Keynotes and Speakers
Larry Sider
Larry Sider is Director of the School of Sound symposium and Head of Post-Production at the National Film and Television School (UK). He is a film editor and sound designer who has worked for 25 years in documentary, animation and fiction. Most recently, he was Supervising Sound Editor for the Quay Brothers' The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes and Dave McKean's Mirrormask. Past projects include Patrick Keiller's London and Robinson in Space, Chris Austin's musical biography of jazz pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, The Brother With Perfect Timing, and Street of Crocodiles and Institute Benjamenta by the Quays.
Sider has elevated the profile of sound in screen production through the School of Sound symposium, an international forum exploring the use of sound in the arts and entertainment. Speakers have included Walter Murch, Carter Burwell, Simon Fisher Turner, Michael Nyman, David Toop, Heiner Goebbels, Mike Figgis, Mani Kaul, avant garde filmmaker Peter Kubelka, and academics Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvey. From these meetings came the book, "Soundscape: The School of Sound Lectures 1998-2001."
From 2000-2003, along with the GMD (German National Research Center for Information Technology), IRCAM, the University of Vienna and AKG Electronics, he consulted on LISTEN, an EU-funded research project devising new software to create audio-augmented environments for gallery and museum spaces.
He regularly gives seminars on post-production editing and sound for television and film professionals. He has taught at various film schools including the European Film College at Ebeltoft, Surrey Institute of Art and Design, the Royal College of Art, International Film School (Köln), the Maurits Binger Institute and Bournemouth Media School.
Florian Dombois
Florian Dombois, *1966 in Berlin, is professor and head of the [Institute for Transdisciplinarity (Y)] at Berne University of the Arts (CH, since 2003). He studied geophysics and philosophy in Berlin, Kiel and Hawaii, and received his PhD in Cultural Studies with Hartmut Böhme. In 1999-2005 he was research scientist at Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication (D). Since 2003 he is represented by [Gallery Haferkamp] in Cologne.
Topics: Research on earthquakes and other scientific phenomena in different modes of depiction. The formats of publication include exhibitions (single and group shows) with sound installations and multiples on earthquakes (a.o. Academy of the Arts Berlin, Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne), a CD, a DVD, an art book on seismic stations ([Verlag Walter König]), three virtual environments on global tectonics resp. the volcano Merapi (shown a.o. at CeBIT Hannover), several articles and essays, two international patents (Europe, US, Japan), and lectures, conferences and lectureships at art colleges and universities (a.o. ZKM Karlsruhe, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Art Center Los Angeles, ATR Kyoto).
Nick Laviers
Nick Laviers is Senior Audio Director at the UK Studio of video game publisher Electronic Arts. His most recent work is the audio for Burnout Revenge for the Xbox 360.
From spending every free moment writing ZX Spectrum games and composing, Nick went on to study Electronic Music and Computer Science at Keele University where he also obtained a Diploma in Digital Music Technology. Prior to joining Electronic Arts in 1995, he worked as a Software Engineer and Audio Consultant in the field of contemporary music alongside composing and performing his own works.
He started at Electronic Arts as a programmer specialising in audio but immediately became involved in sound design alongside his programming duties. During this early period at EA he contributed Sound Design and programming on Privateer 2 - The Darkening, Beasts and Bumpkins, FIFA Soccer Manager and Premier League Manager '99.
In 1997 he became manager of EA's audio department and has to date overseen audio production for 28 EA titles including the Harry Potter games and Theme Park World for which he was awarded a BAFTA together with Richard Joseph and James Hannigan in 2000. He picked up a second BAFTA earlier this year with Jeremy Soule for the music production on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
