100 + 50 Tudor and CIE

Phil Edelstein, March 2026

Goal

We seek opportunities for performances and installlation under cover of the “100 + 50 Tudor and CIE” project

Introduction

Composers Inside Electronics (CIE) is a collective of composer-performers dedicated to creating experimental electronic and electroacoustic music through shared systems and live interaction. Founded in 1973, the group emerged from working with David Tudor, whose radical approach to performance and circuitry continues to shape its practice.

Rather than treating composition as a fixed score, CIE approaches music as a dynamic process. Sound is generated, transformed, and distributed across a network of custom-built electronic instruments and resonant objects. Each performer contributes to a larger system, where authorship is shared and outcomes remain open.

David Tudor and the Origins of CIE

David Tudor’s work marked a decisive shift in experimental music. Moving away from his earlier role as a pianist and interpreter, he began designing electronic systems in which composition and performance became inseparable.

Instead of writing music to be executed, Tudor built environments to be activated. Circuits, feedback loops, and material interactions replaced notation as the primary means of structuring sound. This approach laid the foundation for CIE, where performers engage directly with the behavior of electronic systems in real time.

CIE formed as a way to extend and sustain this practice collaboratively. It brought together artists who shared Tudor’s interest in building instruments, exploring indeterminacy, and composing through interaction.

A Different Model of Performance

CIE operates unlike a traditional ensemble. There is no central score, no fixed hierarchy, and no single point of control.

Each member designs and constructs their own instruments—often sculptural objects that function as loudspeakers. These objects are not passive outputs; they actively shape the sound that passes through them. Vibrations, material properties, and spatial placement all influence what is heard.

Performance unfolds as a distributed process. Performers listen, adjust, and respond to one another, continuously reconfiguring the system. The result is a shared sonic environment rather than a predetermined piece.

Rainforest: Sound as Environment

The Rainforest series is one of the most significant realizations of Tudor’s ideas and a central project for CIE.

In these works, everyday materials—metal, plastic, wood, and found objects—are transformed into resonant loudspeakers. Transducers send audio signals into these objects, causing them to vibrate and emit sound according to their unique physical characteristics.

The space becomes an immersive environment. Sounds travel unpredictably through the objects, blending into complex textures that shift over time. No two realizations are the same; each depends on the materials, the arrangement, and the performers’ actions.

Audience members are not positioned as passive listeners. Instead, they move through the installation, encountering different sonic perspectives and discovering how each object “speaks.”

Collaboration as System

At the core of CIE’s work is a commitment to collaboration—not as coordination, but as interdependence within a shared system.

Each performer maintains control over their own materials and processes, yet no single contribution dominates. The music emerges from the interaction of all elements: circuits, objects, space, and human decision-making.

This approach challenges conventional ideas of authorship and composition. A work is not a fixed entity but a living system—one that evolves with each performance and context.

Continuing Practice and Relevance

CIE continues to perform and develop works based on Tudor’s principles, adapting them to new technologies and environments while maintaining a strong emphasis on physical materials and embodied interaction.

Their practice remains influential in fields ranging from sound art to experimental music and media installation. By foregrounding process, system design, and collective authorship, CIE offers an alternative model for thinking about music in the electronic age.

Roster of Performers

CIE has always involved an evolving set of participants. Current performers include more or less of the following as time and resource allow: Cecilia Lopez, Dan Fishkin, Eugene Lew, Ed Potokar, John DS Adams, John Driscoll, Michelle Jaffé, Michael Johnsen, Ron Kuivila, Seth Cluett, Stuart Jackson, Paul DeMarinis, Phil Edelstein, Stephen Vitiello, Victoria Keddie and pending confirmation from others (as of April).

100+50 Current Performance Works

There are a number of works by David Tudor and others we propose for consideration:

  • Coefficient (Jackson)
  • Dialects (Kuivila)
  • Forest Speech (ensemble site specific)
  • Microphone (ensemble site specific)
  • Neural Synthesis (Adams)
  • Pepscillator (ensemble site specific)
  • Pulsers (Johnsen)
  • Untitled (Johnsen)
  • Rainforest IV (ensemble site specific)

Other works of specific by others such as :

  • Speaking in Tongues, Driscoll (ensemble site specific)
  • TI intends… (predecessor to The Linear Predictive Zoo) Chordata, Ron Kuivila
  • Light Piece for David Tudor   Applebox Orchestra by Pauline Oliveros (ensemble site specific)
  • Cartridge Music, John Cage (ensemble site specific)
  • Exercises , C.Wolff (ensemble site specific
  • Mesa, G. Mumma (Stuart Jackson and possibly other)
  • RED or new work (Cecilia Lopez)
  • new and old collaborative works (Driscoll, Edelstein, Lopez, Kuivila and others) some using design of rotating loudspeaker instrument concept developed by John Driscoll (site specific)

Installations

We seek opportunities for long running installations.

Current

  • Rainforest V (variations 1-4) as can be potentially be arranged as loans from the collections of MoMA, Arter, Mac Lyon and MdM Salzburg
  • Cluster Fields (Driscoll, Edelstein) loan by the artists (link)
  • Other older works for consideration to be supplied upon request

Future

We are currently working towards a new set of installations building upon CIE’s work on kinetic focused spatial sound. We seek workshop to bring to comletion new works with CIE collaborations. Driscoll and Edelstein would like to engage with the CIE cohort taking concepts developed for bespoke works (e.g. Gestures and Murmurations with Cecilia Lopez) for new works.

Forest Speech as an Installation

To date, Forest Speech has been performed in concert settings rather than as extended installation form. One area for exploration is to realize Forest Speech as an installation.

Research and Workshops

We seek research opportunities interwoven between creative works & R&D involving science, engineering, techniques and technology. The creative work involves the development of both new works and realizations of extent repertoire. R&D involves acoustics of focused sound, sound in space, electronic circuitry, software, materials sciene, human interfaces, fabrication techniques, instrument building, construction of creative and expressive systems.

One area evolving area of focus is rotating speaker instrument building workshops.