The Silver Lion 2023 is awarded to the American mathematician, programmer, theoretician and performer Miller Puckette, renowned in the field of music for designing and developing the software Max/Msp and Pure Data, two of the most important programmes in the realm of real-time sound processing and digital sound synthesis. In recognising the work of Miller Puckette, the Biennale Musica pursues its path of awarding the Silver Lion to figures on the contemporary music scene who, through their programming, performance and collaboration with composers, have enabled the creation of numerous masterworks during recent decades in the history of music. Max/Msp, created by Miller Puckette at the end of the 1980s, was conceived as an IT environment in which to perform live electronic music, control sound installations, create virtual musical instruments, process sounds in real time in instrumental performance, and generate digital sounds and compositions for computer; it has become one of the programmes most frequently used by composers and performers throughout the world and has influenced the compositional development of the electronic music and real-time sound processing of successive generations of composers. Pure Data allows musicians, visual artists, performers, researchers and programmers to create software by means of graphic patches and can be used to process and generate sounds, video, 2D/3D graphics, and to interface sensors, input devices and MIDI. Well-known as the author of “The Theory and Technique of Electronic Music”, the foundational text of the new audio culture, first published in 2007, Miller Puckette will participate in the Biennale Musica at a number of conferences, in his compositional and performative work in collaboration with the percussionist Irwin, and as a tutor at the Biennale College Musica.
https://www.labiennale.org/en/music/2023/silver-lion