Bad Star

Starting June 9, 2017, composer and violinist Charles Nichols, video artist and programmer Zach Duer, architect Jon Rugh, and guitarist and composer André Foisy met on Virginia Tech campus, with banjoist and composer Holland Hopson joining telematically from the University of Alabama. Initial planning took place in Nichols’ office in Squires Student Center, with subsequent meetings about the design of the projection mapping architecture and music and video composition held in the School of Architecture conference room in Cowgill Hall, and musical rehearsals held in the Perform Studio of the Moss Arts Center, during the Fall 2017 semester. During the Spring 2018 semester, after Foisy moved to Albany, regular music rehearsals were held telematically in Nichols’ office, with Foisy streaming audio and video from New York and Hopson streaming from Alabama. At the same time, Duer and Rugh met regularly to further develop the projection mapping architecture, with Nichols joining periodically. The results of these meetings, recordings of the music performed by processed electric violin, electric banjo, and electric guitar interacting with processed video mapped to a scale model of the architecture comprised of cut paper stalactites hung on wires, were presented at ICAT Day in the Moss Arts Center, April 30, 2018. After this presentation, Rugh, Duer, and Nichols finalized the layout of the architecture, and Rugh and Duer decided on the final materials. Music rehearsals will continue throughout the summer, when the three musicians will further develop the three 20-minute compositions, with Duer listening, to further inspire the video art. At the same time, Rugh and his students will construct the full-size architecture. The architecture will be installed and video projection tested in the Cube, July 23 through August 1.

The performance of the final immersive audio and video event titled Badstar, with live performance on electric violin, electric banjo, and electric guitar, presented in the 134.2 channel spatial audio system and interacting with three videos projected to custom architecture, is scheduled for three shows, October 11, 12, and 13, 2018, with setup and on-site rehearsals starting October 8, in the Cube.