About
Artist's Statement
My work is most often inspired by nostalgia, memory, and the relationships between the natural and technological world. As I have grown more comfortable in myself, including in my queer identity, my works have become increasingly personal, drawing inspiration from family artifacts, my own experiences with mental health, or my interpretation of unexpected natural phenomena.
I consider myself a multimedia artist who primarily works in sound. My art takes many forms- recently, I have become a performer as much as a composer and see these parts of my practice as inextricably linked. I engage frequently with improvisation, and have
begun developing pieces for myself without scores, structured through predetermined system, material, and form. In the electronic realm, the lines between mediums are thin. I can use code and circuits to make sound, visuals, or interactive media all using the
same basic principles. When I write a piece for performer and live electronics, I see it both as an exercise in composition as well as an exercise in instrument design.
Within my music written for others, I frequently combine graphical scores with traditional notation and consider these methods of communication equally vital. I use graphic scores not only as a communication tool, but a deliberate aesthetic choice to
convey a specific tone or emotion that is connected to the sounds I am asking the performers to create.
While my sources of inspiration remain consistent, I resist limiting myself through labels of genre or mode of creation.
Biography
Carter Crosby (b. 2001) is a composer, theorist, and multimedia artist currently based in East Lansing, Michigan. They work to create immersive experiences in both their musical works and installations- combining auditory, visual, and written art forms to create dynamic music on and off the page that engages fluidly with both the performers and audience.
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Carter is excited about interdisciplinary work within and beyond the arts, working with writers, visual artists, and programmers. It is also a core tenet of their composing as an individual, frequently producing their own video for electronic works, creating graphic scores, or utilizing programs like Max/MSP.
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They have also been selected to attend REDNOTE composition workshop, soundSCAPE composition-performance exchange, and Walden CMR. Carter is currently pursuing a master's in music composition from Michigan State University where they serve as a Music Technology Graduate Assistant and a STEAMpower Fellow. Carter completed their undergraduate studies at the University of Kansas, where they received many honors for their music and multimedia work including the Harry and Jessie Jacobs Prize in Music, the Matilla Award for Excellence in Electronic Music, and an Undergraduate Research Award for the development of their multimedia installation “How We Are Now”.