Eiko Akiyama DoEspiritosanto

Eiko DoEspiritosanto was born in Osaka, Japan and grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. She holds a M.A. in Interdisciplinary Computer Science, a M.F.A. in Electronic Music, both from Mills College, Oakland, CA, and a BA in Music Composition from Art Institute of UNESP (São Paulo State University). She has a special interest in music and accessibility, assistive technology, and universal design.

Eiko DoEspiritosanto has studied at the Center for Contemporary Music, Mills College, having Chris Brown as her adviser. She has won the 1995 Elizabeth Mills Crothers Award for outstanding music composition. Her installation Traquitanas Musicais has been exhibited at Lincoln Center in New York, during the Homemade Instrument Day and also at Pro Arts Gallery, as part of SoundCulture Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has worked with Dr. Meera Blattner (Department of Applied Science at UC Davis and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory) developing Earcons (auditory displays). She has participated in the development of SoundWaves (Paul DeMarinis) and Jam-O-Drum (Interval Research Corporation).

Eiko DoEspiritosanto has worked with important experimental music and electronic music groups in São Paulo, Brazil. She was a co-founder of NICs, an underground digital music band. Some of numerous NICs' concerts were recorded live and broadcast by Cultura FM, an educational radio station. She has composed the soundtrack for the radio play MIX 90 - Radio Clip as part of a major cultural event to celebrate the work of Oswald de Andrade, a Brazilian modernist poet. The production was sponsored by State Department of Culture of São Paulo with support from Cultura FM Radio Station. She has worked as a music production assistant for TVSBT São Paulo Channel 4 Corp., producing incidental soundtracks for soap-operas. As a freelance composer, she has produced soundtracks for independent movie productions. Many of her works were aired in the program Satélite (Cultura FM), Time for Brazil series, during which works of the younger generation of São Paulo were presented.

Rivaldo DoEspiritosanto

Rivaldo DoEspiritosanto is a multimedia artist and designer, having created works in print, film, radio, software and computer networks. He was born in Brazil and currently lives in California. As a designer, he has a special interest in bringing human factors considerations into new media. He has been active on the fringe of communication arts for over 20 years and has become specially skilled at shooting moving targets.

He is the physical interface designer behind Traquitanas Musicais, an exhibit consisting of electronic musical sculptures. Traquitanas Musicais has been exhibited at Lincoln Center in New York and at Pro Arts Gallery in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Rivaldo began his career in the movie industry, producing special effects for commercials and animation graphics for TV stations. Initially a visual person, while working with movies he had the opportunity to gain experience with sound editing and music production. Eventually this led him to create sonic works, both as solo artist and as collaborator in experimental music groups. His work have been featured at some of the most prestigious contemporary music radio shows in Brazil.

What once seemed like disparate activities and a seemingly lack of focus, today thanks to technology is a unified (albeit ever in progress) body of work. Nevertheless, Rivaldo still plays, frequently and systematically, with sticks and stones at a number of secret coastal locations.