Scholarship and Service:
Professor Keston’s combined backgrounds in music technology, new media, and software development have led him to adopt music, sound, moving images, and interactivity as the primary modalities in his artistic practice and research. He composes music, produces interactive performances, and installations using custom-built software and instruments. His recent series, Duets for Synthesizers and the Singing Ringing Tree was funded by the American Composers Forum and the Jerome Foundation.
Professor Keston has spoken, performed, or exhibited at Northern Spark, the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Burnet Gallery, Walker's Point Center for the Arts, Echofluxx (Prague), the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the In/Out Festival of Digital Performance (NYC), the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, and Moogfest. He produced, directed, and performed in the piece Instant Composer: Mad-libbed Music, a featured event at Northern Spark 2015. A selected portfolio and discography of his work is available at http://www.johnkeston.com.
Professional Experience:
Professor Keston founded the online resource, http://audiocookbook.org where he publishes articles about his research and artistic practice. In addition to his work as a musician, composer, performer, and new media artist he has over a decade of experience teaching interactivity. Prior to entering academics, he worked for several Minneapolis-based agencies and as an independent contractor doing web development, sound design, and music production.