About

Short Bio

Barry Threw is a cultural developer working to incubate emerging aesthetics in spatial media. For over a decade he has engaged the immersive and interactive arts, working internationally with institutions and artists interested in the intersection of sound, video, network, and audience experience. After receiving his MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College in Oakland, CA, he became sought after as a catalyst of forward-looking artistic projects using advanced technologies.

Threw works with a variety of organizations stationed at the crossroads of art and technology — as lead developer for Keith McMillen Instruments, developing advanced technology to bridge traditional string instruments with the computer; as lead technician and software architect with Recombinant Media Labs, presenting multichannel surround cinema at installations and festivals around the world; on the Board of Directors for the BEAM Foundation, seeking to spark a new Western classical music movement based on the technologies and aesthetics of the 21st century; and as a technical advisor with the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, a San Francisco non-profit and digital arts gallery dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture. He works with Fabricatorz to advance projects that evolving our cultural ecosystems through freedom and sharing. Most recently he has joined the team at Obscura Digital, a cutting-edge San Francisco based company creating large scale architectural projection and interactive media experiences worldwide.

Hello

I’m Barry Threw. I was born in Kentucky, and grew up in the darkest heart of the mid-West United States, Southern Illinois. Even caged birds sing.

I’m interested in the ways in which technology catalyzes new aesthetics and in working to realize forward looking artistic works. I’m particularly focused on immersive and interactive media art, for both installation and performance.

To this end I’ve spent my adult life diving into various rabbit holes of bleeding-edge technologies and seeing what kind of art I can wring out of them, usually in collaboration with other artists or organizations.

Much of my background is in music; for some reason I thought it was a good idea to get two electronic music degrees (from the Berklee College of Music, and Mills College). I spent a great deal of time focused on audio engineering and computer music and synthesis, and from there was led to more video and mixed media work. Sound gives you a great appreciation for space, which is still a concept I try to address in all of my work.

There are a couple of projects I have dedicated a significant amount of my waking days towards. One major recipient of my efforts has been the educational and electronic music think-tank BEAM Foundation and its commercial spin-off Keith McMillen Instruments. Here we took the lessons learned from a touring trio of network and sensor augmented string instruments and created a range of stage ready devices that couple traditional string instruments with computers. As lead software developer I helped bring our three flagship products, the K-Bow, StringPort and SoftStep to life and they have since won numerous awards and received positive reviews.

Also, I find myself called to bear the weight of Recombinant Media Labs as far as I can carry it. This facility was founded to research the qualities and artistic potential of spatial media. After 2 years of production and presentation in San Francisco, we have recently taken our 360-degree immersive audio and video space on the road to festivals around the world.

Most recently I have joined the stellar team at Obscura Digital. We specialize in interactive installations and architectural projection on massive scales, deployed worldwide. Every job with this group is into new and uncharted territory, but we manage to create exceptional results every time, and I couldn’t be happier to be apart of it.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

Master of Fine Arts — Electronic Music and Recording Media, 2004 – 2006, Mills College
Coursework in: Computer Music, Composition, Deep Listening, Site Specific Installation Art, Orchestration, Electronics
Bachelor of Music — Dual Major Production and Engineering & Music Synthesis, 2001 – 2004, Berklee College of Music
Coursework in: Digital Audio, Mastering and Delivery, Non-Linear Editing, Electronic Music Composition, Interactive Performance Systems, Record Production, Post Production, Film Scoring, Alternate Music Controllers, Multi-Track Recording and Mixing, Traditional Composition, Jazz Harmony, Music Theory, Art History
Additional Non-Matriculating Course Work — Emphasis in Music. 2000 – 2001, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Coursework in: History of Western Music, Music Theory, Electro-Acoustic Music Composition

Work Experience

Feb 10 – Present – Obscura Digital– Interactive Developer / Development Manager
- From mapping video onto nearly any surface to building large-scale, multi-touch displays, Obscura Digital delivers groundbreaking immersive and interactive experiences. Part technology lab and part creative agency, we are continually generating new forms of experiential marketing for Fortune 500 clients around the world. Our team of technologists, creatives, and strategists have been shaping the future of advertising for over a decade. We blend award winning design with bleeding edge technology to ignite the sparks of imagination and excitement in consumers’ minds. When you experience an Obscura innovation, it’s magic.
- Obscura was named top 10 most creative agencies in 2009 by FastCompany Magazine and is a member of the Society of Digital Agencies, the world’s premier group of creative agencies focused on new media.
Jan 08 – Present — Fabricatorz— Developer
- The Fabricatorz is a “open” production company that creates projects 50% of the time internally and then takes on external projects the other 50% of the time. We specialize in Free and Open Source Software, Creative Commons licenses/technology, growing on-line and off-line communities in San Francisco, China and the Arab World.
Nov 06 – Present — Keith McMillen Instruments— Lead Developer / Software Director
- Keith McMillen Instruments makes innovative technology for string instruments. Our products let musicians that are familiar with traditional string instruments (violin, viola, cello, bass, or guitar) use the computer as an extension of their current playing ability. New technology inspires new art, and we hope that our products will enable performers to take their music in directions never before possible.
- Our first two flagship products are the K-Bow, the first commercially available wireless sensor bow, and StringPort, a polyphonic string-to-USB 2.0 converter with a unique, powerful, and extensible software suite that greatly expands the synthesis and processing palette of guitarists, violinists, bassists, and other stringed instrument players.
- In 2011 the SoftStep, a multi-dimensional lightweight foot controller was released with an integrated software suite, further redefining the landscape for powerful and portable equipment for live electronica music performance.
Jun 06 – Present — Recombinant Media Labs — Software Architect and Technician

Recombinant Media Labs is dedicated to immersive and interactive media research, development and presentation. We explore the emerging medium of “spatial media synthesis”, the merging of surround sound and surround video, and their placement in space. Our current nomadic festival apparatus is a 10-screen, 360-degree, surround cinema space with full surround sound capabilities.

Oct 06 – Jul 08 — Immersive Media Research — Programmer
- Immersive Media Research offers tools and consulting for specialized psycho-acoustics and sound motion control expert systems, particularly targeted a surround sound.
Feb 06 – Feb 07 — BEAM Foundation — Technical Manager
- The BEAM Foundation fosters electronic music that exemplifies the tools and aesthetic of the 21st Century. Using enhanced instruments coupled through an intelligent computer network, we create new music that is reactive, introspective, and fluid; resulting in surprising complexity and intimacy.
Sep 05 – Jan 07 — Skyline Studios — Audio Engineer, Sound Designer
Feb 05 – Feb 07 — SymbolShift — Web Application Developer
Feb 05 – May 06 — Mills College — Network Support
Sep 04 – Mar 05 — Spark Studios — Audio Engineer
Jan 02 – Jan 05 — Berklee College of Music — Network Systems Administrator
May 01 – Jul 01 — B and J Computers — Service Technician / Intern
Jan 01 – May 01 — University of Illinois — On-Site Computing Consultant
Jul 00 – Sep 00 — Southern Illinois University — SQL Programmer
Feb 00 – Jun 00 — Earthlink — Remote Technical Support
Sep 98 – Jan 99 — GlobalEyes Communications, Inc. — Technical Support Representative
Jun 98 – Jul 00 — Murphysboro Community School District — Network Management

Technology Overview

General Programming - C/C++, Objective-C, C#, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, UNIX Shell (Korn, BASH, etc.), Ruby, Javascript, Applescript.
Media Programming - MaxMSP/Jitter, Supercollider, TouchDesigner, Csound, Flash / Actionscript
Web - HTML/XHTML, HTML5, XML, SVG, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, AJAX, CGI, Apache, Ruby on Rails, JSON, Aiki Framework, ASP.NET w/ ADO.NET, SQL, MySQL.
OS - UNIX (GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, iOS, Windows Vista/XP/NT/98/95/3.x, MS-DOS.
Sound - ProTools, Finale, Cubase, Audacity, Bias Peak, Logic Pro.
Misc – Audio production equipment, SSL, Neve, Yamaha, Sony consoles, analog tape machines, IT and networking equipment, CISCO IOS, TCP/IP, Ethernet, Token-Ring, 802.11q, wiring, server admin, client system support

Appointments

Board Member — BEAM Foundation
Advisory Board — ME’D1.ATE
Technical Advisor — Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

