Tuesday 26 October 2010

eContact! calls for contributions

eContact! 13.2 - Keyboard + Live EA: The Performer's Perspective
eContact! extends an open call for contributions to an issue focussing on the situation of the performer of works for keyboard and live electronics, coordinated by Guest Editor Sebastian Berweck.

Submission deadline: 15 January 2011
Publication: 15 February 2011

Submission information: http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/13_2/call.html


eContact! 13.3 - Creative Rights and the Electroacoustic Economy
eContact! extends an open call for contributions to an issue - coordinated by Guest Editor David Ogborn — exploring the way that intellectual property (IP) issues affect electroacoustic (EA) practice: from the various IP models (copyright and left, creative commons) through to the larger questions of how individual artists, EA support organizations and the culture as a whole self-organize and sustain themselves economically.

Submission deadline: 31 January 2011
Publication: 28 February 2011

Submission information: http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/13_3/call.html

Saturday 16 October 2010

More radio and sound art

Here are some assorted links mostly related to radio and sound art:
And now for something completely different:

Sunday 10 October 2010

Two seminars

I attended two seminars this week at Audiorama, the new multichannel venue for radiophonic/sound art in Stockholm. At the first, Morton Subotnick talked about his life in music, beginning with the San Francicso Tape Music Center and the development of the Buchla synthesiser, and ending with his latest mixed media work, Jacob's Room. Many of his anecdotes have already been told in Bernsteins The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s counterculture and the avant-garde (and, according to Andreas Engström, by Pauline Oliveros), but it was interesting all the same.

The other seminar was about radio and radio art. Mats Lindström, director of EMS, introduced the subject by speaking on the importance of Sveriges Radio (the Swedish national radio and the founder of EMS) for electroacoustic music, radio art and text-sound composition.

John Kieffer, creative director of Sound and music (which Sonic Arts Network has merged into), talked about radio's creation of new ways of listening, both collective and solitary: the scarcity of radios in Jamaica made people gather to listen to American music programmes, which led to the sound system culture; in England, people met at car parks to listen to their favourite shows on their car radios; and Kieffer's concentrated listening to bad quality pirate radio in bed at night, which gave rise to an intense experience comparable to deep listening.

Researcher Kersten Glandien spoke about the relation between radio and sound art. According to Glandien, radio art is one-directional and exclusively aural, while sound art is interactive and connected to other media. Dependent on public radio and its policies, the "inefficient" radio art might turn into a dying genre due to commercialisation and dwindling resources, whereas sound art has developed close ties with galleries and museums, and is now fully integrated in the art world.

If I interpret her correctly, there are, however, some trends that point to a brighter future for radio art. One is the creation of new independent radio stations, run by enthusiasts and using new web technology to reach out, e.g. Resonance104.4fm in the UK and WFMU in the USA. Another is the ties between sound art and radio art, and the increasing collaboration between radio stations, new media organisations and art institutions. A third trend is the new interest in single-sense experience and focused listening. She also mentioned the vast archives of sound works assembled at public radio stations, and the problem of preserving and make them known.

An interesting discussion followed on the temporal aspects of broadcasting vs. mp3-players and the like, and on the importance of public radio for artists. There still seems to be funding for commissions of radio/sound art available, and public radio still matters for distributing art and music outside the large cities.

Thursday 30 September 2010

New books in EMS' library

Some books I grabbed at the conference yesterday:
  • Jokitulppo, Jaana: Non occupational noise : sources, exposure and effects on hearing
  • Karlsson, Henrik (red.): Papers presented at the conference ”Stockholm, hey, listen!”, June 9-13, 1998
  • Karlsson, Henrik (red.): From awareness to action : proceedings from ”Stockholm, hey listen!” : conference on acoustic ecology, Stockholm, June 9-13, 1998 
  • Landström, Ulf & Mossberg, Frans: Man and sound environment 2010 : proceedings 
  • Selander, Jenny: Traffic noise and cardiovascular disease
  • Willim, Robert (red.): Virtualiteter : sex essäer

Monday 27 September 2010

New issue of Hz, #15, September 2010

Contents

"Towards a Soundly Ecstatic Electronica" by Joseph Nechvatal
Artist/art theoretician Joseph Nechvatal's text deals with a phantasmagorical theorization of electronic-based sound art that places sound art in the context of the abstract unlimited-field of representation made possible by electronic communications.

