Music Design Open Doors 2023
In February 2023 the Music Design program invited the public to a multi-part series of events. The opener was the concert with "MyBands und TROLL" on Wednesday, February 8th, 2023 in the Trossingen Kesselhaus. On Saturday, February 11th, 2023 the event "Latent Space Preview" took place with artistic-medial project works in the tension field of artificial intelligence and works on the subject "Interface Design in Music" (a cooperative course offering of the Trossingen University of Music and the Univeristy of Furtwangen), event location: DIE HALLE in Schwenningen.
The music design work show took place on February 15th, 2023 at the Trossingen University of Music and reflected the diversity of the Music Design program. Numerous project presentations, installations, and performances were presented to the public at the end of semester. The day ended with the legendary Bettraumschöpfaz-Stream (Musikdesign finest selection with productions, which are created in and outside of the program). In addition to the possible participation in person, a large portion of the program was also streamed online.
On February 16th, 2023, a purely online event took place and offered information about the Music Design program: presentation of the study plan, personal advising consultations, tips and tricks for the entrance examination, lesson observation, and a workshop for prospective students.
Wednesday, February 8th, 2023
Music Design Recital
The TROLL (Trossingen Laptop Ensemble) performed a 10-minute self-composition, which was created in the course of the Winter semester 2022/2023. In the ensemble, students explored the boundaries between contemporary art of sound, computer music, and interactive technologies.
The Music Design MyBands formed the lion's share of the recital. The Format "MyBand" allows students to have a coaching of specially formed bands. In October 2022, four formations came together, who worked on many of their own compositions over the course of the semester, but also rehearsed cover songs. The musicians also included sounds of 'rare' instruments such as an e-erhu in their creative processes. Students from other classes also played with the music designers in the bands. The recital with MyBands undertook a large stylistic bandwidth: Jazz, rock, pop, rap, high enerhy pop, blues, indie rock, ...
Saturday, February 11th, 2023
Latent Space Preview
Space for artistic research and design in music and AI: The Latent Space* laboratory for artificial intelligence at the Trossingen University of Music presented a preview event on February 11th for the first time in its future surroundings, the start-up and creative center DIE HALLE in Villingen-Schwenningen. It is part of the cooperative project "KISS - Künstliche Intelligenz Services und Systeme" (Artificial Intelligence Services and Systems) of the University with the University of Furtwangen in the field of "Music and Culture." With this event, Latent Space offered a first glimpse into the technical possibilities and artistic perspectives of the project, which opens up a wide experimental field for music and sound. Works by students of the Music Design course from the courses "AI Project Container" and "Interface Design in Music" were presented.
Interface Design in Music: How can people interact with machines with respect to music? What (unconventional) Interfaces can be produced and implemented for certain performances? For example, with sensors and microcontrollers such as Arduino or movement data being read out via smartphones, etc. With this field of tension, the music design students dealt intensively with the first cooperation courses offered by the University of Furtwangen and the Trossingen University of Music.
Artificial Intelligence is changing all areas of life and work - even the creative process. Now is the chance, to rethink art and AI and practice them anew. In addition, the major AI in Music Design (can be studied from WinSem 2023, application deadline April 1st, 2023) offers an innovative offer for developing artistic-technical professional fields in the field of artificial intelligence and music. As a prelude to the master's program, the bachelor's students in the subject "music design laboratory" designed their first AI projects and presented them.
* In artificial intelligence, "latent space" refers to a multidimensional representational space in which hidden connections are mapped in data. The laboratory is designed as an open, collaborative space in which students from both partner institutions can carry out and present musical-aesthetic experiments with AI.
Wednesday, February 15th, 2023
Music Design Exhibition
11:00am Greeting & Teaser
After a short greeting, the individual program points were presented and outlined the content that the guests expected from the day.
11:30am First Semester Highlights
In October 2022 13 people began studying music design: The class "MD22" presented the highlights of the first semester. In addition to the creative results of weekly "finger exercises," this also included projects that arose from student initiative.
1:00pm Lunch Break
2:30pm Music Design Project Presentations
The first group of students presented their results from the cooperative project with the HTWG + Uni Konstanz. The content of the cooperation is the conception and implementation of an exhibition. In past years the Music Design students have already participated at the exhibition "LINK KI" and "STAYIN' ALIVE - Mit Seuchen leben" (living with plagues). For the exhibition in July 2023 (Opening Day on July 13th, 2023 in the Turm zur Katz, Konstanz) the students compile concepts on the subject of city planning in interdisciplinary teams (e.g., with communication designers and archaeologists). The second group of students gave insights into their work with the title "Kompositionen mit Geräusch" (Compositions with noise).
In addition to the projects, the music design program offers a high degree of creative freedom of personal interests. The students decided at the beginning of the semester on a project of their choice and were accompanied by different lecturers in the development process. The class "MD21" (currently in their 3rd semester of study) presented the compiled content in a one-hour session. More students from this class presented their own projects that had a performative character.
In addition, the results of the AI developments were performed again (see program on February 11th 2023).
5:00pm Annual Project-Intermediate Presentations and Teasers
Music for computer games, programming of software plugins, or the production of an album: these are only some of the many topics that students deal with in the fifth semester. Two semesters are available for the conception and implementation of these undertakings – in February 2023 the intermediate presentation took place. At the end of this program item, the installations were briefly presented in the following slot.
6:00pm Multimedia Sound Installation
This program item offered impressions in the work of different areas of the program which invite interaction. In various spaces, the students invited the public to experience the Sound Installations, interact with sound themselves, test out programmed software, and play a computer game.
8:00pm Bed Room Creation
Music Design finest selection (DJ-Set).
Thursday, February 16th, 2023
Course Information, Course Advising & Workshop
10:00am Entrance Exam 2023
After an introduction to the music design application process, students had the opportunity to exchange tips and tricks for the entrance exam with prospective students.
11:00am - 12:00pm Course Advising
Various teachers in the Music Design program offered personal course advising interviews.
12:30pm - 2:30pm Lesson Observation
...in the compartment "Music Design Laboratorium" with the Music Design class MD22.
3:00pm - 5:00pm Hands-On Workshop
The Workshop is intended for prospective music design students and was led by the students. Together they worked on a musical-medial content in digital cooperation and discussed in particular the effect of music and sound.