2010-2011

  William Coogan

   Ph.D. Candidate

   IU Jacobs School of Music

Project: “Marabel” – an interactive electroacoustic opera

Most of William’s recent works employ a collaboration between acoustic and electronic elements, including interactive computer processing for both audio and video. William’s HASTAC project is an electronic opera “Marabel,” that uses population growth algorithms to control certain aspects of the music. This electroacoustic opera will include multimedia elements such as dance and video and involves the following collaborators: 

• • animation by Torlando Hakes, 
  • choreography by Dustin Stephan, 
  • photography by Alex Farris,
  • libretto by William and Anna Coogan,
  • Marabel (soprano) sung by Jessie Lewis,
  • Adan (tenor) sung by Ben Geier,
  • choir and Pierrot ensemble conducted by Juan Hernandez,
  • and interactive music and surround sound electronics by William Coogan

William is a Master’s candidate in computer music at the Jacobs School of Music. He completed his Master of Music in composition at Western Washington University in 2008, where he had also received his Bachelor of Music in composition. His many electronic and acoustic works have been performed across Europe and the United States.

  Grant Simpson

   PhD Student

   English

Project: "Digital Humanities Prehistory and Future Pasts"

Are the digital humanities a sort of futurism? What might we find when we extend our gaze backward instead, to DH's prehistory? How did humanists and others involved in research and publishing conceptualize the relationship between computers and the humanities? How has this developed? In this presentation, Grant will pay particular attention to the visual aspects of published DH materials in his investigation of these questions.

Grant has multiple roles at IU. He is a doctoral student in the Department of English. His dissertation, Computing the English Middle Ages, deals with the hermeneutics of electronic objects and processes from roughly 1960 to the present. In it he traces the use of computers in Old and Middle English research from the early days of humanities computing to contemporary digital humanities. He recently joined the Masters in Information Science program at the School of Library and Information Science. He is Senior Systems Analyst/Programmer for the Office of the Registrar. He is a current HASTAC scholar, co-sponsored by IDAH and the DLP.