"Of Ultrasound, Art and Science" by Michael Dotolo
Multimedia artist/musician Michael Dotolo discusses sound art in the context of art-science relating to ultrasound. "My intent in studying the invisible sonic spectrum is to understand the importance that these frequencies bare on the complex communicative fabric of the natural and technological aspects of our lives."

"Acoustics, Not Theatre" by Adrian Knight
Composer Adrian Knight: "Sound, time and space are our way of dividing a multidimensional reality into manageable subunits. Sound in time and space constitute what we call music….[O]f these three subunits, space is the most complex, and also most dependent on social and architectural necessity and availability"

"Iannis Xenakis: Form and Transformation" by JD Pirtle
"Avant-garde composer, architect and music theorist Iannis Xenakis consistently pushed the boundaries of music, mathematics, architecture and science in his work." Artist JD Pirtle examines Xenakis' hybridised and interdisciplinary practice in which Xenakis was able to "augment, transform, invert or rotate" the many ways architecture and music are related.

"James Turrell's Mendota Stoppages and Roden Crater: When the Studio and the Art Become One" by JD Pirtle
Artist JD Pirtle reviews the relation between the space and the art in the practice of James Turrell, whose early departure from the white cube tradition manifests break-down of the division "studio, non-studio, anti-studio." Two of Turrell’s pieces, Mendota Stoppages and Roden Crater are revisited.

"Teorema Ritournelle" by Chritina McPhee
Chritina McPhee: "This text came into being as I struggled to explain to myself why the idea of a witness, or wit(h)nessing could apply to the status of an object like a drawing. Teorema Ritournelle turns on some observations and flights around Pasolini's film TEOREMA, and applies them to the transposition of drawings into presences of an inordinate kind."

Sunday 26 September 2010

Various stuff

Soundscape studies, (urban) sound design and the like seem to be rather popular in Sweden these days. I'm attending the conference Man & Sound Environment 2010 in Lund this week, a conference immediately followed by another one in Stockholm, Designing Soundscape for Sustainable Urban Development, on September, 30-October, 1.

Another recent conference held in Sweden was the 5th Audio Mostly Conference : A Conference on Interaction with Sound, September, 15-17, which took place in Piteå in Northern Sweden. Proceedings are avalible online.

For our Swedish readers
Ljudplanering is a new web portal on urban soundscapes, developed in collaboration between Movium and landscape architect Gunnar Cerwén.

There's been a recent exchange in Svenska Dagbladet on the research project "Acoustic design artifacts and methods for urban soundscapes" and its companion sound installation at Mariatorget, Stockholm:

New online journal Interference calls for papers

Interference : a journal of audio culture, are pleased to announce a call for papers for the inaugural issue "An ear alone is not a being" : embodied mediations in audio culture.

To what extent are acoustic practices embodied? How does physical embodiment shape auditory cognition? What role do processes such as biofeedback and genetic algorithms play in contemporary musical practices? What kinds of idealised listening subjects are encoded in acoustic algorithms such as codecs, head-related transfer functions or binaural recording specifications? How are psychoacoustic effects deployed for and against the body? How might we speak about listening practices that extend beyond the ear to sensorial or haptic accounts of audition?

The inaugural issue of Interference investigates the mediative role of the body in sonic practices. Embodied mediation presumes a reciprocal process: we explore how listening experiences and acoustic practices are shaped by corporeality, but we also attend to the many ways in which these processes work upon that body, through psychophysical affect and the representation and encoding of embodied subjects in acoustic performances, technologies, and cultural artefacts. Submissions may take the form of academic articles or statements of research and practice. For more information see the submission guidelines.

Proposals for this issue of Interference might address, but not exclusively, some of the following issues and points of discussion:
  • Research in Embodied Music Cognition
  • Phenomenology of Sound
  • Biofeedback: the role played by corporeality in sonic arts, musical practices, performance and design
  • Sonic Dominance: the use of acoustic properties as affective tools
  • Sonic Mediations: Exploring the mediative role of the body between cognitive response and acoustic environment. Exploring the relationship between the body and tools for acoustic composition and performance.
  • Encoding Bodies: An exploration of how the body might be represented or encoded in practices as diverse as instrument design, networked performances, psychoacoustic algorithms etc.
  • Haptic or intersensory listening practices
Interference balances its content between academic and practice based research and therefore accepts proposals for both academic papers and accounts of practice based research.

