Remko Jan Hendrik Scha (15 September 1945 – 9 November 2015) was a

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computational linguistics Computational linguistics is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, comput ...

at the faculty of humanities and

Institute for Logic, Language and Computation The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) is a research institute of the University of Amsterdam, in which researchers from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities collaborate. The ILLC's central research area is the st ...

at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

. He made important contributions to semantics, in particular the treatment of plurals, and to discourse analysis, and laid the foundations for what became an important research paradigm in computational linguistics, Data Oriented Parsing. He was a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and performer of

algorithmic art Algorithmic art or algorithm art is art, mostly visual art, in which the design is generated by an algorithm. Algorithmic artists are sometimes called ''algorists''. Overview Algorithmic art, also known as computer-generated art, is a subset o ...

. He made recordings of music which has been generated by motor-driven machines. One notable example of this type of music is his 1982 album of

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

music, "Machine Guitars", on which all guitars are played by

saber saw The sabre saw (also saber saw) is a hand-held powered reciprocating saw. It is similar to, but larger than, a jigsaw Jigsaw may refer to: * Jigsaw (tool), a tool used for cutting arbitrary curves * Jigsaw puzzle, a tiling puzzle that requires t ...

s without human intervention, except for one in which the guitar is played by a rotating

wire brush A wire brush is a tool consisting of a brush whose bristles are made of wire, most often steel wire. The steel used is generally a medium- to high-carbon variety and very hard and springy. Other wire brushes feature bristles made from brass ...

, again with no human intervention. Recorded in Eindhoven and New York, it was described by Byron Coley in ''The Wire'' 231 as one of "the definitive modern NYC guitar work , and its influence can be heard in the music of Eli Keszler, Alan Courtis and many more. Performances by The Machines took place in Amsterdam, Brussels, London, Berlin, New York, San Francisco. The most recent performance was in Leiden (2015). Scha had a longrunning involvement in the arts in the Netherlands. Alongside

Paul Panhuysen Paul Panhuysen (21 August 1934 – 29 January 2015) was a Dutch composer, visual and sound artist. He founded and directed Het Apollohuis, an art space that functioned during the 80's and 90's having artists doing sound installations, sound scul ...

he founded

Het Apollohuis ''Het Apollohuis'' ( en, The Apollo House) was a space for experimental music and visual arts, "focused in particular on...sound art, new music, performance art and the new media," founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, by Remko Scha and Paul Panhuysen ...

, a former cigar factory in Eindhoven which became a space for performance, art and music in 1980. It played host to performers such as Ellen Fullman, whose ''The Long String Instrument'' LP was recorded there in the venue's first year. Scha also founded the Institute of Artificial Art Amsterdam. In IAAA he brought together machines, computers, algorithms and human persons to work together toward the complete automatization of art production. With IAAA collaborators Remko developed machines and algorithms for the production of random artworks in a range of fields: music, drawing, architecture, graphical and product design, facial expressions. On the radicalart.info site he created an extensive analytical anthology of anti-art and meta-art that lists and discusses the art historical sources that informed his artistic views. Maciunas Ensemble was an ensemble founded in 1968 by Paul Panhuysen, Remko Scha and

Jan van Riet Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Numb ...

. Scha left the ensemble in 1982. In 2012 a set of eleven CDs was released of the period Scha was involved in the ensemble.

Discography

* Maciunas Ensemble – The Archives Part 1, 1968-1980 (11× CD, Compilation, 2012, Apollo Records (8) – ACD 091220-091230) * Maciunas Ensemble – 1976 (2015 LP, Edition Telemark – 314.07) * Remko Scha – Guitar Mural 1 Featuring The Machines (1981, Cassette, Album, C60 Taal Beeld Geluid) * Remko Scha – Machine Guitars (1982, LP Kremlin KR 006) * Remko Scha And The Machines* – As Is - Guitar Mural #14 (1990,

Staalplaat Staalplaat is an independent record label that is located in Amsterdam with a separate store in Berlin. Founded in 1982, the company's mission was to create a sound forum for sound artists, who write and perform new and experimental music. Staalpla ...

– ST-CD 011, Helmholtz Theater – HT 3) * Remko Scha & Van Lagestein – Pomp Pump (1994 CD Helmholtz Theater – HT400

References

External links

Remko Scha homepageHis work at Google Scholar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Scha, Remko Dutch computer scientists Dutch classical composers Dutch logicians 1948 births 2015 deaths Contemporary classical composers Eindhoven University of Technology alumni University of Groningen alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam People from Eindhoven 20th-century Dutch composers 20th-century Dutch scientists