Derek Kwan creates things in any and all combinations of computers, music, and art. His creative output includes live coding electronic music, interactive audiovisual installation art, physical computing, acoustic and electronic music composition, and percussion improvisation. As a performer, Derek has appeared with the Bang on a Can Marathon, Make Music New York, and soundSCAPE festival and has performed with Raphael Mostel's Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble and Iktus Percussion. He has had music compositions featured at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the UC Davis Shinkoskey Noon Concert series, and Glasslands Gallery (Brooklyn, NY) and has live coded music at NODE20: Second Nature and Network Music Festival. Discussing his work as an open-source software developer and electronic musician, Derek has given presentations at the Fifth International Pure Data Convention held at New York University and the Bates Digital Music Symposium held at Bates College (Lewiston, ME). Derek has had his electronic installation work featured at The Brickhouse Art Gallery in Sacramento, CA. In 2020, Derek has been in residence at the art and technology residency program now known as Mars College (Bombay Beach, CA), the NYC-based remote hackathon Art-A-Hack (which worked in conjunction with Battery Dance), and the Virgina Center for the Creative Arts. He has also presented at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) and the CSMC + MuMe Joint Conference on AI Music Creativity. Derek holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in percussion performance from Stony Brook University and has taught electronic music at University of California, Davis. He will begin a PhD in Artificial Intelligence at Oregon State University in 2023.
e-mail: derek.x.kwan@gmail.com