Department of Music

Javanese singer Peni Candra Rini will join Jessika Kenney in two concerts on campus May 3-4, as part of a two-week guest artist residency.

Genetics and politics

Anthropologist Kim TallBear is the featured speaker at a symposium, “Combating Colonial Technoscience: Lessons from the Frontlines,” May 2 at 4:45 p.m. at the Africana Studies and Research Center.

TallBear is an associate professor at the University of Texas, Austin, who studies the racial politics of “gene talk” in science and popular culture, and Western constructions of nature and sexuality vs. indigenous worldviews. She is the author of “Native American DNA: Tribal Belonging and the False Promise of Genetic Science.”

The symposium is sponsored by the American Indian Program. A buffet dinner will follow.

Shaping sound

Instruments from across time will fill Bailey Hall May 3 with the 7 p.m. debut of SoundSpace, a new student-created gestural interface for live music performance.

SoundSpace is the next phase of Aura, an instrument played by gesturing in the air with sensor-equipped gloves, that was created by engineer Ray Li ’13 with programmer Michael Ndubuisi ’14. SoundSpace uses motion-based instruments and treats sound as a tangible thing that can be shaped through physical touch. Sound will also be represented visually with projected graphics. The creators seek to make electronic music performance more exciting for audiences and more intuitive for performers.

The Cornell Chamber Orchestra, directed by Chris Younghoon Kim, follows at 8 p.m., performing works by Bach, Mendelssohn and Lou Harrison, with harpsichordists Malcolm Bilson and David Yearsley and student soloist Brook Du on pipa. SoundSpace also accompanies the orchestra on “Embrace,” a newly commissioned work funded in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.

‘Cultivating Space’

The Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts presents “The Locally Grown Dance Festival: Cultivating Space,” May 2-3 in Kiplinger Theatre.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. and highlight new work by Cornell and area choreographers, and the talents of community members as well as faculty and students in the Department of Performing and Media Arts.

Featured on the program are “edgeofthegorge” by Byron Suber; “Remembering” by Janice Kovar; and Jumay Chu and E.D. Intemann’s “Cultivating Space,” which was featured in a site-specific March performance in Milstein Hall.

Tickets are $13 general, $11 for students and senior citizens, available at the Schwartz Center box office, 430 College Ave., and http://schwartztickets.universitytickets.com. The festival is supported in part by the Cornell Council for the Arts.

How synthesizers work

The history of electronic music and the instrument created and popularized by Robert Moog, Ph.D. ’65, are featured in a talk and demonstration May 3, 2:30-4 p.m. at The History Center in Tompkins County, 401 E. State St., Ithaca.

“So, What Is a Synthesizer?!” with Marc Doty, archive and education specialist at the Bob Moog Foundation, is free and open to all ages. It is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Switched-On: The Birth of the Moog Synthesizer,” opening May 2.

Moog founded R.A. Moog Co., later Moog Music, in Trumansburg in 1964, and his electronic keyboard instrument is now ubiquitous. Doty will demystify the synthesizer and how it works, using a 1974 Minimoog, providing anecdotes and historical facts and explaining such components and concepts as oscillators, filter resonance and Pulse Width Modulation.

Doty is responsible for Automatic Gainsay, a YouTube channel dedicated to vintage synthesizers with more than 5.6 million views. His presentation features content from Dr. Bob’s SoundSchool, the curriculum created by the Bob Moog Foundation.

Musical residency

Guest Javanese singers Peni Candra Rini and Jessika Kenney will complete a two-week campus residency with two concerts – with the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble May 3 at 3 p.m. in Barnes Hall, and with the Cornell Avant-Garde Ensemble (CAGE), May 4 at 1 p.m. at the Johnson Museum of Art. Free and open to the public.

Rini, a rising star in Indonesia, teaches at the Indonesian Arts Institute in Central Java. Kenney teaches at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Both have performed around the world and share a commitment to the traditional vocal arts of Central Java, as well as contemporary and experimental forms.

“Two Singers and an Open CAGE” is presented in conjunction with the museum’s “Beyond Earth Art” exhibition. Rini and Kenney participated in a mostly improvised collaborative performance with CAGE at the museum in January 2012.

Violence and security

Social sciences and humanities scholars will explore the causes and consequences of violence in Latin America at a workshop May 5, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m., at the ILR Conference Center. Free and open to the public.

“Violence and Security in Latin America” features keynote speaker Bruno Bosteels, Cornell professor of Romance studies; and panels with scholars at Cornell, the University of Toronto, University of San Diego and University of Illinois. Panelists will share their current research addressing the social, political and cultural responses to insecurity in Latin America.

The workshop is organized by the Latin American Studies Program and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

Celebrate engineering

ECE Day, hosted by the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is May 7 in Duffield Atrium, featuring research posters presented by master of engineering students and undergraduates.

Held at the end of each academic year, ECE Day highlights student work and promotes a sense of community among all in the school.

The two poster sessions, judged by Cornell faculty members, ECE graduate students and industry representatives, are 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 1:30-3:30 p.m. Winners will be announced the following day.

Thursday on the Slope

Slope Day, Cornell students’ annual celebration of the last day of classes, is Thursday, May 8, at noon, with food and activities on Ho Plaza and performances on Libe Slope by progressive house DJ 3LAU, rock duo Matt and Kim, and rapper Ludacris.

Student, faculty and staff volunteers are needed for duties including ID checking, working the gates, distributing wristbands and ensuring a safe and enjoyable event for everyone. To apply as a volunteer, and for information on volunteer training, see http://slopeday.cornell.edu/volunteer/