What new forms of sonic creation and research are possible in the digital era and what is their impact on us as we navigate our increasingly technologized world? This question underlies the work of Aaron Liu-Rosenbaum, professor of music technology and composer at Laval University, where he serves as Director of the Certificate programme in Digital Audio Production.
A polyvalent researcher, Liu-Rosenbaum is a member of the the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) at McGill University, as well as the Laboratory for New Technologies of Image, Sound, and Stage (LANTISS) at Laval University. He also worked in the music industry at Sony Music’s headquarters in New York City and as an audio engineer at the Manhattan School of Music, among others. He currently lives in Quebec with his wife, Yvonne Liu, an accomplished harpist and amazing chef, and with their musical cat, MouMou.
"Translanguaging": an interactive installation that uses machine learning to explore the act of languaging
Translanguaging is an interactive installation that explores language through sound, image, and gesture using machine learning. The term "translanguaging" challenges the discreteness of languages and of language proficiencies for those who speak more than one langage. Using and learning language for multi-linguals become a negotiation amongst the different languages in one’s repertoire, all of which co-exist symbiotically.
In 1998, musician and educator Christopher Small coined the word "musicking" to challenge the notion of music as a thing, and instead to think of music as an activity—one which includes many actors, not only the musicians, but also the roadies, ticket sellers, and anyone else engaged "in any capacity" and at any stage of a musical performance. In breaking linguistic barriers, he also opened up new conceptual possibilities.
In this spirit, Translanguaging invited visitors to explore language not as a "thing,"but as an activity of "languaging" in a two-part interactive experience.