Clara Maïda lives in Paris and Berlin. She turned to music composition after studying psychology at the Universities of Nice and Aix Marseille 1, and music studies at the CNR of Marseille and Nice, at Cefedem-Sud d'Aubagne (1st Prize in composition and 1st Prize in piano in Anne QUEFFELEC's class, Diplôme d'Etat de professeur de piano), and at the University of Paris 8-Saint-Denis (Master of Musicology, Creation, Music and Society).
She has attended master classes and composition courses with Helmut Lachenmann, Philippe Manoury, Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey and Marco Stroppa (Centre Acanthes and CNSMDP).
She was a guest of the DAAD's Berliner Künstlerprogramm for one year (2007-08).
She was laureate of the Hors Les Murs program of the Institut Français (Paris, 2012) and has received various awards, including the Kompositionspreis Der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart (1st Prize, Germany, 2011), the Berlin-Rheinsberger Kompositionspreis 2008, an Honorable Mention at the Earplay Donald Aird Prize (USA, 2008), a Finalist selection at Musica Nova (Czech Republic, 2008), the akademie DER KÜNSTE scholarship (Berlin, 2006), an Honorary Mention at the ARS ELECTRONICA PRIZE (Austria, 2007), the 2nd Salvatore Martirano Memorial Prize (USA, 2003) and the PRIX de la Partition Pédagogique de la SACEM (Paris, 1996), as well as commissions or residencies from the Donaueschinger Musiktage festival, Art Zoyd, the GRM (Paris), the Ministere De La Culture, the Quatuor Arditti and the ensembles L'itineraire, Proxima Centauri and Accroche Note, the SACEM/Festival Klang! (Netzwerk Neue Musik, Hamburg), DAAD and Akademie Der Künste (Berlin), Orchestre National De Lyon and GMEM (Marseille).
His pieces have been performed by numerous ensembles (Quatuor Arditti, Neue Vocalsolisten, Kammerensemble Neue Musk, Percussions De Strasbourg, Resonanz, L'itineraire, Accroche Note, 2e2m, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Alternance, Proxima Centauri, Oenm, Mcme, Ui New Music, Argonaut, Lyon National Orchestra, Pellegrini Quartett, Heather O'donnell, Thierry Miroglio, Martine JOSTE, Armand Angster, Seth Josel, Michael Weilacher, Stephen Gosling and Jay SORCE) at festivals in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, China, Australia, Hong Kong, Portugal, Denmark, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands and the USA.
His music has been programmed in Australia (Abc Radio), South Africa (Radio Horizon), Mexico (Non Radio), Germany (Swr, Deutschlandradio Kultur, Deutschlandfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Nordwestradio, Hessischer Rundfunk), the UK (BBC), Switzerland (DRS 2, Radio Suisse Romande) and France (Radio France and Radio Grenouille).
She has given lectures, seminars and master classes at Brunel University (London), Huddersfield University (UK), L'universität DER KÜNSTE, L'akademie Der Künste, La Technische Universität, the Mario Mazzoli Sound Art Gallery and at the Festival Inventionen (Berlin), at the Universites Paris 8-Saint-Denis and Rennes 2, at the Conservatoire de Boulogne-Billancourt and L'ecole Superieure D'arts de Rueil-Malmaison (Paris), at Spectrum (New York), and at the Centre Culturel International de Cerisy-La-Salle.
Two monographic CDs have been published (in corpore vili, DAAD Berlin and Edition RZ, 2010 and Anania Iniji, GMEM Marseille and Label Metamkine, 2002).
Four articles, Pour une nanomusique, Cap au dire, cap au ouïr, ...ça écrit ça écrit ça écrit ça... and Instants-Passages respectively appeared in Klangzeitort, Positionen, Filigranes n°6 and Cahiers bleus n°13 (Berlin, 2011 and 2010, Paris, 2007 and Troyes, 2000).
THE PROJECT
(a)utom@ton
ROBOTIZED SOUND AND VISUAL INSTALLATION PROJECT | MUSICAL CREATION AND ROBOTICS
Electroacoustic music | Robotic pendular mobile device | Animated video
Abstract
(a)utom@ton, a project for music and robotic device, is a sound and visual installation with several dimensions: a material robotic dimension (creation of an interactive suspended robotic device), a digital dimension (projection of an animated video in the background), a musical dimension (electroacoustic music creation broadcast on concert loudspeakers and additional sound sequences broadcast on the loudspeakers of the suspended mobiles) and an interactive dimension (the movements of the suspended mobiles react to the movements or gestures of the audience). In terms of sound, interactivity operates on two levels. The audience's movements have an impact on the triggering of this or that additional musical sequence, but also on the electronic processing (Max/MSP patch made with a RIM) that modifies their envelope, timbre and dynamics. The project questions the boundary between a machine automaton (algorithms, robotics, AI, to which our society delegates increasing decision-making power) and a psychic automaton (the automatism of unconscious psychic processes that induce recurring affective or behavioral patterns). What is our degree of free will, our possibility of action, how can we free ourselves from an ever-present alienation? Another question is also underlined by the robotic installation, which can evoke both a set of robotized artificial eyes and an artificial neural micro-network. It questions the possible excesses of the chosen use for AI (generalized surveillance, intrusion into the digital sphere of each individual, algorithmic bubbles and systems of influence, the myth of an "intelligence" that would surpass human skills of perception and calculation and should therefore take precedence over societal decisions).