Deadline for submission of Abstracts of 250 words October 31st 2010
Deadline for Completed Papers January 15th 2011
Submissions can be made to editor@interferencejournal.com
Publication aimed for Spring 2011

For more information, and submission guidelines please se the Submission Guidelines or contact editor@interferencejournal.com

NIME 2011 - Call for participation

11th International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2011)
30 May - 1 June 2011, Oslo, Norway

We invite you to be part of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. The core purpose of the NIME conference is to present the latest results in design, development, performance and analysis of/for/with new interfaces/instruments for musical use. In 2011 we will put an extra emphasis on performance aspects related to NIME, something which will also be addressed in a symposium, workshops and master classes in the days leading up to the conference.

We invite for the following types of submissions (see below for details):
- Paper (oral/poster/demo)
- Performance
- Performance Plus Paper
- Installation/exhibition
- Workshop

IMPORTANT DATES
- SID exhibition proposals: 5 November 2010 (22:00 CET)
- Paper/performance/installation/workshop submission: 31 January 2011 (22:00 CET)
- Review notification: 18 March 2011
- Final paper deadline: 26 April 2011

TOPICS
- Novel controllers and interfaces for musical expression
- Novel musical instruments
- Augmented/hyper instruments
- Novel controllers for collaborative performance
- Interfaces for dance and physical expression
- Interactive game music
- Robotic music
- Interactive sound and multimedia installations
- Interactive sonification
- Sensor and actuator technologies
- Haptic and force feedback devices
- Interface protocols and data formats
- Motion, gesture and music
- Perceptual and cognitive issues
- Interactivity design and software tools
- Sonic interaction design
- NIME intersecting with game design
- Musical mapping strategies
- Performance analysis
- Performance rendering and generative algorithms
- Machine learning in performance systems
- Experiences with novel interfaces in live performance and composition
- Surveys of past work and stimulating ideas for future research
- Historical studies in twentieth-century instrument design
- Experiences with novel interfaces in education and entertainment
- Reports on student projects in the framework of NIME related courses
- Artistic, cultural, and social impact of NIME technology
- Biological and bio-inspired systems
- Mobile music technologies
- Musical human-computer interaction
- Multimodal expressive interfaces
- Practice-based research approaches/methodologies/criticism

CALL FOR PAPERS
We welcome submissions on all above mentioned (and other) topics related to development and artistic use of new interfaces for musical expression. There are three different paper submission categories:
- Full paper (up to 6 pages in proceedings, longer oral presentation,
optional demo)
- Short paper/poster (up to 4 pages in proceedings, shorter oral
presentation or poster, optional demo)
- Demonstration (up to 2 pages in proceedings)
All accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings.
Paper submission information: http://www.nime2011.org/submission/#papers

CALL FOR PERFORMANCES
We welcome submission of pieces for three different types of performance venues:
- Concert hall performance
- Club performance
- Foyer "stunt" performance
Any type of NIME performance pieces are welcome, but we would particularly like to encourage the use of motion capture techniques in performance. For this we can make available several different types of motion capture systems (Qualisys, XSens, Optitrack, Mega). Network pieces and mobile music pieces are also encouraged. Within reasonable limits, we may be able to provide musicians to perform pieces. Performance submission information: http://www.nime2011.org/submission/#performances

CALL FOR PERFORMANCE PLUS PAPER
To support more cross-disciplinary work between scientific and artistic research, we highly encourage submission of performance pieces related to papers. Here the scientific presentation may be the basis for the artistic presentation, or vice versa. Submissions within this category will have to be done for both the piece and the paper, with a clear note that paper and piece belongs together. Evaluation will be done on the combined quality of both submissions.

CALL FOR INSTALLATIONS
In connection with NIME 2011 an exhibition on sonic interaction design will be curated in collaboration with the EU COST IC0601 Action on Sonic Interaction Design (SID). For the exhibition we are looking for works using sonic interaction within arts, music and design as well as examples of sonification for research and artistic purposes. The exhibition will take place at the Norwegian Museum of Science, Technology and Medicine and run for three months over the summer 2011. We also aim to include works in public spaces to be presented at various locations in Oslo (possibly) for a shorter duration in parallel with NIME. This is a curated exhibition, and there is a possibility for funding and assistance to be provided for selected artists. Note that there is an early deadline for submissions within this category (5 November). Further enquiries concerning the SID exhibition should be addressed to the curators (exhibition@nime2011.org).

