Kurt Fleischer (USA) leads the team that creates computer animation tools for Pixar Animation Studios, the makers of "Toy Story" and "A Bug's Life". He is currently investigating methods for animating the increasingly complicated models required by today's productions. Before coming to Pixar he was a Computer Graphics researcher, exploring models of cellular pattern formation, physically-based modeling of cloth and other materials, and other topics in CG animation and modeling. He received his Sc.B. from Brown U., M.S. in Computer Science from Stanford U., and Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems from Caltech.

http://www.gg.caltech.edu/~kurt/

James McCartney (USA) is a composer and programmer and is the author of the audio synthesis and algorithmic composition programming environment named "SuperCollider". He studied computer science and electronic and computer music at the University of Texas at Austin and composes music for local theater, modern dance and music performances in Austin. He has done residencies at the Staatliches Institut fuer Musikforschung Berlin, Dartmouth, UC Santa Barbara, Wesleyan, and taught a night school on SuperCollider at UC Berkeley. He is a member of the Austin Robot group which explores robotics, cybernetics and the arts, and was a member of a mysterious sound and performance exploration group known as Liquid Mice. He also spent a time writing data analysis and observation planning tools for the NASA Hubble Space Telescope project, which is where he learnt his compiler writing chops.

http://www.audiosynth.com

Alistair Riddell (b. 1955. Melbourne, Australia) studied Music and Computer Science at La Trobe University in Australia and holds a PhD in composition from Princeton University. He was also a post-doctoral fellow at La Trobe University (1995-96) and president of the Australasian Computer Music Association (1994- 96).

During the 1980s he developed a variety of composition and performance systems for acoustic pianos under computer control. Music from these systems has appeared on various cassettes released in Australia and the Anthology of Australian Music on CD collection. A work from 1983 was released on the "Astral Voice" CD "An Anthology of Australian music" from the New Albion label in San Francisco. Early in 1998, he released a CD, "Sturm und Drang", which contains definitive material from all periods of development with the computer controlled instruments from 1982 to 1987.

Since then Riddell has focused on algorithmic control of signal processing techniques as applied to real-world sounds. His recent work has been performed in New York, Brazil, London, Delphi, Berlin and Hong Kong where a 1996, "Legend", based on vocalist, Caroline Connors' voice, was included on the International Computer Music Conference CD. In 1997, he released the CD "42", which is a collection of works composed between 1990 and 1997. His latest work, "Steam Land" will be performed at the ICMC in Beijing in September 1999.

Riddell is currently a senior research assistant at Queensland University of Technology. His extensive curriculum vitae including details on works, articles and research can be found at: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~amr/