Avian Sunrise rocks our DSU Live eventOctober 16th, 2011

Things have been really coming together for DSU Live, our campus live music organization. This week, we got new t-shirts, a new banner, new lights, and most importantly, hosted a rocking show featuring regional band Avian Sunrise with The Broken Resolve. This was our big event to show the campus and community the kind of great shows that we are able to bring to DSU. The bands were a lot of fun and both played stellar sets. The Broken Resolve has an uptempo pop-rock sound, while Avian Sunrise has a piano-driven sound with a strong emotional core.


The DSU Live crew was very on top of things, and we impressed the band members with our quickness and efficiency. I was very glad to see our seasoned members doing what they do best, and our new members were also stepping up and helping out. It was the kind of event that made me proud to be an advisor to DSU Live. In addition to the pictures below, you can see all the shots at my new Flickr page.



In addition to the show, we had our first Discover DSU day today. This is when prospective DSU students visit the campus and get to meet faculty and explore their potential majors. Today was a bit different, however, because it was turned into a Science, Art, and Technology fair, arranged by faculty member, Barbara Szczerbinska. Unfortunately, I was unable to see much of the event because I was hosting an audio lab in the science center, but I was able to do a few video tests on our new Nikon D7000 camera that I put together in the video below. Kudos to Barbara and everyone involved for setting up such a large-scale event! I hope that it will become a tradition that will continue to grow in future years.

Take the Day 2011October 2nd, 2011

Cassie and I packed up yesterday morning (October 1st) in preparation for her to participate in the Washington Pavilion’s “Take the Day” arts event in Sioux Falls. Throughout the day, 44 artists gather together for 12 hours and create a piece of art to be displayed at that evening’s reception. The surprise came when we arrived and one of the event coordinators told us that the person who had been scheduled to do audio production as a part of their art project had dropped out at the last minute. This suddenly turned into a great opportunity, and I scrambled to find some monitor speakers and started working on a composition as a part of the event!

Cassie was very focused throughout the day, and continued her work on painting small ceramic still-life objects, this one being a small bear. Her current collection of works can be seen on her website.

For my project, I decided to compose an electro-acoustic work that was inspired by the event itself. There were a lot of power tools and other loud noises around me, which made it hard to hear my speakers at times. Because of this, I chose to embrace the noise and capture various sounds around the room that were subsequently incorporated into my piece. The work begins in an ambient and somewhat random style, with an introduction to some musical themes and sounds of artists working. The sounds eventually form into a rhythmic pattern and a greater level of structure. This was my way of reflecting the way that this room full of artists came together to create one coherent show as a collection of many independent works. I designed the piece as a sequel to one of my video works from last year, “Evolver“, so this one is appropriately titled, “Evolver 2″:

Dakota State was well-represented by not only Cassie and I, but also professors Alan Montgomery, Angela Behrends, and Giles Timms. It was a long day that left us very tired at the end, but it was also very rewarding and fun to not only create a new work of art, but meet many new people and generate new interest in our work. One of the event coordinators estimated that about 2,000 people visited throughout the day and at the reception. It is great to see the arts so well-represented in the area. It was a great surprise to be a part of it!

Sound is All AroundSeptember 24th, 2011

This was the tagline to the presentation I gave to the DSU Foundation Board last Friday. DSU Professor Giles Timms and I were given the opportunity to show off all of the great things that the department has been doing. We emphasized our theme of “passion, focus, and determination” by playing some audio and video clips from student projects. The presentation pictured above was produced with a software program called “Prezi” that creates very dynamic PowerPoint-style presentations. We were very happy with how the presentation turned out, and I think we made a great impression!

Last week, DSU Live also held its first major event following the start of the semester, our Gong Show! The students did a lot of advertising, and it paid off. We had over a hundred students for the show and had some great talent take the stage. The winner, Alexandria Monroe, blew us all away with an amazing solo vocal performance. We are now looking forward to a very exciting upcoming show: Sioux Falls band Avian Sunrise, coming on October 13th.



Above:  DSU Live member and Audio Production Student, Nathan Fields, works his magic on the mixing console.  The eventful past couple weeks also involved another trip to Okoboji, Iowa and another performance at Bracco Restaurant!  The owner ended up asking me to play at both lunch and dinner, so it was a busy, but enjoyable day.

To top it all off, I got up and ran the DSU Homecoming 5K run this morning while Cassie went to yoga.  I finished just outside of the top third, which I thought was pretty good (for me)!  For the remainder of the weekend, we are going to have some dinner with our friends and enjoy some football while we catch up on work for our classes.  The Brew Crew, Pack, and Badgers are all looking good!

Back to school and work on the houseSeptember 11th, 2011

It still feels like summer outside, but as we already head into the third week of classes, I know that I change of the season is upon us.  As usual, it is going to be a packed semester, but one that is presenting itself with many new opportunities and exciting changes.  There’s been a lot of work done on the house, and last week we got the entire kitchen painted!  Cassie also re-painted some furniture (including an amazing kitchen island buffet made by her sister, Molly), and we are working on putting in some new ceiling fixtures as well as putting up Cassie’s artwork that will, as they say on home renovation shows, bring the whole room together.

In school-related news, our student organization, DSU Live, is off to a strong start.  You can check out what we’ve been up to on the Audio Production Blog Also, click the image below to see the all new website!This semester, I’m teaching Audio Production I, Music Appreciation, Recording Sessions, an Undergraduate Research class, and “University Experience”, a class that explores how to be successful as a student. I’m really enjoying the classes so far, and I’m especially excited to see what projects the students come up with for my recording and research classes. With such a busy schedule, sometimes you just need to take a break, enjoy a warm afternoon, and take a quick cat-nap: