Fall 2013 Poster, designed by David M. Hirotsu

David M. Hirotsu is an LA-based audio+visual artist. He is majoring in Design | Media Arts and Mathematics / Economics at UCLA.

"The ideas for this poster came directly from the wonderful experience I had at a Contempo Flux rehearsal at the beginning of the quarter.

"There was one particular instance that really stuck with me and determined my design process. One of the instructors asked a percussionist if she would experiment using a different type of stick. She opened a bag, full of dozens of different sticks and the group spent several minutes choosing the perfect stick for a specific tone during the piece. They tried wood, plastic and metal handles with different types of rubber or cloth wrapped tips. One of the goals I set out for myself was to replicate in the poster design the specificity with which they chose the perfect mallet for that exact tone.

"For the aesthetics of the poster, I was fascinated and inspired by the synergy achieved in using traditional centuries old instruments to create contemporary music and sound textures. To match this, I experimented with combining the modern medium of code with paintings made with a traditional paint brush. I scanned a black circle I painted on white paper, and overlayed that with a slit-scan gradient I made in the coding language Processing. Together the two captured all the essential elements of the performances I had experienced: the subtle ebb and flow, the contemporary compositions played on traditional instruments and the specificity achieved through active experimentation."