On the Expressive Potential of Suboptimal Speakers is a piece of interactive electronic music for any number of people with mobile devices. The sound responds to the position of your phone or tablet, so tilting your device (left and right) or tipping your device (right-side up and upside down) will sculpt the music in real time. While the piece can be performed by an audience in a traditional concert venue, it can also be performed remotely over a video conference. Everyone is invited to participate. No training, practice, or rehearsal is required.
Ryan Carter composes for instruments, voices, and computers. Ryan’s work often explores new musical possibilities presented by emerging technologies, while remaining critical of the assumptions and unintended side effects embedded in them. Alternately playful, quirky, visceral, and intense, his music has been described by the New York Times as “imaginative … like, say, a Martian dance party.” Ryan has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the National Flute Association, the MATA Festival, the Metropolis Ensemble, Present Music, The Milwaukee Children’s Choir, and the Calder Quartet, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, and the American Composers Forum. In addition to composing acoustic music, Ryan is an avid computer musician and programmer. Ryan holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BMus), Stony Brook University (MA), and New York University (PhD). Ryan is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Hamilton College.