Organization, Participation and Events

Milleux Sonores. Installation and Technical Advisor. w/ Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, swissnex San Francisco, and ICST Zurich. Marcus Maeder curator. 09/11/10 – 11/19/10.
SENSEable Cities, Exploring Urban Futures. Installation and Technical Advisor. Exhibition w/ MIT Senseable Cities Lab. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 06/20/10.
Transpose. Installation and Technical Advisor. Exhibition w/ Aaron Koblin and Robert Hodgin. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 06/11/10.
Do Androids Paint Electric Sheep?. Moderator. Panel and Disussion w/ Andrew (Andy) W. Schmeder, Christian Nagler, Terre Unité Parker, Rachel Beth Egenhoefer and Ian Smith-Heisters. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 04/03/10.
In Tandem: Max Mathews, Aaron Koblin, and Daniel Massey. Organizer. +Dialog Symposium. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 03/19/10.
LoveTech 1 Year Anniversary. Organizer. San Francisco. 01/30/10.
Prototype Installation and Technical Advisor. Exhibition w/ Alphonzo Solorzano, Gabriel Dunne, Ryan Alexander, Miles Stemper and Daniel Massey. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 01/09/10 – 02/03/10.
Overlap MaxMSP/Jitter/Live Salon, Merry Maxmas. Organizer. w/ Adam Murry, Vlad Spears, and Elise Baldwin. 12/15/09.
Overlap MaxMSP/Jitter/Live Salon, Dia de los Maxos. Organizer. w/ Jef Stott, Edison, Preshish Moments. 10/31/09.
Open, Inaugural Exhibition. Installation and Technical Advisor. Exhibition w/ C.E.B. Reas, Stamen Design and Camille Utterback. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 10/01/09 – 11/18/09.
Overlap Salon #8. Organizer, Berkeley Center for New Media. 09/02/09
Overlap Salon #7. Organizer. w/ Matt Ridenour, Peter Nyboer, Michael Zbyszynski. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco. 07/22/09
Overlap Salon #6. Organizer. SoundArts, San Francisco. 06/03/09
Overlap Salon #5. Organizer. SoundArts, San Francisco. 04/29/09
Overlap Salon #4. Organizer. SoundArts, San Francisco. 03/11/09
Overlap Salon #3. Organizer. SoundArts, San Francisco. 2/13/09

Presentations and Lectures

Digital Marketing Roundtable. Society of Digital Agencies. Web panel. 11/17/11.
Cuelight and Kinect Experiments. Art && Code 3d Conference. Pittsburgh, PA. 10/22/11.
Hot Spots: Mapping Anxious Sites of Projection. San Francisco Art Institute. 04/26/11.
ictQatar Open Source Software Workshop. Doha, Qatar. 10/23/10.
The K-Bow System. California Academy of Sciences. San Francisco, CA. 08/05/10.
Baroque Dreams: Live Multimedia Performance, Interpretive Culture, and Open Source Software. Libre Graphics Meeting 2010. Brussels, BE, 05/30/10.
Innovation in Musical Instruments. swissnex San Francisco. 10/30/09.
The Poly~ Object for Fun and Profit. Overlap Salon. Berkeley Center for New Media. Berkeley, CA. 09/02/09
Detachable Polyphonic Pickup for Bowed Stringed Instruments. poster session. International Computer Music Conference 2010. Montreal, Canada. 08/19/09.
How to Sink All of your Personal Relationships by Being an Art Technologist. CNMAT Max Night School. UC Berkeley. Berkeley, CA. 07/31/09.
The K-Bow with Jon Rose. STEIM. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 04/13/09.
The K-Bow Sensor Bow System. IRCAM. Paris, France. 04/09/09.
Media Art Technology for Fun and Profit. California College of the Arts. San Francisco, CA. 03/04/09.
Alternative Controllers and the K-Bow. Berklee College of Music. Boston, MA. 07/23/09.
Realtime Interactive Surround Sound From a Traditional String Instrument. BArCMuT Meeting. San Francisco, CA. 09/11/08.
Zeroconf Networking for Musical Devices. MIDI Manufacturers Association Meeting. San Francisco, CA. 08/30/08.
Making New Aesthetics for Art. Pecha Kucha Night. San Francisco, CA. 5/30/07.
Composing for NuRoque in the MACIAS System. CCRMA, Stanford University. Palo Alto, CA. 05/23/06.
Introduction to Network Cabling. Illinois Student Technology Conference. Chicago, IL. 1999.

