Footprint was originally conceived by Cory Cullinan as an undergrad at Stanford University in the late 1980s taking famed composer and electronic music legend John Chowning’s 220A course. He started working on it only to find it was too time-consuming for his undergraduate course load — at the time, digital audio workstations didn’t exist, and creating all the field recordings and somehow putting them together in a multitrack mix would’ve taken months or years of work. So he never finished it. But he always wanted to.
Moochila TV (Argentina)
As an audio piece, it was premiered to Cory’s Recording Arts students at Stanford in the summer of 2024. When surveyed as to what the piece was about and its message, the students fell into three distinct groups with different but strongly specific answers. This is exactly what the composer had hoped — an immersive emotional experience, yet one open to intellectual interpretation based on your own experience.
Grant Owens
Fascinating new art and noise piece…
Sheila Taylor
Cory Cullinan’s Footprint is a dynamic and multifaceted artistic experience that bridges decades of creative ambition. Conceived during Cory’s undergraduate years at Stanford under the tutelage of John Chowning, the legendary inventor of FM synthesis, Footprint is both a tribute to his mentor and a bold exploration of audience perception and interpretation.Cory’s goal: to create an experience that invites listeners to engage emotionally and intellectually, shaped by their own perspectives.
Divine Magazine
Discover the meditative journey of Cory Cullinan’s Footprint… an experimental release that redefines soundscapes.
Wordjanitor
This is fantastic, especially considering the backstory. I was a classmate of Tracey’s in junior high and high school. He was definitely hero quality.
Electrowave Festival
Cory’s one of the featured composers at the Electrowave Rocky Mountain Electroacoustic Music Festival in Colorado Springs! They’re presenting one of his pieces and the works of many other wonderful fine art and electroacoustic composers. Come party avant-garde supa geek style.
2026 Stanford Recording Arts Workshop Album
This year’s double album by Cory’s student ensemble at Stanford University — created and recorded in two deeply-focused weeks at Stanford by Cory’s Stanford Recording Arts Workshop students and Cory himself — is released. Always a diverse album of brilliant musicians, Cory never has any idea what will be on this album until the two weeks it is made with his wonderful Stanford students. Musicians and teachers! Find info and an application/enrollment link in the Teaching section of this website.
“Empathy” Single & Video
Cory’s annual avant-garde piece for his Seven Years Of Sensation Project is called “Empathy,” and will be released today. It’s both a deeply personal work about his own experience and a collaborative effort by his Stanford students — simultaneously purposeful and composed and a homage to John Cage’s “Musicircus,” which Cory played saxophone on as an undergrad for Cage himself in a performance at Stanford in 1992.
Stanford Recording Arts Workshop
Cory teaches the famed Stanford University Recording Arts Workshop for his fifth year! An intense and fun two week program — all day five days a week for two weeks — where an incredible ensemble of international musicians creates a double album and supports each other in their work. You could be one of them!