Shepherd School’s Stallmann will use Fulbright grant in Taipei

Kurt Stallmann, the Lynette S. Autrey Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and director of the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs (REMLABS), has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to conduct research at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) during the 2012-2013 academic year.

Kurt Stallmann

The grant, Stallmann’s first, will give him the opportunity to collaborate with the Center for Art & Technology at TNUA to create a multidisciplinary work that incorporates Taipei’s city soundscape. He is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and other professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2012-2013. (The Fulbright Scholar Program supports faculty research and teaching, and the Fulbright Student Program supports teaching and research by graduating college seniors, graduate students and young professionals and artists,)

“In recent years, I have been exploring the use of soundscapes in relationship to musical composition,” Stallmann said. “For my Fulbright, I proposed making a work that uses the soundscape of Taipei as a basis that includes audio analysis and recording, visual materials and live performance.”

Stallman has been visiting Taipei for many years and has become very aware of distinct sounds heard there and how they contrast with sounds heard in most American cities. He is especially interested in how the soundscapes of cities reflect the values and habits of its inhabitants.

“As humans, we place a lot of emphasis on visual organization,” he said. “As a result, sounds are left as a byproduct of human activity. It is in this sense that I hear sounds as a form of audio data that contains information about how a society chooses to live.”

The Fulbright Scholar Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.