree in Composition at the Academy of Arts Banja Luka where he composes classical, electroacoustic and electronic music as well as music for theatre and film.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx59ymv8SUXnvjhlmVpYI6A/videos
Anja Kavić is a Bosnian film director born in 1989 in Banja Luka. She studied Film and TV directing at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka in the class of Professor Predrag Velinovic. Her short documentary “Some girls are bigger than others” won the award at ‘Get me this day’ festival (specialising in films made about people with disabilities), the award for best short documentary at the Tuzla Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the award for best production at 61. Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival (Serbia). The documentary was screened at Dok Leipzig (Germany), one of the biggest documentary film festivals in the world and was competing as part of the biggest student film festival VGIK in Moscow (Russia). Anja’s short fiction film “Some of us” won the Special Jury Award at the Sarajevo Film Festival (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Best Short Film award at the Star Film Festival in Sisak (Croatia), Best Regional Student Film at the 62. Belgrade Documentary and Short Film Festival (Serbia) and Best International Student film at Bristol Film Festival (UK). Anja was one of the participant at the first Cinema City talent campus in Novi Sad. She also participated in the annual regional conference “The future of European cinema from the perspective of young authors, respecting equality of sexes” in Belgrade and was a member of the jury at the 3.STIFF Student International Film Festival, which took place in October, 2016. She made two short films for international projects “Filming the others” and “Tempus”. Her films were shown at festivals across the whole Europe. She is currently enrolled on an international postgraduate course DocNomads, which takes place across three different European countries.
FLO performers & collaborators 2014/2015
Shelly Knotts is a Newcastle, UK-based composer, performer and improvisor of live electronic, live-coded and network music. She has engaged in various collaborative and experimental projects over the past few years which have seen her engage with diverse musical practices and styles ranging from electroacoustic tape music to free jazz improvisation and live-coded dance music. She performs solo and as a member of various collaborations, presenting her work around the UK and internationally. Her work has been published on Chordpunch record label, Absence of Wax netlabel and in Leonardo Music Journal. She has received commissions and residencies from PRSF and Sound and Music and is currently part of the Sound and Music ‘New Voices’ scheme. She is currently studying for a PhD in Live Computer Music at Durham University with Nick Collins and Peter Manning. Her research interests lie in examining the political practices implicit in collaborative network music performance and designing systems for group improvisation that impose particular social (and/or anti-social) structures in performance situations. As a live-coding performer Shelly has given around 30 performances in various solo and collaborative contexts including as part of a free-improvising mixed acoustic-electronic ensemble; streaming performances with the Grande International Audio Streaming Orchestra; as part of an ongoing collaboration with Alo Allik including live coding and generative systems; in network music collaborations with distributed control; as part of a live coding and dance performance and in other concert and club contexts. Current projects include network music bands BiLE (Birmingham Laptop Ensemble) and The Scratchtop Orchestra (based at Durham University) and live coded generative audiovisual performance [ Sisesta Pealkiri ] with Alo Allik as well as performing solo at Algoraves and other live-coding events.
http://shellyknotts.wordpress.com/
Andrea Young is a composer-performer specializing in experimental voice and live electronics. In her work, she uses an amplified, processed and resynthesized voice, in all its combinations and permutations, as well as a repurposed, sound-controlling voice enabled through feature extraction. While her work relies on digital innovation, her musical output relies on the integration of her digital voice interface with analogue and re-purposed electronic media. www.andrea-young.ca
Libertad Figueroa is a Mexican performer and improviser of live-coded music with SuperCollider as well as senior student of the BA in Communication Science (Faculty of Political and Social Sciences-UNAM). She has studies in English Literature (School of Philosophy and Literature-UNAM) and is currently studying music theory and music history at the Faculty of Music (UNAM). She has worked and collaborated with diverse musical practices and styles such as the Ensamble (‘bo), in which she was member and founder, using traditional musical structures of Mexican music to produce a combination that involved live coding and several other instruments such as electric guitar, cello, and flute and, at the present time, as a member of the laptop ensemble LiveCodeNet (Hernani Villaseñor, Emilio Ocelotl, Eduardo H. Obieta, and José Carlos Hasbun) related to networked music and with which she has performed at /*vivo*/ 2013 and 2014, as well as at the Digital Culture Centre (CCD), the José Vasconcelos Library, the National Centre for the Arts (CENART), the Cultural Centre of Spain (CCE) in Mexico, and the Faculty of Music-UNAM. As a solo laptop improviser she has been awarded with two scholarships for the ninth and tenth International Festival of Music and New Technologies “Visiones Sonoras” at the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS) at Morelia, Mexico; and, more recently, two of her compositions were selected to take part in “Creadoras. Música para percusión y electroacústica” [Creators. Music for percussion and electroacoustics] in the Museum of Modern Art of Ecuador, a project that is looking to support, and encourage, the musical creation of women composers of contemporary music in its hosting country as well as in Latin America (photo courtesy of Rodrigo Velasco a.k.a. RI RV). http://soundcloud.com/libertad-figueroa
https://livecodenetensamble.wordpress.com
http://sonus-ensamble.weebly.com/creadoras.html
JKPickett (artist-composer) is a member and collaborator with the artists’ collective and cultural project: APO33, and realised various collective works both in contemporary music and visual arts including; GIASO : Great International Streaming Orchestra, Chaoslab and BOT project. JKPickett performs with electronics, prepared guitar and percussion in the projects “Cellule de Bass” and “Solar Return” and is a member of ORGONE (contemporary percussion group) and ONsemble (contemporary musique ensemble). JKPickett’s practice crosses: sound-sculpture/installation, drawing, video, interactivity and performance, showing & performing internationally. She has collaborated and played with: Julien Ottavi, Kasper Toeplitz, Keith Rowe, Eva Ursprung, Phil Niblock, Christian Wolff, Emmanuelle Gibello, John Tilbury, Jérôme Joy, Soizic Lebrat, Shelly Knotts, Antye Greie-Ripatti, Kadet Kuhne, Keiko Uenishi, Seamus O’Donnell, Erin Sexton, Phillippe Cavaleri, Shu Lea Cheang and others… (photo courtesy of Teo DulDom). http://www.apo33.org http://www.jennypickett.co.uk http://solarreturn.bandcamp.com/releases https://soundcloud.com/j-pickett
Annie Mahtani is a composer and sound artist working and living in Birmingham. After completing her doctoral studies in composition in 2008 she has worked as a freelance composer, performer, curator and educator. As a composer, Annie has collaborated with dance and theatre and worked on a number of site-specific installations. Her work has been performed extensively in concerts, conferences and festivals internationally. Annie has have completed a number of commissions including those from the University of Birmingham, Rosie Kay Dance Company, Birmingham Hippodrome, Jazzlines and PRS Women in Music. Annie is a lecturer in Electroacoustic composition at The University of Birmingham. She is also co-director of SOUNDkitchen, a Birmingham based organisation which she founded in 2010, dedicated to promoting local sound artists and composers. www.anniemahtani.co.uk
FLO 