Paulo C. Chagas

"Intermedia and Audiovisual Composition: Theory and Practice"

The creation of sound and image has only recently been catalyzed into a distinct new paradigm of creative expression, ‘Intermedia’ and ‘Audiovisual Composition’. In this talk, I will give a broad overview of my 25-year career and research, including the concept of “intermedia” – the creation of inter-art with a “polyphonic” effect, established in perception across various sensory domains, stressing the metamorphosis of contemporary art, driven by digital innovation. I will also explain the revolutionary changes on the domain of audio-visual composition because of digital and the different collaborative works and projects on immersive audio-visual and telematic performance. Through my reflections, I would like to encourage people to jump into critical thinking of what artistic expression in our relative and absolute mediated world could be in the future.

Paulo C. Chagas is a renowned composer and professor of composition at the University of California, Riverside, serving since 2004. He founded the Experimental Acoustics Research Studio (EARS), a lab devoted to exploring the fusion of music and technology in the music department. Dedicated to using advanced technology to transform music composition, Chagas creates multi-sensory experiences that have earned worldwide acclaim. His prolific oeuvre includes more than two hundred works spanning orchestral, chamber, electroacoustic, audiovisual, multimedia, and telematic music. As a distinguished scholar, he has contributed significantly to the fields of music semiotics and the philosophy of technology. His publications include Unsayable Music (Leuven University Press, 2014), which offers theoretical and analytical reflections on contemporary music; Sounds from Within: Phenomenology and Practice (Springer, 2021), which he edited; and Zwischen Klängen und Apparaten: zur Theorie und Praxis der elektronischen Musik (Rediroma, 2021), a critical exploration of electronic music. Chagas's research was recognized with the prestigious Fulbright Research Scholar Award for a residency in Berlin (2022-23).