ART AND MUSIC GO DIGITAL AT RU

Roanoke Times Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc. DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 1, 1992 TAG: 9201010093 SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: HOLIDAY SOURCE: KEVIN KITTREDGE DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium

ART AND MUSIC GO DIGITAL AT RU
Once, there was Picasso and there was IBM.
There was art, in other words, and there were computers - even a geek knew the difference.
No more.
People like Joseph Scartelli, dean of Radford's College of Visual and Performing Arts, know the easy distinctions between art and technology are disappearing.
And they are preparing for the future.
Radford has plans to open a Center for Media Arts Technology.
Radford will become one of only a handful of American universities with a center exploring the blend of art and technology, said music professor Bruce Mahin - one of the center's supporters.
The center would examine the link between computers and art - and between the branches of art themselves, where the boundaries become more and more blurred.
"It will allow the visual and performing arts to combine with the technology that's out there now, particularly the computer technology," Scartelli said.
Said Mahin: "This is the way of the future."
Art and technology are no strangers, of course. Even a flute is a study in applied science.
But with the arrival of the micro computer, Scartelli noted, the possibilities have multiplied for art and technology to mingle.
With computers, the performing arts can become a blend of human and electronic brains - of warm bodies and cold circuits. Concerts can be given in which computers and live performers play side by side.
A recent performance at Radford's Preston Hall highlighted the new mix of man, machine and art.
"Alternate Winds," a musical piece written by Mahin, premiered Nov. 8 with a blend of live performers and and computers.
The performance featured Radford student Viqui Terry on the wind controller - a kind of computerized clarinet that produces flute, clarinet and french horn sounds through a loudspeaker.
Meanwhile a computer - programmed to listen and react to musical cues - accompanied Terry with the synthesized sounds of stringed instruments, bells and percussive clanks.
Simultaneously, a woman performed ethereal dance steps on stage behind a translucent screen - on which also were projected video and computer-generated images.
Welcome to the 21st century.
"Art isn't just a paint brush and paint aymore. Music isn't just a flute," said Mahin, who runs the university's Center for Music Technology. "We're expanding the potential for creative expression way beyond what it's ever been before. . . . I think the man-computer interface is intriguing."
Scartelli said the center will provide "a think-tank venue," with its resources made available to all departments.
It is still awaiting a final form - not to mention funding. At present, it lacks a separate space or equipment to call its own, said William Yerrick, who will be the new center's director.
Yerrick, who also is the university's director of telecommunications, said fund raising for the center is a priority in 1992.
In the meantime, "I'm hoping we can get enough momentum that there will be collaborative types of projects that will be in the name of CMAT," Yerrick said.
"We definitely have some direction," Yerrick said. "But we're still an embyro. We don't know what the child will look like."
"There's a sense of creative excitement that comes from not really knowing what the outcome will be," Scartelli said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB