SPLICE Festival VII 2026 Workshop 3
Saturday March 7, 2026
4:00-5:30pm EDT
Arts Incubator, Colby College
Felipe Tovar-Henao
Introduction to Offline Algorithmic Audio with bellplay~
This workshop introduces composers and sound artists to bellplay~, a scripting-based environment for offline audio generation, analysis, and processing. Rather than working within the constraints of real-time performance, bellplay~ opens up possibilities for multi-pass processing, look-ahead analysis, and computationally intensive transformations that would be difficult or impossible to achieve otherwise. The environment is built around the bell programming language and integrates symbolic music operations with audio processing, creating a unified space for composing across acoustic, electronic, and mixed media.
The workshop takes a practical approach: participants will build a granular processing script from the ground up, learning bellplay~'s features through direct application. We'll start by launching the environment and writing a simple script that generates sound, places it on a timeline, and renders it to disk. From there, we'll move into the core project—importing a sample into a buffer and generating grains by defining their onset positions, durations, gains, and stereo placements through code. By looping and layering these grains, participants will create dense textures and learn how to iterate by rendering, adjusting parameters, and re-rendering as needed.
If time allows, we'll explore how to run basic analysis such as onset detection or spectral centroid extraction, then use those results to influence grain behavior. We'll also cover exporting rendered audio or buffer data for further work in other environments. By the end of the session, participants will have a working granulation script and a clear sense of how bellplay~ handles algorithmic audio processing. Example scripts and documentation will be provided to support continued exploration beyond the workshop.
The audio reel submitted with this proposal demonstrates what's possible in bellplay~—every excerpt was produced entirely within the environment. Additional examples are available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oCLNEL8UdWrYb21DRIRcnh7h7szt5Jl0?usp=sharing, and more information about the environment can be found at https://bellplay.net.
Participants will bring personal laptops (Mac or Windows), or use the lab's computers, and setup instructions will be provided in advance to make efficient use of session time. A 90–120 minute format works best, allowing adequate time to cover bell programming fundamentals while building toward a complete, functional project. This workshop is designed for those who want direct, fine-grained control over sound through code and are curious about what becomes possible when working outside the boundaries of real-time interaction.
Bio
Felipe Tovar-Henao is a US-based multimedia artist, developer, and researcher whose work explores computer algorithms as expressive tools for human and post-human creativity, cognition, and pedagogy. This has led him to work on a wide variety of projects involving digital instrument design, software development, immersive art installations, generative audiovisual algorithms, machine learning, music information retrieval, human-computer interaction, and more. His music is often motivated by and rooted in transformative experiences with technology, philosophy, and cinema, and it frequently focuses on exploring human perception, memory, and recognition.
As a composer, he has been featured at a variety of international festivals and conferences, including TIME:SPANS, the International Computer Music Conference, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, WOCMAT (Taiwan), CAMPGround, the Electroacoustic Barn Dance, CLICK Fest, the SCI National Conference, the SEAMUS National Conference, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, CEMICircles, IRCAM's CIEE Summer Contemporary Music Creation + Critique Program and ManiFeste Academy, Electronic Music Midwest, and the Midwest Composer Symposium. He has also been the recipient of artistic awards and distinctions, including the SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Award and the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award.
His music has been performed by international artists and ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, the Grossman Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, the Contemporary Art Music Project, the New Downbeat Collective, NEXUS Chamber Music, Sound Icon, the IU New Music Ensemble, AURA Contemporary Ensemble, Hear no Evil, Sociedad de Música de Cámara de Bogotá, Ensamble Periscopio, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and the Orquesta Sinfónica EAFIT, among many others.
He has held research and teaching positions at various institutions, including the 2023/25 Charles H. Turner Postdoctoral Fellowship in Music Composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the 2021/22 CCCC Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Chicago, Lecturer in Music Theory and Composition at Universidad EAFIT, as well as Associate Instructor and Coordinator of the IU JSoM Composition Department. He was recently appointed as Assistant Professor of AI and Composition at the University of Florida.