Join us for the next installment of CCAM Wednesday Wisdom: Synth Petting Zoo, where we explore: What are analog synthesizers, how are they made and what can you do with them? This event is open to all skill levels, from beginner to advanced synth users, or anyone curious about sound making and creative electrical engineering.

Innovator Will Mullany will discuss his artistic process of designing and manufacturing audio systems for his electronic instrument company, Molasses Industries (Richmond, VA).

Will Mullany is a sound artist specializing in electronics and process-driven audio systems. His practice focuses on the convergence of instrument, infrastructure, and error—treating malfunction, inefficiency, danger, and chaos as compositional materials, rather than problems to be solved. Using obsolete components, misapplied fabrication methods, unconventional interface elements, and selectively broken found equipment, his work explores alternative perspectives on the relationship between humans and machines.

In addition to Mullany’s presentation, various synthesizers will be available in the CCAM Leeds studio for the audience to engage with and create sounds.

This workshop will be followed by a hands-on soldering workshop at the Yale Center for Engineering Innovation and Design (CEID) on Thursday, January 22 from 6–8pm, where participants can build a Molasses Industry synth of their own. The CEID will release eight of ten spots via the form on their event website on Wednesday, January 21 in the morning (link to be posted here soon). CCAM will raffle off the remaining two spots live at our Wednesday Wisdom event.

Designed and taught by Ross Wightman (CCAM Technical Manager and Curator, Sound Art Series; Lecturer, Yale College) and Will Mullany (Molasses Industries).

Special thanks to Konrad Kaczmarek (Associate Professor Adjunct, Department of Music, Yale University).

CCAM Wednesday Wisdom workshops explore dynamic intersections of the arts and technology, and are designed and taught by our team, along with collaborators from on and off campus. Come to CCAM on select Wednesday evenings between September and May for creativity, conversation, and community. Learn more here.