In addition to the exhibition, we also call for installations to be presented during the NIME conference only. These may be foyer location installations or room-based installations. Installation submission information: http://www.nime2011.org/submission/#installations

CALL FOR WORKSHOPS
We call for short (3 hours) or long (6 hours) workshops and tutorials. These can be targeted towards specialist techniques, platforms, hardware, software or pedagogical topics for the advancement of fellow NIME-ers and people with experience related to the topic. They can also be targeted towards visitors to the NIME community, novices/newbies, interested student participants, people from other fields, and members of the public getting to know the potential of NIME.

Tutorial proposers should clearly indicate the audience and assumed knowledge of their intended participants to help us market to the appropriate audience. Workshops and tutorials can relate to, but are not limited to, the topics of the conference. This is a good opportunity to explore a specialized interest or interdisciplinary topic in depth with greater time for discourse, debate, collaboration. Admission to workshops and tutorials will be charged separately from the main conference. Proposer(s) are responsible for publishing any workshop proceedings (if desired) and should engage in the promotion of their event amongst own networks. Workshops may be cancelled or combined if there is inadequate participation. Workshop submission information: http://www.nime2011.org/submission/#workshops

If you have any inquiries, please email us at post@nime2011.org. Please feel free to forward this message to others. On behalf of the NIME 2011 committee, Alexander Refsum Jensenius (University of Oslo)
Kjell Tore Innervik (Norwegian Academy of Music)

Saturday 11 September 2010

New books and CDs in EMS' library

New books
  • Lamers, Maurits (ed.): Proceedings of the Linux Audio Concerence 2010
  • Prieberg, Fred K.: Musica ex machina; über das Verhältnis von Musik und Technik
  • Rodgers, Tara: Pink noises : women on electronic music and sound
New CDs
  • Bennett, Gerald: Chrysopée électronique 31
  • Bertilsson, Andreas: Paramount
  • Biffarella, Gonzalo: Mestizaje (Chrysopée électronique 10)
  • Boeswillewald, Pierre: Chrysopée électronique 3
  • Boeswillewald, Pierre: Chrysopée électronique 27
  • Clozier, Christian: Chrysopée électronique 7
  • Cochini, Roger: Chrysopée électronique 6
  • Compendium international : Bourges 2004 (Chrysopée électronique 26)
  • Di Scipio, Agostino: Paysage historiques : musique electroacoustique 1998-2005 (Chrysopée électronique 25)
  • López, Francisco: Through the looking-glass
  • Messiaen, Olivier: Turangalîla-symphonie
  • The Radiophonic Workshop
  • Riley, Terry: In C
  • Les saisons (Chrysopée électronique 23)
  • Savouret, Alain: Chrysopée électronique 28
  • Serra, Luis Maria: Musica electroacustica (Chrysopée électronique 19)
  • Skog, Ylva: Terra firma
  • Vaggione, Horacio & Mead, Philip: Musiques pour piano et electroacoustique (Chrysopée électronique 5)
  • Wishart, Trevor: Fabulous Paris : a virtual oratorio

Friday 3 September 2010

Call: Seventh International Conference on Music Since 1900

The theme of the Biennial Conference is music since 1900, conceived in the broadest possible terms. Proposals for papers may be submitted on any topic relating to 20th- and 21st-century musics (of any genre), drawing on scholarly approaches from any relevant intellectual discipline.

The Music Analysis Conference welcomes papers on any aspect of theory and analysis relating to music of any genre and historical period.

Editorial representatives from Music Analysis and twentieth-century music will be keen to discuss the possibility of developing conference papers into articles for their respective journals.

In addition to open sessions, the Programme Committee warmly invites proposals for papers to be read at the sessions devoted to the following themes:
  • computing and contemporary musicology
  • curating the new
  • electroacoustic music and intermedia
  • film music
  • the future of the digital economy
  • the impact of technology on music
  • jazz
  • new historiographies
  • phenomenology
  • popular music
  • temporalities
  • timbre
Proposals in the following categories will be considered:
  • Papers (20 minutes maximum, with 10 minutes for discussion)
  • Paper sessions (three or four papers, each of 20 minutes maximum, with 10 minutes for discussion)
  • Roundtable discussions (up to 6 participants, each giving a short position paper, followed by a general discussion)
  • Recitals, lecture-recitals and lectures illustrated by sound diffusions or audio-visual screenings
Programme Committee: Dr Paul Archbold, Dr Arved Ashby, Prof. Rachel Cowgill, Prof. William Drabkin, Dr Nicholas Gebhardt, Prof. Adam Krims, Dr Alan Marsden, Prof. Deborah Mawer, Prof. Peter Nelson, Dr Nicholas Reyland, Prof. Michael Spitzer, Dr Edward Venn (Chair), Dr Charles Wilson.