Live Performance

Ryoji Ikeda, datamatics [ver.1.0b]. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. August. 10, 2006.
Jean Jacques Perrey. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. August 29, 2006.
Skultz Kolgen, ASKAA and FLUUX/TERMINAL. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. August 16 & 17, 2006.
The Living Jarboe & Gowns. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. September 9, 2006.
Jochem Paap w/ Scott Pagano, Umfeld. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. September 15, 2006.
Pan Sonic & Ryoichi Kurokawa, Crossmedia. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. September 23, 24 & 27, 2006.
Deadbeat, Richard Devine, Antimatter, Wobbly. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. October 6 & 7, 2006.
Thomas Feldman & Gudrun Gut. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. January 5, 2007.
Alvin Curran w/ Cenk Ergün. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. January 25, 2007.
Speedy J. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. January 27, 2007.
Hazard & Joe Colley. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. January 28, 2007.
Morton Subotnick w/ Sue C, Until Spring Revisited. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. April 6, 2007.
Thomas Koner. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. June 22 & 23, 2007.
John Ducan & John Wiese & Joshua Churchill. Compound. San Francisco, CA. July 20, 2007.
Biosphere w/ Egbert Mittelstädt. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. September 15, 2007.
Kangding Ray & Blixa Bargeld w/ Alva Noto. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. Sepember 28, 2007.
Chris Watson & Florian Hecker. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. November 30, 2007.
Louis Dufort and Francis Dhomont. Recombinant Media Labs. San Francisco, CA. December 1st, 2007.
Lesley Flanigan and Tristan Perich, Sculpting Sound. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. San Francisco, CA. Nov 19th, 2009.
Avant Mutek Tour. Engineering. Live Performance w/ Akufen, Stephen Beaupre and Sutekh. Gray Area Foundation for the Arts. 04/16/10.
Subshubs, Journey Into the Mind of PP. RML Cinechamber. Musikprotokoll. Graz, AU. 2011.
Jade/Pita, Noctiluscence. RML Cinechamber. Musikprotokoll. Graz, AU. 2011.
Edwin van der Heide, DSLE-1. RML Cinechamber. Musikprotokoll. Graz, AU. 2011.

Immersive Media Systems

RML Cinechamber
University of California San Diego. San Diego, CA. 2009.
Club Transmediale. Berlin, DE. 2011.
ORF-Musikprotokoll. Graz, AU. 2011.
Cynetart. Dresden, DE. 2011
StarCAVE. 15.1 Surround Audio. University of California San Diego. CalIT2, San Diego, CA. 2007.
Recombinant Media Labs (Brannan St. Location). San Francisco, CA. 2006 – 2008.

Architectural Projection

Fort Al Jahili. UAE National Day. with Obscura Digital. Al Ain, UAE. 2011.
Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque. UAE National Day. with Obscura Digital. Al Ain, UAE. 2011.
Illuminique. Westfield Centre “Emporium Dome”. with Obscura Digital. San Francisco, CA. 2011.
San Francisco Symphony 100th Anniversary Gala. with Obscura Digital. San Francisco, CA. 2011.
California Academy Of Sciences Big Bang Gala. with Obscura Digital. San Francisco, CA. 2011.
CocaCola 125th Anniversary Skyscraper. with Obscura Digital. Atlanta, GA. 2011.

Installation

Active Ecosystem (SMF). with Camille Utterback and Michelle Higa. 2011.
Nokia Horizon Line. with Obscura Digital. 2011.
Yahoo Bus Stop. with Obscura Digital. 2010.
GlobalLives World Premiere. with many GlobalLives collaborators. 2010.
Acclair Art Valuation. with Luther Thie and Eyal Fried. 2009.
Hard Rock Wall. with Obscura Digital. 2009.
Moon Diaries. with Daniela Steinsapir. 2009.
Our Environment. with Snibbe Interactive. for Beijing Olympics. 2008.
TinGirl. with Daniela Steinsapir. 2008.
Scratches. with Daniela Steinsapir. 2008.
Scope. with Daniela Steinsapir. 2008.
Screen. with Noah Wardrip-Fruin et al. 2007.
Corridor. with Zachary James Watkins. 2006.

Interactive Performance

Polar Suite. for four augmented string bows. with composer Douglas Quin, Keith McMillen, and Kronos Quartet. first performance Syracuse, NY. 2011.
Palimpolin. for augmented violin. with Jon Rose. 2011.
Rusty Air in Carolina. orchestral sampler. with Mason Bates. 2009.
Crosstalk. with Jay Cloit. 2007.
Botlero. with TrioMetrik. 2007.
fleshlightmovement. with Kinesthetechic Sense. 2006.
TrioMetrik. with BEAM Foundation. 2006 – 2009.

