Workshop - Festival in Tokyo -- july 29 to august 2, 2024
Improtech is both a musical festival and an interdisciplinary workshop bringing together actors of research and creation from all over the world fostering musical improvisation in interaction with digital intelligences, in an assumed approach of human-machine co-creativity.
After praised editions in New York, Philadelphia, Athens and Uzeste, Improtech Paris-Tokyo (ikTokyo'24) will land down in Tokyo, the sizzling japanese metropolis on july 29.
This year, Improtech is associated with a momentous event, the Max Summer School, which gathers every year a large community of computer music enthusiasts at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai) in the Musical Creativity Department at Senju campus
The Workshop thread of Improtech will merge with the daily MSS advanced Max course, providing the attendees with unique insight on CoCreative Artificial Intelligence software tools based on Max and other environments, completed with keynote lectures in the evening and two high-profile concerts on the last day of the study week.
To attend, participants should register for the Max Summer School / Improtech week here. The concerts are public and free upon reservation (reservation site under construction).
See a video presentation of the event by the Improtech Paris - Tokyo / Max Summer School teams on Youtube (English starting at 39').
Highlights
This edition of IMPROTECH in Tokyo will welcome a number of truly exceptional personalities, including celebrated multi-award jazzman Steve Lehman, Jim O'Rourke from the legendary Sonic Youth group and avant-garde beacon, Joëlle Léandre, the double-bass diva with life time achievement award, contemporary classical composer Lara Morciano exploring the limits of hybrid acoustic/digital composition, the immense Malagasy zither virtuoso Justin Vali, as well as Japanese artists Suguru Goto, new media artist and director of Geidai Musical Creativity, Michiyo Yagi, renewing the art of the Koto in the electronic esthetic, Mari Kimura, visionary virtuoso violinist creating gestural interaction systems, Akira Sakata, a cherished veteran of the japanese free scene, and many others remarkable musicians and researchers. Miller Puckette, Inventor of the Max software system and Venice Silver Lion for his life in computer music, also graces us with a keynote lecture and a musical performance with his musical partner Irwin. Workshops and lectures will cover a vast panorama of advanced machine learning and machine listening, gestural and spatial control, software environments, Creative Artificial Intelligence, including inevitable esthetical and epistemological questions.
See the full program here.
A New alliance
Improtech is dedicated to the explosive alliance between the age-old art of improvisation and the emerging cultures of digital intelligence. It fosters the co-creative dynamics that can exist between humans and machines, and in so doing, creates new meeting grounds between people, artists and audiences of all backgrounds and levels.
Exploring the relationships between music and science, composition and improvisation, writing and performance, music and other performance arts in "cyber-human" settings, Improtech has established itself as one of the major events of contemporary research and creation.
Get a glimpse at previous editions concerts and events here!
For the first time, Improtech will be held in Japan : Improtech Paris- Tokyo!
On the Menu
ikTokyo'24 encompasses conferences, demonstrations, workshops, master classes, musical or multimedia performances / installations, and concerts bringing together some of the world's finest musicians and researchers in beautiful venues.
ikTokyo'24 combines a great diversity of aesthetics, mixing musicians from the international jazz, contemporary, live electronics or traditional scene, and the young avant-garde scene of Tokyo.
ikTokyo'24 brings artists, researchers, engineers, thinkers, students, inventors, DYI enthusiasts covering a broad spectrum of knowledge fields, from computer science to anthropology, from musicology to critical studies, from philosophy to artificial intelligence, from acoustics to mixed realities...
Improtech Paris-Tokyo will focus on education and pedagogy with master classes, workshops, student projects and concerts under the direction of the great invited figures.
Read more about ImproTech philosophy and history