Proposal Instructions/Guidelines
Abstracts and proposals should be prepared as follows:
  • For individual papers: up to 250 words
  • For paper sessions: 250-word (maximum) summary and up to 250 words for each session participant
  • For roundtable discussions: 250-word (maximum) and up to 150 words for each panel participant
  • For recitals, lecture-recitals and lectures illustrated by sound diffusions or audio-visual screenings: 250 word (maximum) summary, plus participant CVs and recordings / scores / other details of works to be included in the event
Further information for applicants:
  • Only one proposal of each type is permitted per applicant
  • Proposals should not substantially duplicate presentations being given at conferences or other events proximate in time or place to ICMSN 2011 / LancMAC
  • All proposals must be sent by email as a MS Word attachment to msnmac2011@lancaster.ac.uk
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: 3 DECEMBER 2010

Successful applicants will be informed by 17 January 2011

Sunday 22 August 2010

Hz calls for submissions

On-line journal Hz is looking for articles on New Media, Net Art, Sound Art, Electro-Acoustic Music, Virtual World/Machinima. We accept earlier published and unpublished articles in English. Please send your submissions to hz-journal@telia.com

Deadline: 5 September, 2010

Hz is published by the non-profit organization Fylkingen in Stockholm. Established in 1933, Fylkingen has been known for introducing yet-to-be-established art forms throughout its history. Nam June Paik, Stockhausen, Cage, Stelarc, etc. have all been introduced to the Swedish audience through Fylkingen. Its members consist of leading composers, musicians, sound artists, dancers, performance artists and video artists in Sweden.

For more information on Fylkingen, please visit http://www.fylkingen.se/about or http://www.hz-journal.org/n4/hultberg.html

SuperCollider workshop in Bergen

Tuesday 28. September – Friday 1. October, Bergen, Norway

BEK, the Bergen center for electronic arts, invites musicians, programmers and composers to a four-days workshop focusing on the software MODALITY. It’s free to attend, but you have to cover your own travel and stay.

Modality is a tool for building electro-instruments in SuperCollider under construction by Jeff Carey og Bjørnar Habbestad. The workshop will elucidate this development through presentations, discussions and open code-sessions.

Invited participants are Jeff Carey, Alberto di Campo, Wouter Snoei and Marije Baalman, Trond Lossius and Bjørnar Habbestad. themes to be covered are: Modal Control strategies, sensor input, DBAP spatialisation, Proxy Space, Quark, Mapping strategies etc.

The workshop is open for participants skilled in working with SuperCollider.

