Brian Knoth is a media artist, composer, and educator specializing in music composition/production, sound design, digital video, computer graphics, and interactive multimedia. This work has been realized in several formats, including electro-acoustic music, audio-visual composition, digital video art, interactive multimedia performance/installation, and interactive systems for mind-body rehabilitation. Generally speaking, his creative work and research in multimedia explores ideas related to multi-sensory perception/integration, multi-modal communication, empathy, and human-computer/environment interaction.
Knoth was the recipient of a prestigious 2011 MacColl Johnson Fellowship in Music Composition. He has also been awarded other grants and fellowships by the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts and the Creative Arts Council (Brown University). As a composer, engineer, and producer, he has worked on music that is distributed widely through digital outlets including iTunes, Bandcamp, and Spotify. Knoth has also worked as a sound designer and musical score composer for award-winning independent films.
As a musician, he spent 2002-2005 performing live (guitar/electronics) throughout New England and the East Coast with Nikulydin, an improvisational electronic music and multimedia collective. Before that, he played with numerous Boston-based groups between 1999 and 2002. Since being based in Providence, RI, he has composed and performed in various musical contexts, including as a solo artist, experimental collaborations with Eric Hastings, and more traditional American Roots music with Gin Mill Jane and The Daybreaks.
He has collaborated on several award-winning projects and has presented/performed at numerous festivals, conferences, symposiums, galleries, and venues including: The Middle East (Cambridge, MA), The Paradise Rock Club (Boston), The Lion’s Den (NYC), Nectar’s (Burlington, VT), Boston Cyberarts, The Visual Music Marathon (Northeastern University), Art Interactive (Cambridge, MA), the NWEAMO festival (Apple Store, NYC), The Pixilerations Digital Media Arts Festival (Providence, RI), Grant Recital Hall (Brown University), The David Winton Bell Gallery (supporting Magaly Ponce), The International Computer Music Conference ’07 (Copenhagen, Denmark), AS220 (Providence, RI), Firehouse 13 Gallery (Providence, RI), The Extensible Electric Guitar Festival (Clark University, Worcester, MA), Axiom Gallery (Jamaica Plain, MA), Machines with Magnets Gallery (Pawtucket, RI), The University of Manchester (UK), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal), Jamestown Art Center (RI), Warwick Art Museum (RI), and The Trident Gallery (Gloucester, MA).
The films he has worked on have been shown (and have won awards) at major national and international festivals, such as: International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Danish Film Institute, University of San Francisco Human Rights Festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest (UK), Boston Film Festival, East End Film Festival (London UK), DMZ Korean International Film Festival, New England Film Festival, College Music Journal (CMJ) Film Festival, International Festival of Cinema and Technology, Florida Film Festival, Latin American Film Festival, Northampton Film Festival, New Hampshire Film EXPO, and Women in Film & Video New England.
Knoth’s interactive music and multimedia systems have also been useful in the field of rehabilitative medicine. Through collaboration with Dr. Amir Lahav and Harvard Medical School, he led software development on an interactive music therapy program for facilitating recovery processes in patients with physical disabilities. The program featured a real-time data collection component aiding the scientific research.
Knoth has also ventured into the world of historical research and narrative development, which was initially funded by a very competitive 2015-16 research fellowship from the Preservation Society of Newport County and led to multiple publications. In addition, he has worked collaboratively with dancer/choreographer Emily Beattie on multimedia performance/research projects, which have also led to multiple publications.
Knoth is a tenured Professor at Rhode Island College in the Communication Department. He has also taught at Northern Essex Community College, Bridgewater State University, Emerson College, the New England Institute of Art, the University of Rhode Island, Bryant University, the Rhode Island School of Design, and Brown University. He holds a B.A. in Psychology/Cognitive Science (summa cum laude) from SUNY Geneseo, an M.A. in Media Arts from Emerson College, and an M.A. in Music from Brown University. In 2011, he earned a Ph.D. in Music and Multimedia Composition from Brown University.