Yesterday we had our first couple of STEIM sessions. I met all the other workshop participants, who are: Josh, a PhD student from Sussex, in England, who is very bright and easy to be with. He and I went grocery shopping together and are sharing  food; Alex, from Australia, who is more into art installation than music per se; Dave,  from Ireland, who is figuring out what he wants to do; Nora, from Germany, who is a clarinetist and wants to get into electronic music more; Eric, who I don't know much about, other than that his accent is American and he's tall. First we had an orientation to the facilities, and then a presentation on the history and mission and artists at STEIM. Then followed a regular Tuesday lunch with all the STEIM people in their little common room. Afterwards we went back down to the main studio for a session on the software we will mainly be using this week, called "LiSa." What floored me is that it is almost just like what David Marchant, Roger Cheng, and I developed for our dance "Soundwave Surfing." LiSa is a program that records live input and then immediately starts playing it in loops and you can "surf" through it. It made me feel various things: 1) I've already done this sort of thing, 2) what we've been doing is of 'world class' caliber, 3) maybe this is a sign that this is the direction I'll be going in with custom instruments in general?? But I'm really putting some time into thinking about what an instrument would be like for me to grow with in personal electronic music making. After I finish this email I am going to start collecting all my thoughts and begin to hone in on what my personal electronic music aesthetic might be, and what direction I will want to take here in the next two weeks. After our LiSa session yesterday, most of us went out to a café and had a beer sitting outside in the sun by a canal. It was a nice time to get to share our backgrounds and just enjoy the sun for once. Afterwards Josh and Alex and I came back here to make dinner. Then I went down to the studio and got to work learning LiSa.