Contact BEK v/ Lars Ove Toft for registration. lars.ove.toftATbek.no

Saturday 21 August 2010

New books in EMS' library

Please note that some of these "new" books (especially the reports on sound synthesis) are in fact old ones, found in EMS' archives.
  • Banks, J.D. ; Berg, P. ; Rowe, R. ; Theriault, D.: SSP : a bi-parametric approach to sound synthesis (Sonological reports ; no. 5)
  • Bayle, François: Erosphère
  • Beauchamp, James W.: A computer system for time-variant harmonic analysis and synthesis of musical tones (Technical report ; no. 15 / University of Illinois, School of Music, Experimental Music Studio)
  • Beauchamp, James W.: A report on the Magnavox sponsored research investigation ”The development of new electronic systems for generating musical sound” (Technical report ; no. 10 / University of Illinois, School of Music, Experimental Music Studio)
  • Beauchamp, James W.: A statement of progress on the research investigation, ’Generation and creation of new electronic sounds’
  • Bennett, Gerald: Research at IRCAM in 1978 (Rapports IRCAM ; 19/79)
  • Bilbao, Stefan: Numerical sound synthesis : finite difference schemes and simulation in musical acoustics
  • Bjurman, Jens: Elektronmusikstudion : ett förteckningsarbete
  • Bjurman, Jens: EMS arkivförteckning
  • Bäckström, Per: Vårt brokigas ochellericke! : om experimentell poesi
  • Cooke, Lynne & Kelly, Karen (red.): Max Neuhaus : Times Square, Time Piece Beacon
  • Demers, Joanna: Listening through the noise : the aesthetics of experimental electronic music
  • Fucks, Wilhelm: Mathematische Analyse der Formalstruktur von Musik (Forschungsberichte des Wirtschafts- und Verkehrsministeriums Nordrhein-Westfalen ; Nr. 357)
  • Gardner, John: Computer facilities for music at IRCAM, as of October, 1977 (Rapports IRCAM ; 3/78)
  • Hansen, Sven & Wedin, Aaby: Mikrofoner för TV-film (Tekniska Utbildningens serie / Sveriges Radio ; nr 6)
  • Hiller, Lejaren A.: Report on contemporary experimental music, 1961 (Technical report ; no. 4 / University of Illinois, School of Music, Experimental Music Studio)
  • Hiller, Lejaren A.: Seven electronic studies for two-channel tape recorder (1963) (Technical report ; no. 6 / University of Illinois, School of Music, Experimental Music Studio)
  • IRCAM: Annual report 1990
  • Jensen, Erik Granly & LaBelle, Brandon: Radio territories
  • Küpper, Leo: Couleurs sinusoidales et potentiels d’attraction des sons sinusoidaux
  • Nyquist, Bengt & Valentin, Karl-Otto: Musikteknik (Tekniska Utbildningens serie / Sveriges Radio ; nr 12)
  • Nösselt, Volker: Die Tonhöhenbewegungsinformation und ihre Perzeptionsverhaltensweisen in Geräuschen : intern rapport : Maart 1966. Deel I
  • Nösselt, Volker: Die Tonhöhenbewegungsinformation und ihre Perzeptionsverhaltensweisen in Geräuschen : intern rapport : Maart 1966. Deel II
  • Peters, G. David: Research and development in computer-assisted instruction in music at the University of Illinois
  • Reynolds, Roger: Explorations in sound/space manipulation, I (1975) (Reports from the center : an occasional series of publications by the Center for Music Experiment and Related Research, University of California at San Diego ; vol. 1, no.1)
  • Risset, Jean-Claude: Hauteur et timbre des sons (Rapports IRCAM ; 11/78)
  • Risset, Jean-Claude: Paradoxes de hauteur (Rapports IRCAM ; 10/78)
  • Rydbeck, Olof: I maktens närhet : diplomat, radiochef, FN-ämbetsman
  • Sicko, Dan: Techno rebels : the renegades of electronic funk
  • Statens kulturråd: Uppföljning av Access (Kulturrådets skriftserie 2010:1)
  • Stenberg, Ulf: Den allvarsamme skrattaren
  • Struycken, Peter: Linarc (Sonological reports ; no. 3)
  • Toop, David: Sinister resonance : the mediumship of the listener
  • Trautmann, Lutz & Rabenstein, Rudolf: Digital sound synthesis by physical modeling using the functional transformation method

Friday 30 July 2010

New proceedings online

7th Sound and Music Computing Conference
The papers presented at the 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference that took place at the UPF from the 21st to the 24th on July 2010 are now online at http://smcnetwork.org/resources/smc2010. The papers have been published on the smcnetwork.org website under a Creative Commons license.

Interactive Sonification workshop - ISon 2010
The proceedings of the Interactive Sonification workshop - ISon 2010 are now available on-line at http://www.interactive-sonification.org/ISon2010/proceedings/. The proceedings are licensed as an Open Access publication.

Friday 16 July 2010

Call for abstracts: Sound Experience – Experiencing Sound

A new open access journal, SoundEffects - An Interdisciplinary Journal of Sound and Sound Experience, calls for articles:

Call for abstracts: Sound Experience – Experiencing Sound
The first issue of SoundEffects raises the question of the epistemological potential of sound. How does sound provoke and influence the way in which we experience the world? How can we talk about the phenomenological, bodily experience that sound produces? More than ever, everyday life is mediated by a multitude of digitized and mechanically reproduced sounds. In Michael Bull's words: "Waking, walking, driving, working and even falling asleep are all done to music or some other acoustic accompaniment" (Bull, 2003). Never has urban life been noisier. Yet within philosophical, sociological, and aesthetic frameworks, the world is still mostly conceived of as a visual reality. Sound produces meaning in numerous ways, both through the phenomenological, bodily experience of sound and through emerging and changing discourses of cultural practice. Responding to this condition, contemporary sound research must reflect upon the various ways in which the world is experienced through sound.

We welcome scholars from any discipline within the humanities and the social sciences to reflect upon this complex yet crucial aspect of contemporary life.

