Laptop orchestra

Futurist Manifesto was premiered at a guest lecture by philosopher Slavoj Žižek at Loyola University New Orleans on November 17, 2009. The work was based on the manifesto of the Italian Futurists and included live recitation of the manifesto with computer manipulation. This work was also performed at the New Orleans Museum of Art on April 1, 2011 as a part of the museum's Where Y'Art? series.[8]

On December 4, 2009, the ensemble performed a twenty-four-hour meta-performance of Erik Satie's Vexations at Loyola University New Orleans. Notably, one audience member, pianist Michael Bennett, remained for the entire twenty-four-hour performance.[9]

The ensemble performed a concert at McKeown's Books and Difficult Music, New Orleans, LA on March 26, 2011.[10]

PLOrk was co-founded in 2005[11] by professors Perry Cook and Dan Trueman, with graduate students Scott Smallwood and Ge Wang, and funding and support from many Princeton University departments, organizations, and industrial affiliations. Composers and performers from Princeton and elsewhere developed new pieces for the ensemble, including Paul Lansky (Professor of Music at Princeton), Brad Garton (Director of the Columbia Computer Music Center), Pauline Oliveros, PLOrk co-founders Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, Scott Smallwood, Ge Wang, and others. The new PLOrk gave its first performance on April 4, 2006, in Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University. Grammy-winning tabla player Zakir Hussain, renowned accordionist Pauline Oliveros, and So Percussion also performed with the group. PLOrk has since performed at Dartmouth College, the Ear to the Earth festival (produced by the Electronic Music Foundation), ffmup, and elsewhere. Several scholarly articles describing the motivations for establishing such an ensemble, the issues involved in composing for a laptop orchestra, and pedagogical concerns, are currently in press. PLOrk was first presented academically at the 2006 International Computer Music Conference in New Orleans. The guest director of the PLOrk for 2007 was R. Luke DuBois. The group is currently directed by composer and instrument designer Jeff Snyder, who is the Director of Electronic Music at Princeton.[12][13]

Since the beginning, PLOrk has made extensive use of ChucK, a new music programming language created by Ge Wang and Perry Cook which allows the performers to develop new code both in preparation and in performance, and which serves as a primary teaching tool.

A number of composers from Princeton and elsewhere have been developing pieces for PLOrk that address the unconventional composition of the group. PLOrk works closely with these composers on their pieces with the aim of developing them further and further exploring a new branch of computer music and new media musical composition and performance.[14][15][16]

Originally, there were 15 PLOrk stations. Each station consists of a laptop with audio software; a rack containing an 8-channel audio amplifier, a power conditioner, and other electronic components; and a custom-made 6-channel hemispherical speaker. In April 2008, PLOrk began using a new hemispherical unit that combined the functionality of the old rack and speakers into one more portable device. The laptops are Apple 12" power books, or more recently, 14" Macbooks. HCI devices include keyboard controllers, TriggerFinger interfaces, graphics tablets, Nintendo Wii remotes, and infrared, light, pressure, and tilt sensors. Additional gear included floor pillows, laptop lapdesk, and gear for transportation.

The PLOrk ensemble uses a variety of commercial and open-source software. Two audio programming languages, ChucK and Max/MSP are primarily used for pedagogy and performance.[17][18]

BSBLOrk's first performance (August 2012) occurred during one of the city's "Tubo de Ensaios" ("test-tube") experimental performance festivals,[23] and was also the last live performance of Conrado Silva.[24]

BSBLOrk has recently celebrated its 10th year by releasing an album[25] and making a series of online performances.

Throughout the years, BSBLOrk has adopted a critical approach on social and political issues, using samples of political speeches as source.

BSBLOrk has played in Juca Ferreira nomination, in 2014.[26] BSBLOrk played at NMF2020, Network Music Festival