Listening to the World: Information and Aesthetics

George Lewis, improviser-trombonist, composer, and computer/installation artist, studied composition with Muhal Richard Abrams at the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) School of Music, and trombone with Dean Hey. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship in 2002, a Cal Arts/Alpert Award in the Arts in 1999, and numerous fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lewis has explored electronic and computer music, computer-based multimedia installations, text-sound works, and notated forms. A member of the AACM since 1971, Lewis's work as composer, improviser, performer, and interpreter is documented on more than 120 recordings. His published articles on music, experimental video, visual art, and cultural studies have appeared in numerous scholarly journals and edited volumes, and a book, Power Stronger Than Itself: The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2007. Lewis is the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University. Lewis's pioneering multi-computer interactive work, Rainbow Family, was commissioned by Ircam and performed in 1984 in its Espace de Projection. Lewis also performed his virtual orchestra work, Voyager, at the Ircam Summer Academy in 1994.