Edgar Varèse, Richard Feynman, Phineas Newborn Jr., Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, Alberta Hunter, Glenn Gould...
Sounds Like
In the 1980s and 1990s, Swearingen produced a large body of radio works under the name "Specimin 23", many of which were broadcast nationally on public radio by the syndicated sound art series "New American Radio". These works, which included We Elect To (1989), Between Fear and Longing: Marginally Stable in San Francisco (1990), and Salvation at 1 A.M. (1991) made use of artful layering of field recordings and sampled voices from interviews and archival recordings, employing pitch-to-MIDI technology to derive pitched material from the spoken word and transfer it to sampled and synthesized instrumental sounds. During that same period, he also created works that utilized synthesis rather than sampled sounds. Some of these are rhythmic in nature, and others are more ambient and abstract.
Some of his more recent works are built from the live, gestural manipulation of sampled vocal material (both with spoken text and non-verbal sounds) derived from studio recordings he has made of the voices of Bay Area actors and performance artists.
Donald Swearingen playing Laser Harp (Theatre Artaud, San Franicso, Dec 2000)
Donald Swearingen is a composer, musician, sound designer, educator and innovator of performance and installation interfaces. A classically trained composer and pianist, Swearingen's strong commitment to musical experimentation has sent him along numerous paths, from rock bands to the contemporary classical concert stage to computer networks. His current work concerns the use of movement and gesture as the source of media control in an expanded, computer-assisted performance environment. He has developed a series of modular MIDI control hardware components coupled with a sophisticated software interface (built in MAX MSP) which he uses to generate and perform his electroacoustic sound works.
Swearingen has collaborated with and developed performance interfaces for a number of noted composer/performers, performance artists, and theatre artists. He invented and designed the Laser Harp used by kotoist/experimental artist Miya Masaoka and has written and/or re-tooled much of the software she has used in her interdisciplinary performance work. He designed and hand-crafted a modular hardware control system (The "N Degredients" STM series) that composer/performer Pamela Z uses for tactile control of her MAX MSP processing software. He's also built interfaces for Composer Guillermo Galindo (aka Galindog) and performance poet Todd Shalom. His hardware system, which employs an aesthetically striking, minimal design, utilizes a small, lightweight central unit that acts as a conduit between the computer and a variety of control interfaces including faders, push-buttons, bend sensors, light sensors and ultrasound.
Donald Swearingen has performed works for sampled sounds and sensor controllers in numerous Bay Area venues including Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Life on the Water, The Lab Gallery, and Artists Television Access (ATA). He toured multiple cities in Japan with Laetitia Sonami and Pamela Z as part of the Japan Interlink Festival, and was presented on the Other Minds Festival in San Francisco. His full-length solo work Noise into Water was presented by New Music Theatre's Zero-In-Time festival at Life on the Water in San Francisco, and he's been featured in the Exploratorium's Interactive Sound Studio. Swearingen has been a Composer-in-Residence at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, where he developed new work involving the sampled voices of members of A Travelling Jewish Theatre. He has done sound design for theatre companies (including Strange Fruit) for plays produced at Theatre Rhinoceros and Theatre of Yugen.
In addition to his programming and interface design work for his art and for other experimental artists, Donald Swearingen has also been a programmer for more a number of high-profile commercial clients. He is the designer of Lucasfilm's THX R2 Audio Spectrum Analyzer, and he has participated in the design of telecommunications systems for such companies as Octel and Network Equipment Technologies. Swearingen holds graduate degrees in both Music and Mathematics, and has an enduring enthusiasm for science. In his spare time he studies physics (putting himself through a rigorous course involving the lectures and writings of Richard Feynman), tutors science and mathematics, and does photography.
Hi Donald! Nice to hear your music online. I listened to your cd; how is it, also with your creation you showed us begin July and choreographic sounds? X Janneke
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that my new album Afrikan Machinery is out now on Tzadik Records. Check out some of the tracks on my profile! You can buy the CD here, here, or here. It's also available on iTunes.
Best Wishes, Lukas Ligeti
STM Sensor Interface Components 
![[-hyph-]](http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/19/s_9b079ae63aa0441673874b946d7c9aa5.jpg)
