Juan Hernández
- Email: mcjdh@leeds.ac.uk
- Thesis title: Sonification as methodology in a compositional practice informed by cosmic chemical evolution.
- Supervisors: Dr Ewan Stefani, Dr Oliver Thurley
Profile
I am a composer, performer and sound artist from Colombia.
My research project explores the affordances of different sonification techniques to transfer and adapt the dynamics of stellar evolution, star energy production and cosmic chemical evolution processes to a computer music composition practice. These processes account for the emergence of an extensive chemical variety from the elementary structure of the hydrogen atom. I am interested in the compositional opportunities of transmuting, translating and interpreting that chemical variety as sonic and audio-visual variety in my practice.
In my composition work I aim at re-envisioning cosmic chemical evolution processes and data sets as musical systems comprising prospective tunings, new timbral possibilities, and novel approaches towards organising rhythm, harmony and musical continuity. Sonification methods such as parametric mapping, audification and figurative sonification techniques provide the means to realise this transubstantiation of processes and data, from the field of astronomical sciences to the compositional domain.
I collaborate with Ángela Hoyos Gómez in our computer music/ sound installation/ digital performance project, Ulrica Dúo. My work with Ulrica Dúo has been presented in different venues and galleries in Colombia, Sweden and the UK.
I have worked as lecturer and researcher at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana where I have been teaching undergraduate music technology and music theory courses and modules for more than sixteen years.
I have published in the Contemporary Aesthetics collection of the Department of Aesthetics at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, and in Divergence Press journal, hosted by the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) at the University of Huddersfield.
Research interests
- computer music
- generative processes
- algorithmic composition
- audiovisual composition
- algorithmic synaesthesia
- performance
- sound, audio-visual and interactive installation
Qualifications
- MFA with specialization in Digital Media
- BMus