Introduction

Sam Ferris - Morris is a Cincinnati-based entrepreneur, inventor, artist, musician, and Control System Designer who’s career has bridged the gap between big ideas, interdisciplinary collaborations, education and mentorship, music, technology, art, animatronics and interactive sculptural installation. His career spans twenty years working to organically integrate creative technology into musical practice and collaboration with world class musicians, ensembles, designers and engineers. His first experiences with tape splicing equipment and an Arp2600 synthesizer in Dr. Brian Bevelander’s computer music classes in Tiffin, OH sent him down a lifelong path of interdisciplinary exploration, curiosity, and love for the points where art and technology meet.

Control System Designer and Integrator

As a Control System Designer and integrator he works at the forefront of robotics and story telling, developing and delivering Animatronic control systems to top stakeholders in the Theme and Entertainment industry. Prior to this, he worked in a public makerspace, taught Music technology at Miami University of Ohio, and developed Interactive Audio/Visual architectural installations for Grammy winning musical ensembles, museums, festivals, and arts organizations.

Professionally, he delights in finding elegant solutions to complex challenges, troubleshooting complex electrical and software system integrations, and bringing beautiful and ground-breaking, technically-involved, projects from initiation through to installation, commissioning and closeout.

Interests

His interests include musical improvisation and ensemble performance in all its forms, the history and philosophy of technology with a focus on electrical signals, musical instruments, movement, embodied cognition, expressive robotics and sensory systems, novel fabrication methods such as PCBA for highly integrated organic systems, intricate 3D printing techniques, Animatronics and spatial story telling.

INTERMEDIO

As an entrepreneur, Sam cofounded a tiny but mighty design studio in Cincinnati, OH named Intermedio, after the joyful musical interludes of theatrical plays during the Renaissance. Intermedio was formed in 2014 after a series of technical musical collaborations between composer, Justin West, and himself to design a software interface for processing, controlling and performing with an 8 part choir and multichannel audio system. Intermedio’s first interactive audio and light reactive installation, Radiate, was prototyped and built in Justin’s parents basement. The piece, which involved capacitive pressure sensing, embedded audio transducers for haptic feedback and LEDs, toured the city for months with Par Projects Makers Mobile winning praise and awards from the head curator of the Contemporary Art Center and various other arts institutions in Cincinnati. Subsequently, in 2017 Intermedio designed a 250 channel interactive sound sculpture for the Contemporary Art Center’s, Unmuseum, which was later featured on the University of Cincinnati’s DAAPx architecture conference. That same year Intermedio was awarded an artist grant to design and build a 52 channel immersive audio pavilion for Justin Vernon's, Eaux Claire’s Music and Arts Festival. Their latest piece, Embedded, lives on the face of ArtsWave’s head quarters building in downtown Cincinnati.

Technical Experience

Sam’s primary technical experience is in designing, developing, and integrating software and hardware systems for tightly timed, synchronous and safe control of musical systems and animated mechatronic figures. In this role he has worked with the biggest clients and organizations in the business including Grammy winning musical artists, ensembles, and studios. He has been responsible for the production and transmittal of deliverables to clients at all phases of the development process, including RFP’s, budgets, BOM’s, 3D models, electrical schematics and wiring diagrams, assembly drawings, engineering calculations, cable schedules, safety analysis, parts procurement, Industrial Control Panel assembly, system integration and electromechanical troubleshooting, servo motor tuning and scripting, FAT testing and documentation, as well as installation and programming.

Experience

LFstudios

January 2022 - Present

Intermedio

January 2013 - Present

Miami University, Adjunct Professor of Music technology

January 2017 - January 2022

Cincinnati Public Library, Makerspace Technician

January 2016 - January 2022