Topics of interest may include (but are not limited to):
  • Sound experience within the arts
  • Sound in media and communication
  • Sound and social interaction
  • Historical perspectives on sound
  • Cross-modal experiences of sound
An abstract of 300 words should be sent by e-mail to aestng(at)hum.au.dk no later than October 15, 2010. Full articles are due on January 15, 2011.

Thursday 15 July 2010

Poet and text-sound artist Bengt Emil Johnson dead

Bengt Emil Johnson was born 1936 in Saxdalen, Dalecarlia, and was one of the pioneers of Swedish text-sound composition and electroacoustic music. He studied piano and composition for Knut Wiggen, but later become more interested in poetry. Johnson worked at Sveriges Radio (the Swedish national radio), and edited the contemporary music journal Nutida Musik for many years. He passed away on July, 14, 2010.

Johnson's text-sound compositions have been released on e.g. Text-Sound Compositions - A Stockholm Festival and The Pioneers (PSCD 63) from Phono Suecia, and some of them are available at UbuWeb. There are also some material available at konkretpoesi.se (in Danish/Swedish).

Update 2010-07-25. Some press voices (in Swedish only):
There is also a recent dissertation (in Swedish) on Johnsons poetry: "Tro mig på min ort" : Oöversättligheten som tematiskt komplex i Bengt Emil Johnsons poesi 1973-1982 by Johan Alfredsson, published by Holzweg.

Friday 4 June 2010

The archive of EMS and related archives

Note July, 30, 2014: For an updated and extended version, see Electronic music archives in the collection of The Swedish Performing Arts Agency.

The archives of EMS and Fylkingen were donated to the Music and Theatre Library of Sweden in 2009. Archivist Jens Bjurman processed the EMS archive during spring 2010, and the inventory (in Swedish) is now published on the library website (his master's thesis on the processing can be found here). For EMS's tape archive, see below. The Fylkingen tape archive is partly digitised and available for research at Fylkingen.

The Music and Theatre Library also holds some other archives of interest to researchers in Swedish electronic music (links are to the inventories, if available. Please note that most of them are in Swedish):
The Swedish Museum of Performing Arts stores some of the former studio equipment of EMSRalph Lundsten and Ákos Rózmann (information only in Swedish).

In addition, the National Library of Sweden holds the archives of Karl-Birger Blomdahl (1916-1968) and Åke Hodell (1919-2000), and a small Öyvind Fahlström (1928-1976) archive (the main one is in Barcelona at the Museum of Contemporary Art). For more information, search for these names in Ediffah. The Hodell tape archive is in SMDB. The archive of his father, Björn Hodell, is at the Music and Theatre Library.

The EMS tape archive
EMS's music archive ("bandarkivet", the tape archive) has been donated to the National Library of Sweden for long-time preservation (except for commercially released records, which will be kept in the EMS library). The digitised content will be accessible through the Swedish Media Database (SMDB).

There are three ways to search the EMS music archive:
  1. For digitised materials only, search SMDB with 'collection:"EMS bandarkiv"' to see all available items. Currently, SMDB holds only about 80 works, but more will come. One can listen to these works at the National Library of Sweden/Audiovisual Media, but not online, due to copyright restrictions (what else?).
  2. To search the entire archive, use DISMARC, which I've blogged on elsewhere. The metadata is limited, and one can't listen to the music, but one sees all content, whether digitised or not.
  3. Visit EMS and search the full database. It has some additional functionality compared to SMDB and DISMARC, e.g. an hierarchic display of a composer's works, their versions and audio carriers (based on FRBR). The EMS database is also the most frequently updated, and one can listen to all of the digitised music, including CD:s and DVD:s that haven't been migrated to the database yet.

