Liveware

Liveware is an audio-visual ensemble consisting of Shawn Lawson (graphics) and Michael Century (music), with Jeremy Stewart processing both graphics and sound using machine learning algorithms. Lawson is an expert practitioner of live-coding with graphics languages and environments he developed. Century performs on piano and accordion, and uses software he developed allowing live manipulations of performed material on both instruments. 

Shawn Lawson is a computational artist and researcher creating the computational sublime. He performs under the pseudonym Obi-Wan Codenobi, live-coding real-time computer graphics with his open source software, The Force and The Dark Side. Lawson’s non-performance work explores a range of technology: stereoscopy, camera vision, touch screens, game controllers, hand-held devices, and output formats such as print, sculpture, mobile apps, animation, and more.

Michael Century, pianist, accordionist, and composer, is Professor of New Media and Music in the Arts Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute since 2002. Musically at home in classical, contemporary, and improvisational settings, Century has enjoyed a varied career as university teacher, new media researcher, inter-arts producer, and arts policy maker. Century studied piano with Reginald Godden in Toronto and holds degrees in musicology from the Universities of Toronto and California at Berkeley. At the Banff Centre, he directed the Centre's inter-arts, jazz, and improvised music programs, and was the founding director of its Media Arts program. Century’s works for live and electronically processed instruments have been performed and broadcast internationally.

Jeremy Stewart is a multimedia artist and performer researching the affective potential of distributed multimedia systems through the creation of improvisational performances, wearable hardware, and machine learning-driven software. He is interested in the ways that technology can affect, interact with, and alter an individual’s agency, perception, and autonomy. He is a Ph.D. Candidate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.