Joseph Butch Rovan is a composer and performer on the faculty of the Department of Music at Brown University, where he co-directs meme@brown (Multimedia & Electronic Music Experiments @ Brown) and the Ph.D. program in Computer Music and Multimedia. Prior to joining Brown he directed CEMI, the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia, at the University of North Texas, and was a "compositeur en recherche" with the Real-Time Systems Team at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. Rovan worked at Opcode Systems before leaving for Paris, serving as Product Manager for MAX, OMS and MIDI hardware.

Rovan is the recipient of several awards, including a jury selection and second prize in the 1998 and 2001 Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competitions, and a first prize in the 2002 Berlin Transmediale International Media Arts Festival. Recent performances include the performance of his "Vis-à-vis" for voice, electronics and video at the 2004 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Miami, performances at the 2005 Spark Festival and the 2005 New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME) Conference, and the premiere of his "Hopper Confessions" for cello and interactive electronics at the 2003 Festival Synthèse in Bourges, France. Rovan frequently performs his own work, including performances at the 2000 ICMC in Berlin and the 2002 NIME conference, as well as many recent performances with the interactive performance duo "Envyloop". His interactive scores for dance have been programmed in Munich, Paris, Reims, Monaco, the 2001 SEAMUS conference in Baton Rouge and the 2001 ICMC in Havana.

Rovan's research into gestural control and interactivity has been featured in IRCAM's journal "Resonance", "Electronic Musician", the Computer Music Journal, the Japanese magazine "SoundArts" and is featured on the CDROM "Trends in Gestural Control of Music", published by IRCAM (2000).