Martin Back

Biography

Martin Back is a visual artist, composer, performer, tool builder and educator.  His work has been shown, auditioned and performed internationally in venues such as High Mayhem Festival for Experimental Art, Santa Fe, NM, USA; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA; Noisefloor festival, Staffordshire, UK; Dallas Ambient Music Nights, Dallas, TX; and CKCU Radio, Ontario, Canada.  

His past work has been concerned with exploring how ideas from cybernetic theory can be applied to the creation of systems for electronic and acoustical generative music composition and human-machine collaboration toward the production of algorithmic art.  His current work is multi-modal and includes projects toward a theory of 'instant art' (largely derived from the Fluxus project) that involves the creation of collages made with cheap and non-archival materials; sonic artworks that explore discrete soundscapes; generative music that mirrors the time-domain behaviors of non-human environmental soundmakers; and the construction of acoustical and electronic tools such as analog circuits and monochords in order to fuse electroacoustic music practice with the timbral qualities of heavy metal genres. 

Back is also an educator and is Senior Lecturer in New Media Art at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX, USA.  He is affiliated faculty with the iARTA (initiative for advanced research in technology and art) in the Composition Department in the College of Music, also at the University of North Texas.  

From 2002-2007 he was assistant to both Gene Youngblood, a pioneering voice in the study of media art and media and democracy studies, and to Steina and Woody Vasulka, who were among the first generation of pioneers of video art. 

He holds degrees from the College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, NM and the University of North Texas.  He studied music composition privately with composer David Dunn from 2008 to 2010.  

 

Composer Website