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The 2003 ~FAST Tex projects
College of Fine Arts

Title:
Oboe Studio Web Site with Videos of Student Performances/Lessons and 3-D Imagery of Oboe Reeds

Faculty Client:
Rebecca Henderson, rhenderson@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developer:
David Marquez

Project Description:
This ~FAST Tex-developed Web site is used to assist in teaching the oboe studio. It provides

• a password-protected place for each student to view video footage of his/her lessons and performances
• 3-D imagery of reeds and reed design to assist students in reed-making
• easy access to course materials
• links to important reference sites on the Web
• links to Web sites of instrument makers, repair technicians, and suppliers

The website can also help to recruit a high caliber of applicants to UT Austin by offering the students a view of what they can expect from the oboe studio here.

Title:
Video Streaming of Modern American Composers’ Performances at UT Austin

Faculty Client:
Andy Murphy, andy.murphy@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developers:
Madeline Lavrentjev, Judy Siegel

Project Description:
Current and future music scholars and music lovers now have a valuable resource in videotapes embodying the rehearsals and interviews with the composers and the performances of the composer's works. This ~FAST Tex project involved the process of editing and delivering this material on the Web.

By experiencing the composer's insights on the creation and evolution of the compositions first-hand through video interviews, future scholars can find out what his or her intentions were instead of theorizing or conjecturing. By seeing and hearing the composer at the ensemble rehearsals we can find out how he expected certain sections of the scores to be performed and how he reacts to the development of that performance at that particular moment, with that particular ensemble. By viewing the performance of the piece we can see how his vision of the composition is realized in light of what we know from the insights of the interview and the rehearsals. Additionally, we get a glimpse into the personality of the composer.

Title:
Movement Choreology Program

Faculty Client:
Lyn Wiltshire, LynWBE@mail.utexas.edu

Student Developers:
David Marquez, Richard Meth

Project Description:
Dance is an oral tradition; now, technology can provide a way to capture movement in the most precise way, to be used as an educational, instructional and creative tool. This ~FAST Tex team developed software to allow dance students and the dance professional to create interactive, presentational, and archival databases. These databases can act as archives of movements taught, movements created, movement works, or movement tradition.

The databases use a stick figure drawing on a five-lined staff. Each line represents a level, i.e. foot, knee, hip, shoulder and head, in the body, or lying down, kneeling, sitting. The lines act as a guide. The figures are then retrieved from the codified library (menu bar) with headings such as, "Numericals, Rhythm, Bar-lines, Repeat Sign, Counts, Phrasing, Head/Torso, Limbs etc) and positioned on the staff from left to right, movement position by movement position, just as notes are on a musical score. This structure provides a precise mechanism that includes changes of level, 3-D symbols, and musical counts as well as a variety of dance disciplines.