Though online registration for tonight’s 9 PM performance of Robert Normandeau’s "Cinema for the Ear" is now closed, there are tickets still available at the door.

Normandeau—one of the most celebrated “acousmatic” composers today—will perform works rarely heard in the United States, using an orchestra of more than 40 loudspeakers hung from the ceiling and surrounding the audience. Come experience this first use of the EMPAC Concert Hall’s ideal design for multichannel electronic music!

For more information about Robert Normandeau, visit:

http://www.empac.rpi.edu/events/opening/symposium/normandeau.html

2008.10.09: New York Times — A New Concert Hall Plays Up the Sound and Celebrates the Science

2008.10.04: The Saratogian — RPI unveils new facility for the performing arts

2008.10.02: Associated Press (Washington Post) — NY university unveils new media and arts center

2008.10.01: Troy Record — EMPAC is the future of art exhibition

2008.10.01: New Music Box — At the Intersection of Art and Science

2008.10.01: Albany Times Union — Arts and science meet at EMPAC

2008.09.28: Broadcast Engineering — Lawo gear powers Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute new media center

2008.09.28: Albany Times Union — EMPAC promises experimentation and performance

2008.09.24: Albany Times Union — Daring project reaches a crescendo

2008.09.23: New York Times — Art and Science, Virtual and Real, Under One Big Roof

2008.09.22: World Architecture News — EMPAC's new art headquarters complete

2008.09: Rensselaer Alumni Magazine — Bold Experiment

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/science/23troy.html?ref=science&pagewanted=all

Art and Science, Virtual and Real, Under One Big Roof

"Just as such tools of science make possible new kinds of art, Dr. Jackson said, she hoped this new center of art would lead to new science. “It’s exciting,” Dr. Jackson said. “The real message is we don’t know all that’s going to come out of this, but we know it’s going to be important.”"

DENNIS OVERBYE, NYTimes

Celebrate the Grand Opening of the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) with three weekends of world-class artistic performances and workshops, premieres of commissioned artworks, eye-opening exhibitions of research at the frontiers of science, and social events ranging from black-tie elegant to come-as-you-are eclectic.

For an up-to-date list of performances and more information please visit:
» http://www.empac.rpi.edu/

I hope that each of you will engage with EMPAC programs and explore what meaning EMPAC has for you. I guarantee that it will be challenging. I guarantee that it will be new. I guarantee that it will transform how we regard science, technology, and the arts, and their nexus — how we interact with the future, how we see ourselves as human beings.

— Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, President, Rensselaer.

The three opening weekends highlight, in turn, arts, science and technology, and campus community — and the impact of EMPAC upon them — with elements of each threaded throughout.

The Arts

The first weekend, October 3-5 will celebrate the expressive range that can be accommodated by EMPAC : from classical music presented in an environment of unprecedented acoustical purity, to interactive multimedia works that test the boundaries of performer and audience, to research exhibitions.

Research, Science, and Technology

The second weekend, October 9-12 we will host a symposium featuring eminent researchers from the science and engineering communities in a discussion about where those fields may intersect and connect with us, and the extent to which they will drive, challenge, augment, and inform each other.

Campus Community

The third weekend, October 16-19, will feature artistic performances ranging in media and style, and chosen in collaboration with Student Life, with the intent of reflecting the interests of the Rensselaer student body. It, also, is Rensselaer’s Family Weekend.

Throughout the opening, exhibits detailing our architectural and artistic history, as well as its future potential as a research platform, will be on display.