Kristin Miltner is a composer, video and installation artist, and sound designer living in Oakland, California. She most often performs music live with versions of her custom software. She has designed this to scan sound files and live input, allowing her to instantly restructure the sounds into sequenced arrays of units of varying lengths. This scanning idea is like imagining a giant octopus in a long thin hallway with continuous windows on each side. One can touch both sides of the hallway with one’s fingertips (if one is an octopus). The length of the hallway is infinite. So the octopus runs up and down the hallway opening and closing windows, letting a little bit of water in here and there, but never stops moving back and forth, and some windows stay open for longer than others. But there’s a rhythm to it; it’s an efficient octopus. The ocean is the sound source, the hallway and octopus are the scanners, the windows determine what gets in, and the octopus’s rhythm is the sequencing mechanism. 

Kristin has performed at Noise Pancakes, 964 Natoma, the San Francisco Tape Music Festival (SFTMF), 21 Grand, and the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival (SFEMF). She is the sound designer for many well-known games and toys, including Leapfrog’s Leapster and Didj, Electronic Arts’ Sims 3 and Sim Animals, Mattel’s Xtractaurs, and a number of Facebook and iPhone games. She is the production manager of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, and an active member of the festival’s steering committee. Her debut solo recording, Grains, can be found at www.praemedia.com.