Goodiepal


Goodiepal or Gæoudjiparl van den Dobbelsteen, whose real name is Parl Kristian Bjørn Vester, is a Danish/Faroese experimental electronic musician, performance artist, composer and lecturer, although he has also been described as a horologist. His work discusses the future of computer music, his own compositional practices and resonance computing, and in the past his own idea of Radical Computer Music. His tours have included 150 universities internationally.
In 2014, Goodiepal sold Kommunal Klon Komputer 2, a DIY velomobile that he used for personal transport, to the National Gallery of Denmark, where it is now on display.

Biography

Early life

Goodiepal went to the Rudolf Steiner school where electronics were prohibited. This led to Goodiepal's participation in secret demo groups releasing demos on floppy discs for Commodore and Amiga computers, as well as experiments with UNIX and general computer coding. Goodiepal departed from the Steiner school after eight years, due to experiments with explosives, and embarked on various activities with hacker groups in computer software programming and distribution. He began seriously making and performing music in the winter of 1986.

Teaching and lecturing

In 2002, Goodiepal gave his first lectures in the USA, among other places at CalArts, Brown University and University of Iowa, on the subjects of Radical Computer Music and, similarly, radical software. In 2004 Goodiepal was hired as professor of History and Aesthetics of Electronic Music at DIEM, The Royal Danish Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark, and served as head of the electronic music department. Goodiepal also eventually taught Composition at DIEM. In 2008, Goodiepal left The Royal Danish Academy of Music. Upon his resignation, he produced the declaration Five steps in a Gentleman's War on the stupidity of modern computer music and media based art, released as a supplement to the audio piece The Official Mort Aux Vaches Ekstra Extra Walkthrough and the series of images called Snappidaggs explaining the methodology behind Goodiepal's concept of Radical Computer Music. In between releases, projects, and installations, Goodiepal lectures extensively all over the world.
Since 2016 Goodiepal has been performing in a performance group, under the name GP&PLS, which includes a diverse set of members including his partner Nynne Roberta Pedersen, Danish actress :da:Rosalinde Mynster|Rosalinde Mynster, poet :da:Lars Skinnebach|Lars Skinnebach, and the American artist Jeffrey Alan Scudder. Their intent as a group is to create protest music, while helping and donating to refugees during the ongoing European migrant crisis.

Selected works

Mort Aux Vaches Ekstra Extra

In 2002, Goodiepal created a compositional musical language, based around 'musical bricks'. This language was then developed into the Mort Aux Vaches Ekstra Extra compositional game scenario.
Mort Aux Vaches Ekstra Extra was performed as a lecture at Gallery Andersen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark in 2007 and the 5th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, 2008. The game scenario of the lecture is an exercise in the creation of musical scores to challenge the mindset of 'other' intelligences, considering issues such as utopia, time, notation techniques, language, artificial intelligence, 'unscannability', and the role of the composer.

Circus Pentium

Goodiepal went on to participate in the installation Circus Pentium by Danish artist Henrik Plenge Jakobsen opening at Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark, also in 2004. The work comprised a circus installation with Goodiepal playing the lute alongside other actors and was also shown at Art Basel, Switzerland, and Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

EuroBOT

Goodiepal has consistently kept up performances of a game piece titled 'EuroBOT', as well as classes on 'EuroBOT mythology'. In practice, EuroBOT is akin to a board game or a tabletop role-playing game, with polygonal shapes and figures representing planets. Performances of EuroBOT are characterized by Goodiepal whistling the musical score. In 2008, he performed EuroBOT on the Danish talkshow Den 11. time, which he also composed the opening theme for.

The Autonomous Music School

In 2007, Goodiepal opened an autonomous school on the first floor of The Blue House in London, designed by FAT Architecture, for people interested in Radical Computer Music and other of his arts. The school, open from 9am to 10:10am every weekday, was free of charge.

EMEGO 211

In 2016, Goodiepal released an album on Editions Mego entitled EMEGO 211, using the Wikimedia Commons as the device of dissemination, which also thereby released the album into the public domain.

Books