JACOB RICHMAN – MULTIMEDIA ARTIST
APPLICATION FOR ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT
MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
SAMPLE CREATIVE WORK DOCUMENTATION
APPLICATION FOR ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT
MINNEAPOLIS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN
SAMPLE CREATIVE WORK DOCUMENTATION
(all images, sounds, and music by Jacob Richman unless otherwise noted,
video and other further documentation available at linked project pages)
video and other further documentation available at linked project pages)
1. The (unfinished) Ballad of Adam and Elena Emery (2012)
large-scale multimedia performance and installation piece, 13 performers, video projection, audio/video/data processing (Arduino and Max/MSP/Jitter protocols) cloth, motors, electronics The (unfinished) Ballad of Adam and Elena Emery is an evening-length, multimedia performance piece based on a Rhode Island murder story from 1990. It is a performance setting of fragmented details of this tragic event for four dancers, nine musicians, and multiple interactive multimedia installations staged in various rooms of a five-story church in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It is a “roving performance” in which the audience and performers freely move between installation spaces and performance scenes scattered throughout the building. |
2. SWARM! (2017)
an evening-length, roving performance piece for musicians, dancers, and audience-responsive electronics SWARM! is based on themes of insect breeding swarms (mayflies), environmental degradation, and rebirth. The piece sprouted from the idea of a mysterious insect species that develops in the trash we humans discard everyday. They grow and molt and incorporate components of our waste into their bodies. They move and dance, and when the time is right, come together in an apocalyptic swarm. The first performance took place throughout the Linde Family Wing of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on May 11, 2017. |
3. Windeye (2018)
fixed-media piece for violin and video Windeye is a setting of a short story by author Brian Evenson for video and solo violinist/vocalist. Through her performance, we are presented with the fading and distorted childhood memory of a sister who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The piece was commissioned by NYC-based violinist and vocalist Andie Tanning Springer and released on her 2018 audio-visual album Dandelion. |
4. Meridian Project (on-going collaboration)
multimedia performance and science collaboration, music composition/performance, video projections Meridian Project is an ongoing collaboration between musicians, visual artists, and scientists whose goal is to present topics of cosmology, astronomy, and astrophysics in unique audio-visual performances that blend the scientific concepts with new music and imagery in a way that is informative, engaging, and fun. Our performances take place in locations that reflect this mix of science, art, and wonder. These include planetariums, observatories, and outdoors under the stars. My role in the collaboration is as co-composer, musician, and producer of various video content and experimental projections based on the performance venue. Video documentation available HERE. 
5. Three Yiddish Lullabies (2006)
multimedia performance piece for musicians and live-processed video (Max/MSP/Jitter Protocol) Three Yiddish Lullabies is a mixed-media setting of fragmented texts in Yiddish. In three separate music and moving image settings, we are presented with a mysterious young mother. She reaches out to us through the materials, sounds, and images that surround her, yet she is always obscured or constrained. Through the broken and jumbled songs that she sings to us, we try to piece together the history of this ghostly young woman. The audience sees the piece from the point of view of the child. However, this point of view is disorganized and dream-like: obscured views of the singer are mixed with the simple imagery (birds, stars) about which she is singing. The texts are mixed as well, expressing feelings of love, loss, and imminent tragedy that the mother is experiencing, yet which the child cannot understand, and he merely focuses on the soothing tone of her voice. Images, words and sounds are continuously mixed and clouded, and my aim is to express how even a powerful memory, personal or collective, fades and distorts over time. This piece utilizes the Jitter/Max/MSP programming language to live-process the video images. Long hanging strips of chiffon used as malleable projection surfaces, old junk shop televisions scattered in the audience, as well as other various materials are also used in this performance. |
6. Three Scenes from Fox Point (2011)
Fixed-media HD video, with 5-channel surround audio An exploration of the relationship between images, sounds, textures and characters found in three locations at Fox Point in Providence, RI. |
7. Speak, Stone (2003/2011)
Fixed-media video A non-fiction video about Canto a Tenores folksinging as well as the people, animals and landscape in and around the town of Bitti, Sardinia. Featuring the Tenores di Bitti “Mialinu Pira.” Made possible through a grant from the Dunwalke Foundation. |
8. Pretty Polly (2008)
multimedia performance piece for solo double bass/voice and live-processed video (Max/MSP/Jitter Protocol) Pretty Polly is a multimedia setting of a murder ballad that traces its history back through the American bluegrass repertoire to England/Scotland. Although the song has been sung to many melodies over the decades, the stark brutality and remorselessness of Willie, the song's narrator, has remained the same. In this new version of the old song, I have set Pretty Polly to new music for double bassist/vocalist (solo performer) and live processed video. Live video of the performer's movements as she performs are processed through a Max/Jitter program and layered with effects, and then mixed with pre-edited video footage. The performer's instrument, voice, physical gestures are all combined to create a multi-sensory retelling of this gruesome tale. |
9. Go Down! You Blood Red Roses (2010)
performance piece for percussion and live processed sound (Max/MSP/Jitter protocol) This piece was inspired by a folk song of the same name, as well as my recent relocation to Rhode Island, the Ocean State. The original song was a "halyard shanty" which is a working song used when hoisting the heavy topsails of an old tall ship. I am fascinated by both the coordination and fleet-footedness needed to control large sail ships as well as the combined feelings of excitement, fear, and peace experienced when being on the water, pushed along only by the wind and currents. This piece presents and explores a character, played by the performer, who both creates and controls the sea he or she travels by. It is of course a fantasy. |
10. Man Without A Shadow (2008)
piece for shadow puppets, kura saz (turkish lute), narrator, and live-processed video (Max/MSP/Jitter Protocol) Man Without A Shadow is an old folk tale set as a multimedia puppet show in which a man sells his shadow to the devil. The story is based on the novella The Remarkable Story of Peter Schelmihl by Adelbert von Chamisso. Puppets by Emmy Bean Story/Script by Jacob Richman and Emmy Bean Music by Stephen Higa Video Processing by Jacob Richman |