Commercial Products

SoftStep. with Keith McMillen Instruments, 2007 – Present.
K-Bow. with Keith McMillen Instruments, 2007 – Present.
StringPort. with Keith McMillen Instruments, 2007 – Present.
Radio Baton software. with Max Mathews and Tom Oberheim, 2008.
Respondr. with Respondr Team, 2008.
Vortex Surround Applications. with Immersive Media Research, 2006 – 2007.

Patents

Sensor Bow for Stringed Instruments. McMillen, Keith. et al. 2009. U.S. Patent 20,090,308,232, filed May 15, 2009.

Web Coding

Greater than Green. Home utility tracking application. Ruby on rails. 2007.
FontBook. Information site for font storing application. AJAX country choosing box. 2005.
Cingular devCentral phone database. Multi-page device filtering AJAX application. 2005.
Countrywide Lending. Internal intranet site. Databased driven employee commenting forum board. ASP.net & ADO.net + Microsoft SQL server. 2004.

Motion Picture

Nagorny Karabach. Einsturzende Neubauten. Music Video. Audio/Visual technical support. 2009.
Night Flyers. Boom operator. 2009.
My Grief Is My Own. Supervising sound editor. 2008.
Pleasant Company. Boom operator. 2008.
Song of the Sea. Sharon Knight. Sound recorder. 2007.
Indiscreet. Sound designer. 2006.

Audio Engineering

Music Moves. Clairdee. Assistant Engineer. Sin-Drome. 2005.
Bebe Donkey. Antoine Berthiaume & MaryClare Brzytwa. Recording Engineer. Ambiances Magnétiques. 2007.
Ash. Molly Thompson. Recording Engineer. White Lime Records. 2007.
Untitled Album. Eli Wise. Mix Engineer. Unreleased. 2007.
Untitled Album. Erika Anderson. Mix Engineer. Unreleased. 2008.

Publications

An Open Web. Commissioned by transmediale. Berlin. 2011. Adam Hyde, Alejandra Perez, Bassel Safadi, Christopher Adams, Mick Fuzz, Jon Phillips, and Michelle Thorne, et al. (Editable version)
Constructing a Personalizable Gesture-recognizer Infrastructure for the K-Bow. R. Fiebrink, M. Schedel, B.Threw. McGill Conference on Music and Gesture. 2010.
Programming Graphical Users Interfaces In Cocoa. In Audio Programming in C and C++, MIT Press. Boulanger, R. (Ed.). 2010.
The K-Bow: A Wireless Sensor Bow for String Instruments. Threw, B. 2009. Mills College.
Call for a Highly Distributed Metadata. 2007. Project Bar-B-Q Report.
Overcoming Roadblocks in the Quest for Interactive Audio. 2007. Project Bar-B-Q Report.
Forgotten soldiers: Murphysboro’s African-American Civil War veterans. Class Publications Committee ; Papyrus Consultants. Jones, P. M. (Ed.). 1994.

Affiliations and Professional Memberships

ACM SIGraph — Member
Project Bar-B-Q
MIDI Manufacturers Association — Member
MMA Interactive Audio Special Interest Group — Member
Long Now Foundation — Charter Member

Honors and Awards

Mills College Mills Alumni Scholarship — 2005-2006
Berklee College of Music Peter Gabriel Production Award in Music Synthesis — 2004
Berklee College of Music Recognition of Excellence and Achievement Program Award — 2004
Berklee Achievement Scholarship — 2003
Berklee College of Music Dean’s List — Summer 2002, Spring 2003, Summer 2003
University of Illinois — James Scholar Honors Program

Selected Press Hits

An Interview with Keith McMillen – Cycling ’74, March 2009
Recombinant Media Labs Teams up with Gray Area for Downtown Arts Corridor – SFWeekly, February 2009
Top 10 Products from Winter NAMM 2009 – Mix Magazine, February 2009
Electronic Musician TV – February 2009
K-Bow Instigates Symphonic Class Warfare – Gearwire, November 2008
Keith McMillen Unveils String Instrument Interfaces – Electronista, November 2008
Berklee College of Music Alumni Profile – February 2008
Not Your Grandfathers Big Bands – July 2007
Asphodel and Recombinant Media Labs – XLR8R TV, May 2007
TrioMetrik on North Bay Reporter – March 2007
Keith McMillen on KRON – March 2007
Keith McMillen on Comcast Local Addition – January 2007
360-Degree Art for All Senses – SF Gate, October 2006
Pushing Boundaries of Audio and Visual Surround – Mix Magazine, October 2006
The Outer and Inner Limits of Sight and Sound Explored by Naut Humon and Recombinant Media Labs – SF360, August 2006

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