Warren Enstr\u00f6m creates art with sound, using computers, synthesizers and musical instruments to build compositions.<\/p>\n
Enstr\u00f6m, who graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in music composition and technology from UWM and a master\u2019s degree at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, is currently in Sweden on a Fulbright fellowship in arts research.<\/p>\n
Basically, he said, his work involves helping computers learn to be creative by drawing on a wide variety of sounds and techniques in his compositions. His \u201cSunlight Synth<\/a>,\u201d for example, incorporates a synthesizer that uses light brightness to generate sound. Listen to another example of Enstr\u00f6m\u2019s work from \u201cTin Birds<\/a>,\u201d an installation that he made while at UWM.<\/p>\n In his research, Enstr\u00f6m\u2019s idea would be to hook sensors to a computer and get the computer to listen the sensors to tell it how to generate music or sound.<\/p>\n \u201cThe example I\u2019ve been using a lot,\u201d he said, \u201cis that one system might have a microphone listening for sound, and it might generate light patterns or LEDs or something like that. Then there will be a second system that has a webcam or photo cells. Then I use that together to create a feedback loop where both agents work together to make this larger thing that they couldn\u2019t do otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n In Sweden, he is working in partnership with the Chalmers University of Technology and with Palle Dahlstedt, an associate professor at the University of Gothenburg who is a leader in the field of sound art using computer systems. He met Dahlstedt in the summer of 2015 at a conference on new interfaces for musical expression where Enstr\u00f6m was presenting one of his research projects on electronic and \u201cgenerative music. \u00a0(Generative music is generally defined as music created by a system, ranging from entirely random music mixes created by multiple simultaneous CD playback, to live, rule-based computer composition.)<\/p>\n