OPTION: Matt Robidoux

Matt Robidoux presents "spiral worker." The spiral worker operates as a connector in a rhizome-like network, gathering and transferring material (corn synth, corn silk, corn husk), unlike tree-like structures that impose order. spiral worker features an expanded corn synth system (Kinetically Operated Randomness Network) built around two touch-controlled aluminum corn ears. This instrument draws from my collaboration with disability communities through Pauline Oliveros' AUMI project. The corn synth's design references the Buchla 158 synthesizer from the 1963 San Francisco Tape Music Center, creating a hybrid modular environment. Through spiral work the piece transforms this system into a sculptural, world-building experience involving multiple performers on electronics, percussion, violin, euphonium, and saxophone. All participants—performers, audience members, and conceptual frameworks—function as interconnected spiral workers within this non-hierarchy.

This performance and interview are presented in the ESS garden, and will premiere online on ESS's YouTube.

The OPTION series is curated by Andrew Clinkman, Lily Finnegan, and Dorothy Carlos.

Sunday, August 16

Music at 3pm

Experimental Sound Studio Garden
5925 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago

Matt Robidoux (they/he) is a San Francisco based composer, improviser, and educator interested in sound-gesture causality and the convergence of movement and sound as it relates to free improvisation and accessibility. Their primary instrument is the “corn synth” (Kinetically Operated Randomness Network), a modular system that interprets physical input from two “ears of corn” sculptures cast in aluminum.

They are part of a composer collective with Sally Decker, Brendan Glasson, Briana Marela, Michelle Moeller, and Mitch Stahlmann, and Flatways, an electroacoustic improvising trio with Jordan Glenn and Sudhu Tewari. They have a duo with Laetitia Sonami called The Gleaners that often collaborates with Paul DeMarinis. They have worked with Creativity Explored, Del Sol Quartet, Fred Frith, Eclipse Quartet, William Winant, Jaap Blonk, Laura Steenberge, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Anla Courtis, J Mascis, and gabby fluke-mogul.They hold a MA in music composition from Mills College, where they studied with Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, John Bischoff and James Fei. Their scholarly work is featured as a chapter in Improvising across Abilities: Pauline Oliveros and the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument via University of Michigan Press (2024).Matt has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Japan and has work available on Already Dead, Null Zone, Crash Symbols, Feeding Tube Records, Mystra, Exploding In Sound, Ydlmier, Carpark Records, and most recently their own imprint Air Tone.

Why corn?

I like to focus on the modularity/ubiquity of corn and this kind of illogical sculptural sound causality as a starting point for free improvisation. The instrument was invented during my residency at ACRE in Wisconsin, where I cast two corn cob moldings in aluminum at a metal pouring workshop in a cornfield. Movement and touch determine the parameters of pitch, velocity, and duration. This makes for an accessible instrument, at once charming and absurd, while also a merging of my practice creating space for unrestricted musical improvisation.The modular environment, configured around two touch controlled aluminum cast ears of corn, is informed by my ongoing work with Pauline Oliveros' final project AUMI (Adaptive Use Musical Instrument) in direct collaboration with the disability community and multidisciplinary arts organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. The powerful echo and artistic legacy of Mills College CCM (1967-2022) resonates in my design of the corn synth, modeling it after the Buchla 158, the original synthesizer used at the San Francisco Tape Music Center beginning in 1963.

OPTION is an ongoing music salon curated by Chicago musicians Andrew Clinkman, Lily Finnegan, and Dorothy Carlos and presented by Experimental Sound Studio. Its programming explores contemporary perspectives on improvisation and composition in a 'salon' format, enabling local, national, and international artists to publicly discuss their practice and ideas as well as perform. Click here for past OPTION performances.

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