Bio

SHORT

Scott Barton is an Assistant Professor of Music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who composes, performs, and produces (electro)(acoustic) music.  His interests include rhythm, auditory and temporal perception, musical robotics, and audio production.  As a researcher, programmer, and author, he has collaborated with the Kubovy Perception Lab at U.Va. on psychological experiments involving rhythm perception.  He founded and directs the Music, Perception and Robotics lab at WPI, which develops robotic musical instruments and software that enables human-robot musical interaction.  He co-founded EMMI, a collective that designs, builds and performs with robotic musical instruments.  He studied music and philosophy at Colgate University, received his Master of Music in Composition from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and completed his Ph.D. in the composition and computer technologies program at the University of Virginia.  His music has been performed throughout the world including at SMC; ICMC; SEAMUS; CMMR and NIME.

 

LONG

Scott Barton is an Assistant Professor of Music at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who composes, performs, and produces (electro)(acoustic) music. His interests include rhythmic complexity in beat-based contexts, machine rhythms, auditory and temporal perception, musical robotic instrument design, human-robot interaction in composition and performance, and audio production. As a composer, his works explore how we perceptually organize sonic information, and how the organizations that result from this process contribute to our sense of rhythm, (dis)continuity and form.  His works draw from diverse sources and often involve human performers, robotic instruments, studio-produced recordings and interactive software. They illuminate the possibilities of stylistic heterogeneity through synthesis and juxtaposition of unlike elements on a variety of temporal scales. Often the latter are small, which produce micro-collages that challenge listeners’ perceptual abilities to make distinctions and find ordered sequences. His music has been performed in the United States, Europe, Mexico, South America and Asia and has been featured at SMC; ICMC; NIME; SEAMUS; The Original Gravity Concert Series, The International Symposium on Sound and Interactivity; Sound, Sight and Play Conference; Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval Symposium; Leeds International Festival for Innovations in Music Production and Composition; and the CERF festival. As a researcher, programmer, and author he has collaborated with the Kubovy Perception Lab at U.Va. on psychological experiments involving rhythm perception. His dissertation explores the cognitive and contextual inputs to musical discontinuity perception.  He founded and directs the Music, Perception and Robotics lab at WPI, which develops robotic musical instruments and software that enable musical robots to interact with human performers. He co-founded Expressive Machines Musical Instruments (EMMI), a collective that designs and builds robotic musical instruments (www.expressivemachines.com). He studied music and philosophy at Colgate University, received his Master of Music in Composition from the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and completed his Ph.D. in the composition and computer technologies program at the University of Virginia.  Important influence upon Scott’s music and thought have come by way of Jonathan Schlackman, Jordan Berk, Dexter Morrill, Tania Leon, Rory Stuart, Amnon Wolman, Judith Shatin, Matthew Burtner and Ted Coffey.