2019
Tucson Noise Symposium

"The Tucson Noise Symposium is dedicated to bringing artists working in the sound arts--music, poetry, sound sculpture, sound design, noise, and beyond--into a generative space of reflection and conversation. The Fall 2019 iteration of the symposium, co-sponsored by the University of Arizona Department of English, includes three different artists working in and through sound: Karima Walker, Gabby Isaac, and Eric Schlappi.”

credit: Steev Hise
2017
ExoElectric Assembly

ExoElectric started as a practice based experimental research project conducted in a series of workshops introducing soldering and basic electronics to people through experimental analog noise instrument building. The research aimed  to examine possible consequences of learning more about analog electronics by participants. Are there conditions associated with play, experimenting and naivety when learning a new skill that lead to new ideas, thoughts of creativity? Are the circumstances of the material reality of experimental analog electronic instruments, particularly ExoElectric presenting ones, that lend to provide conditions of play?

credit: Charis Elliot
+ Xerocraft

Right after after the ExoElectric Tucson! workshop at Xerocraft, Confirmation Bias, Gabriella Isaac and Charis Elliott will be performing, and quite probably there will also be a telepresent conversation between Negativland's Mark Hosler (present in Tucson) and David Wills (in Seattle) about Boopers and other custom sound electronics. It should be rad.   Workshop participants get in free, others need to cough up 5 bucks to benefit KMKR radio, the low-power FM station that Xerocraft runs.  A presentation of Xerocraft, KMKR Radio 99.9FM, and Tucson Noise Symposium.

2018
CompAF: Computer-Assisted Feedback

CompAF: Computer-Assisted Feedback (c. 20 minutes) for laptop, is a project based around the occurrence of sonic feedback in personal computers. It exploits the physical design of the MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) by demonstrating the audible feedback that occurs from the placement of the laptop’s microphone and speakers. Both are located at the upper left-hand corner of the laptop and sit right beside each other. With the microphone continuously picking up the output of the speaker, a feedback loop occurs and directly involves the acoustics of the surrounding environment. It is the physical accessibility of this loop allows a user to directly interfere with and become involved in the feedback itself.

2017
Cross-Modal Terrains: Navigating Sonic Space Through Haptic Feedback

This paper explores the idea of using virtual textural terrains as a means of generating haptic profiles for force-feedback controllers. This approach breaks from the paradigm established within audio-haptic research over the last few decades where physical models within virtual environments are designed to transduce gesture into sonic output. We outline a method for generating multimodal terrains using basis functions, which are rendered into monochromatic visual representations for inspection. This visual terrain is traversed using a haptic controller, the NovInt Falcon, which in turn receives force information based on the grayscale value of its location in this virtual space. As the image is traversed by a performer the levels of resistance vary, and the image is realized as a physical terrain. We discuss the potential of this approach to afford engaging musical experiences for both the performer and the audience as iterated through numerous performances.

+ New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) 2017
credit: Todd Ingalls + Lauren Hayes
+ Sonic Terrains

Sonic Terrains for the NovInt Falcon and laptop (c. 7 minutes) is an exploration of a new method of physically engaging with digital information. Various visual textures are generated algorithmically and mapped to the NovInt Falcon’s range of resistance. Using the controller, these textures are physically traversed and sonically realized at different scales throughout the piece. The performer will change the texture basis at certain points throughout the piece, thus creating different sonic textures, physical terrains, and ways of engaging with the digital environment.

2016
Furniture Muzak

This project was originally inspired by the concept of Furniture Music, Background music that adds to the atmosphere of a space. The original goal was to destroy furniture, record the sounds, and create ambient music out of the recordings that could reflect the activity in a room.

+ nueBOX Residency

Month-long installation residency at Phoenix Center for the Arts involving a workshop, work-in-progress showing, critique sessions, and a final showing.

Gabriella Isaac is a computer musician from Phoenix, Arizona whose work explores and creates physical ways of engaging with digital sound. Her background in classical piano and personal interest in punk music led her to study Digital Culture at ASU's School of Arts, Media + Engineering. She studied the computational creation of digital sound and received both her B.A. (2016) and M.A. (2018) from the program. Her current work uses the audio feedback loop that occurs between the microphone and speaker of her laptop as a source of musical material and as a physical point of engaging with the sound itself

Affiliated