About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

More from Bebot

Posted on July 25, 2009 by John CS Keston

Did I mention that is has delay?

Last.fm Preview of Blitzen Machine

Posted on July 24, 2009 by John CS Keston

Blitzen Machine is one of the first tracks that I finished for Precambrian Resonance, and one of the few that includes a keyboard solo, although I’d describe the solo as melodic passages with improvised variations.

Regular ACB listeners might hear sounds that were originally One Sound Every Day entries, like AM Radio Static. I also included techniques that I described in Robot Music and in Robot Conspiracy as a basis for the track. For this album I essentially have an online diary that describes how each of the pieces were produced, the concepts involved, and sounds used right here on Audio Cookbook.

Listen to Blitzen Machine on Last.fm.

Viable Musical Instruments on the iPhone or iPod Touch

Posted on July 23, 2009 by John CS Keston

bebot By now most of us have experienced several, or even dozens of instrument apps on the iPhone and iPod Touch. From acoustic pianos, to analog modeling synthesizers, to step sequencers, there’s enough out there to create a veritable, electronic, orchestra of multi-touch maestros.

However, which, if any, of these apps are viable as instruments for production or performing? I’d argue that just about anything is. In my view it’s how the artist uses an object or device that makes it into an instrument. So perhaps a better question is, which apps might lend themselves to being productive tools for creative artists?

One of my favorites so far is Bebot. It took less than an hour of experimenting with Bebot to convince me that it could be used effectively for performances and recording. Here’s a few phrases of playing with Bebot.

Bebot Music

Cupped Hand Controlled MBP Feedback

Posted on July 22, 2009 by John CS Keston

flashlight This feedback produced by my new MacBook Pro is a little less harsh. I attempted to control the way it was feeding back by moving a cupped hand up and down just above the built-in mic hidden under the left hand speaker grill. The closer you get to the cupping the mic the louder the feedback is. Actually I wasn’t sure where the mic was when I started this experiment and used my cupped hand to locate it. By the way, cupping the mic is generally a bad idea. I hope it doesn’t void my warrantee.

Cupped Hand Controlled Feedback

Horrible MacBook Pro Built-in Mic Feedback

Posted on July 21, 2009 by John CS Keston

The following sound contains piercing high frequencies. I don’t suggest playing it back at at anything higher than a very low volume.

This sound was produced accidentally after starting up Live and opening a recent document on my new MacBook Pro. A couple of tracks were record enabled and the input settings reverted to the default because Live 8 did not know about my external sound card yet. Luckily my MacBook Pro’s audio out was not plugged into my mixer, so the sound was only amplified through the internal speakers.

Naturally, my first inclination was to capture the feedback. My second was to try and control it by cupping the mic hidden under the left hand speaker grill. I had some success doing this. For now here’s the original feedback.

Playback With Caution!