Dan Senn..is a composer of experimental classical music, electronic and acoustic, a sculptor of new instruments for exhibition and performance, an experimental video artist for installation and proscenium play, a ceramist, and a documentary film artist. He performs and exhibits world-wide and creates ephermeral public art projects which bring experimental work to alternative audiences. His work is greatly influenced by elegant awkwardness of the raku ceramic process and, while highly expressive, devoid of intended metaphor. Dan Senn is a sound artist who came to contemporary music by way of the visual arts. Trained since childhood as French horn player and vocalist, he began studying ceramics and raku pottery in 1972, an ancient ceramic method which fundamentally shifted his aesthetic. In 1977 he began building sculptural instruments and soon after began developing computer softwareto emulate the raku process in musical compositions which, like his instruments, exhibits the peculiar paradox of raku--that is, highly considerate, non-linear systems which exist, in part, to confound the will of the artist. Since 1974 he has kept personal journals, a practice which has greatly influenced his live performance and installation work. Over the last ten years his instrument building has centered on the development of pendulum-based instruments which have varied in size from 18"x18"x18" to outdoor versions covering 600sf. These are often integrated with his interview and videos, the latter closely linked to his improvisational and compositional methods. He has toured Europe, New Zealand, the U.S. and Canada exhibiting and performing at festivals and experimental venues. In 1995 he was awarded the McKnight Composer-in-Residence Award for the State of Minnesota where, among other projects, he produced the Catacombs of Yucatan Sound and Video Installation within a remote limestone cave located in the southeastern corner of that state. In 1997 he was awarded the Artist Trust 10th Anniversary President's Award (Seattle) for his influence on the arts throughout the Pacific Northwest, and in 1998 he was awarded the first Artist-in-Residence for 1998 at the University of Washington at Tacoma and first prize at the Papier Bienale at the Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren, Germany. In 2002 his documentary film, The Exquisite Risk of Civil War Brass, won at the da Vinci Film Festival. His scored music is published by Smith Publications, Sonic Arts Editions, and AM Percussion Publications. His recorded music is available from the NI Archive, Experimental Musical Instruments and Periplum Records. Dan Senn has a doctorate in Music Compositon and Ceramic Sculpture (minor) from the University of Illinois where his principal instructors were Salvatore Martirano, Ben Johnston, and Herbert Brün. At the UW-LaCrosse he studied art with Leonard Stach and music composition with Dr. Truman Hayes. He has been a Lecturer in Electronic Music at the Canberra School of Music in Australia ('80-84), an Associate Professor of Composition at Ball State University in Indiana ('87-92), and a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana ('86). In 1993 he founded Newsense Intermedium, an non-profit presenting organization specializing in experimental performing arts for which he is the Artistic Director. NI has produced numerous concert series and ephemeral public art events including the Six Exquisites International Sound Art Festival ('85, '97 and '99) and The Munipal Dock Sound Installation ('93).