a bit about Lucy
Lucy Strauss is a South African musician and researcher who studies the experience of music within the performing body, and how this experience relates to sound in acoustic instrument playing. This exploration spans viola performance, movement computing, machine learning, and music technology. Through creative output, Lucy demonstrates how we can work productively with digital technologies to extend creative practice. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Arts & Computational Technology at Goldsmiths (University of London), funded through a CHASE fellowship. This year, she is also an Artist in Residence at the Creative Microbiology Research Co-Lab at the University of Johannesburg: the first bio-art lab on the African continent.
Lucy has performed improvised and experimental music at the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Mixtophonics Festival, 8EAST Cultural Center & NOW Society (Vancouver), De Tanker (Amsterdam) and the Theatre Arts Admin Collective (Cape Town). She also enjoys contributing to interdisciplinary collaborations with fellow artists. Most notably, she has coded, composed and played for installations by artist Mia Thom at Everard Read Gallery, Act of Brutal Curation Gallery, and Eclectica Contemporary (Cape Town), as well as the 2022 Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain (Dakar). Lucy has presented workshops on composition and improvisation (University of British Columbia), embodied approaches to improvisation (Canadian Viola Society) and interactive music technology (Bowed Electrons Festival & Symposium).
Lucy’s practice has taken shape through through training and supervision at the University of Cape Town (BMus in Composition); University of British Columbia (MMus in Viola Performance, funded through an Oppenheimer Memorial Trust scholarship); and mentorship at the MusicDance021 Performance Residency. The exchange with NOW Society musicians has also been highly impactful for Lucy’s improvisation practice, during her time as a musician partner at 8EAST.
Lucy has performed improvised and experimental music at the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Mixtophonics Festival, 8EAST Cultural Center & NOW Society (Vancouver), De Tanker (Amsterdam) and the Theatre Arts Admin Collective (Cape Town). She also enjoys contributing to interdisciplinary collaborations with fellow artists. Most notably, she has coded, composed and played for installations by artist Mia Thom at Everard Read Gallery, Act of Brutal Curation Gallery, and Eclectica Contemporary (Cape Town), as well as the 2022 Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain (Dakar). Lucy has presented workshops on composition and improvisation (University of British Columbia), embodied approaches to improvisation (Canadian Viola Society) and interactive music technology (Bowed Electrons Festival & Symposium).
Lucy’s practice has taken shape through through training and supervision at the University of Cape Town (BMus in Composition); University of British Columbia (MMus in Viola Performance, funded through an Oppenheimer Memorial Trust scholarship); and mentorship at the MusicDance021 Performance Residency. The exchange with NOW Society musicians has also been highly impactful for Lucy’s improvisation practice, during her time as a musician partner at 8EAST.