Digital Interactive Sound & Intermedia Studio
Virginia Tech • College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences • School of Performing Arts • ICAT • C+I

The work of a transdisciplinary creative Dr. Ivica Ico Bukvic (b. 1976) is defined by the community building through creative enabling technologies and experiences. Bukvic's output encompasses aural, visual, acoustic, electronic, performances, installations, technologies, research publications, presentations, grants, patent disclosures, and awards. His most recent work focuses on multisensory immersion with particular focus on spatial audio and immersive sonification, new interfaces for musical expression, exploring connections between the arts and human health, and recontextualizing STEM K-12 education through innovative approaches to creativity and technology. Bukvic spent most of his career as a scholar-practitioner developing new transdisciplinary trajectories. Between 2011 and 2022 he has received over $1.6M in external funding.

Having completed his temporary 2018 appointment as the Virginia Tech College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences interim associate dean for graduate studies, research and College's diversity director, professor Bukvic currently serves as the inaugural director of Creativity + Innovation (C+I) trandsciplinary community of over 120 faculty, a part of Virginia Tech's Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and the Destination Areas initiative. He is the founder and director of the Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio (DISIS) and the Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork), co-founder of the Creative Technologies in Music (CTM) degree option, co-Director of the Human-Centered Design (HCD) individualized PhD (iPhD) program, and a member of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction (CHCI) with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science. As of summer 2019, he also serves as the director of preservation for the national Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) and a member of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) international community steering committee. Recent recognition highlights include L2Ork's acknowledgment as the People's Choice Award nominee (RBTC, 2017), one of the top six transdisciplinary projects in the United States (a2ru, 2015), and as one of the eight top research projects at Virginia Tech (DCist, 2014), AL Light & Architecture Design Award (New York, 2013), first place in the First International Laptop Orchestra Competition (Montana University, 2011), Excellence in Research and Creative Scholarship Award (VT CLAHS, 2011), XCaliber Award (VT, 2010), Best Animated Short (San Francisco, 2009), and the Creative Achievement Award (VT CAUS, 2009).

Bukvic received his doctorate in music composition in 2005 with cognates in computer music programming and music theory at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, he taught at the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Cincinnati.

Ivica Ico Bukvic, D.M.A.
Associate Professor
Composition, Music Technology, ICAT
Director, DISIS
Director, L2Ork
Director, Creativity + Innovation
co-Director, HCD
CHCI and CS (by courtesy)
Virginia Tech
School of Performing Arts
Blacksburg, VA 24061
(540) 231-6139
(540) 231-5034 (fax)
VT Faculty Page
Personal Site
Email

Eric Lyon is a composer and computer music researcher. During the 1980s and 1990s, his fixed media computer music focused on spectral and algorithmic processing of audio, with a tendency toward extreme modifications of samples, variously sourced. From the early 1990s, Lyon performed live computer music with the Kyma system, both in solo performance and with the Japanese band Psychedelic Bumpo. Later in the 1990s, he gravitated toward software-based live processing, starting to develop Max/MSP externals in 1999. This work resulted in his LyonPotpourri collection of Max/MSP externals, and the FFTease spectral package, developed in collaboration with Christopher Penrose. In recent years, Lyon has focused on computer chamber music, which integrates live, iterative DSP strategies into the creation of traditionally notated instrumental scores. Other music research directions include spatial orchestration, and articulated noise composition, in which random data is sculpted into refined musical surfaces with randomly generated, but seemingly well-organized high-level structure. An experienced coder of audio signal processing, his book “Designing Audio Objects for Max/MSP and Pd” is published by A-R Editions. In 2011, Lyon was awarded a Giga-Hertz prize from ZKM, resulting in the composition of the 43-channel computer music composition Spirits.  Lyon has taught at Keio University, IAMAS, Dartmouth, Manchester University, Queen’s University Belfast, and currently teaches at Virginia Tech. Lyon's music is available commercially on Everglade, Capstone Records, EMF, Isospin Labs Records, Sound’s Bounty, Centaur Records, Smart Noise Records, Ash International, and Bohn Media.

Composer, violinist, and computer music researcher, Charles Nichols is an Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology at the Department of Music and Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, at Virginia Tech University.  He has earned degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Yale University, and Stanford University, where he studied composition with Samuel Adler, Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, and Jonathan Harvey, and computer music with Jonathan Berger, Chris Chafe, Max Mathews, and Jean-Claude Risset.  At Yale, he worked as a Research Associate at the Center for Studies in Music Technology (CSMT) and as a Research Assistant at Haskins Laboratories.  At Stanford, he served as the Interim and Associate Technical Director of the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).  While on faculty at the School of Music of the University of Montana, he taught acoustic and electroacoustic composition, directed the Mountain Electroacoustic Laptop Ensemble (MELEe) and Pierrot Ensemble, and organized the Mountain Computer Music Festival and Composers’ Showcase.

His compositions, including acoustic and electroacoustic music, for large and chamber ensembles, and fixed media, accompanying dance and animation, have been presented at conferences and festivals, such as the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Seoul International Computer Music Festival (SICMF), Música Viva Festival, Re:New Digital Arts Festival, Musicacoustica Mix, Pan Music Festival, Festival Internacional de Musica Electroacustica, Society of Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference, Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival, Bang on a Can Institute, and June in Buffalo, in the US, Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, and South Korea. His research, including telematic musical performance over Internet2, haptic musical human-computer interface design, and wavelet audio analysis and resynthesis, has been presented at conferences, such as ICMC, International Conference for High Performance Computing (SC Global), Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH), International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Digital Audio Effects Conference (DAFx), International Symposium on Music Acoustics (ISMA), Forum IRCAM, and SEAMUS, in the US, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Sweden.  

He has received support from the National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts, for commissions from the Montana Institute on Ecosystems, the Myrna Loy Center for the Performing and Media Arts, and the Headwaters Dance Company, commissions from the Association for American Medical Colleges, the Cybersounds Festival at Temple University, the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, and the Montana State Music Teachers Association, and recognition from the National Academy of Music, La Fundación Destellos, Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges, Renée B. Fisher Composer Awards, New Music USA, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and the Montana Arts Council.  Recently he was a visiting scholar, researching haptic musical interface design, at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast, N. Ireland, a visiting composer, working with the Namaste Ensemble in Città di Castello and Rome, Italy, and a resident, at the Ucross and Brush Creek artist retreats, near Sheridan and Saratoga, Wyoming.