Stewart Blackwood is a composer, sound designer, and creative coder. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Composition and Sound Design at Carnegie Mellon University. His work utilizes spatial & immersive audio, video game engines in unconventional ways, live coding, and interactivity in performance.
In his compositions he blends digital synthesis, studio and field recording, and effect processing to evoke original tonalities and specific emotions. He often experiments with different modalities of composing, thinking that the starting point is often the driving factor in a composition. In his sound scores, he creates atmospheric soundscapes, interactive elements, and delicate audio spatialization. This work often uses bespoke software written in Max/MSP, Pure Data, or the JUCE SDK. Some of this software is free on the internet, and can be found under the tools & research tab. Before joining academia, he was an Audio Experience Engineer at the spatial audio tech startup Boomcloud360. During his tenure, he developed a bespoke spectral analysis toolset, tuned the audio profiles of various consumer devices, and created novel headphone-based spatial audio filter generation technology. He holds an MFA in Theatrical Sound Design and Composition from UC San Diego and a BFA in Sound Design & Technology for Kent State University. Places his sound, music, creative code has been experienced: Center Theatre Group, Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, Cleveland Play House, Island Shakespeare Festival, Cygnet Theater, Hangar Theatre, Black Lives Black Words, Kent State University, Maelstrom Collaborative Arts, Factory of Terror, Rubber City Theater, Black Squirrel Radio, UC San Diego. Download CV |