Stelios Manousakis is a composer, performer, researcher, sound designer and computer programmer. In these capacities he strives to develop a new musical language merging algorithmic finesse with the expressivity of improvisation. He composes mostly electronic, electroacoustic and electro-instrumental music using a software environment of his design and is currently interested in applying biology-inspired Artificial Life models for musical structure generation. One of the products of this work, his tape piece “Do Digital Monkeys Inhabit Virtual Trees?”, was awarded an honorable mention at the International Gaudeamus Composition Competition 2007. Besides his solo work, he is co-founder of the ensembles Computer Aided Breathing, SelectInput and Breakcore Tapdance Collective and collaborates frequently with the multimedia noise group Feedback Society and soprano Stephanie Pan.
Stelios grew up in Chania, Crete, where he studied accordion, piano and music theory; he later moved to Athens to study at the National University of Athens. After receiving a BA in Linguistics and graduating with honors from the conservatory in Advanced Music Theory as a student of Giorgos Fitsioris, he moved to the Netherlands, joining the Institute of Sonology at The Royal Conservatory, The Hague. There he studied with Paul Berg, Konrad Boehmer, Joel Ryan and Kees Tazelaar, among others, graduating with a Master's Degree in Sonology (thesis subject: Musical L-systems). He is currently a PhD student at the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS) in the University of Washington.