Monday 24 May 2010

New books in EMS' library

  • ARTI (Artistic Research, Theory and Innovation group at the Amsterdam School of the Arts): Beginning with music, continuing otherwise (Rtrsrch, vol. 2, no. 1)
  • Bak, Andrea: Else Marie Pade : en biografi
  • Barry S. Brook (red.): Musicology and the computer : Musicology 1966-2000. A practical program : three symposia 1965-66
  • Bruland, Inge (red.): Else Marie Pade og Symphonie magnétophonique
  • Centralantikvariatet: Modern philosophy : from the library of Carl Lesche (Catalogue 13)
  • Centralantikvariatet: Music : from the library of Carl Lesche (Catalogue 15)
  • Donnerborg, Troels: Klangen af en stjerne : historien om vidunderbarnet, Else Marie Pade ...
  • LaBelle, Brandon: Sound culture and everyday life
  • Liljeholm, Thomas & Parment, Hans: Framgångsrik mönstermodell : Coma, Contemporary music and artists, Växjö : Musik i Syds centrum för nutida konstmusik 2003-2010
  • Sjöbrandt, Agnes: Ákos Rózmanns arkiv
  • Tompkins, Dave: How to wreck a nice beach : the vocoder from world war II to hip-hop
  • Voegelin, Salomé: Listening to noise and silence : towards a philosophy of sound art
  • Wiggen, Knut: De två musikkulturerna

Saturday 27 March 2010

SuperCollider Symposium 2010 call for Submissions

SuperCollider Symposium 2010 Berlin
http://supercollider2010.de
http://supercollider.sourceforge.net

We would like to announce that we are hosting the next SuperCollider Symposium in Berlin, September 23-26, 2010. Berlin is a very attractive city for artists and has great diverse and lively music scenes. We have found some great locations for concerts, workshops and conference talks, and we are currently finalizing the rest of the locations and will provide more detailed information on our website shortly.

The symposium will introduce SuperCollider (SC) to new users, show the current state of development, and host talks and presentations of a variety of artistic and/or scientific projects realised with SC. The 4-day conference will be preceeded by 5 days of workshops intended as community service to help beginning programmers, composers and artists with specific SuperCollider techniques. All Concerts, performances and exhibitions will be open to the public.

Call for Works, Installations, Papers, Workshops
We are now inviting proposals for participation in the fourth SuperCollider Symposium in Berlin, Germany, September 23-26, 2010.

You can propose works or installations to be performed or shown in different venues:
http://supercollider2010.de/calls/14-call-for-works
http://supercollider2010.de/venues

You can propose papers and presentations to be read at the conference:
http://supercollider2010.de/calls/15-call-for-papers-presentations-demos

You can propose workshops to be held in September 18-22, 2010
http://supercollider2010.de/calls/16-call-for-workshops

Please read the general info for calls:
http://supercollider2010.de/calls/13-calls-general

All entries will be evaluated by appropriate juries (for details see individual calls).

For more information and contacts go to http://supercollider2010.de

Symposion on Music/Sonic Art call for papers

In conjunction with InterSymp 2010: 22nd International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics

Symposion on Music/Sonic Art


August 2-6, 2010
Markgraf-Ludwig Gymnasium, Hardstrasse 2, Baden-Baden, Germany

CALL FOR PAPERS:
We are pleased to announce the International Symposium on Music/Sonic Art: Practices and Theories, an interdisciplinary two-day event to be held in Baden-Baden, Germany. The provisional dates of the Symposium are August 2-3 in order that participants can also attend other symposia such as: the 8th Special Focus Symposium on Art and Science, the 3rd Symposium on Systems Research in Arts and Humanities and Comprovisations: Improvisation Systems in Performing Arts and Technologies.

Proposals for sessions and individual papers for the International Symposium on Music/Sonic Art: Practices and Theories are invited from academics, practitioners and post-graduate students of diverse fields of investigation, according to one of the following formats: academic research paper (including research in progress), report on practice-based work or educational programmes. (Delegates wishing to present performances are advised to consult the call for papers of symposia listed above.) All proposals will be judged based on their scholarly quality, originality and potential for further discourse.

Paper Proposals/Abstracts should be submitted as soon as possible but no later than March 30, 2010. Notification of Acceptance and a Paper Template will be sent to authors by April 9, 2010. Further details on Submission Guidelines, the Copyright Transfer Form, and the Conference Registration Form are available at the IIAS home page: www.iias.edu.

Please note that the early registration fee is 345.00 Euros (per one Conference participant) if paid on or before May 1, 2010 and 395.00 Euros thereafter: this includes participation in all Symposia of the IIAS InterSymp 2010 Conference, the festive reception, the symposium booklets and the Music/Sonic Art Symposium Proceedings - Volume I.

Paper committee: Prof. Dr. Mine Dogantan-Dack (Middlesex University, UK); Prof. Clarence Barlow (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA); Holger Zschenderlein (University of Brighton, UK); Fiorenzo Palermo (University of Middlesex, UK); Dr. John Dack (Lansdown Centre for Electronic Art, Middlesex University, UK).

Sound ACTs call for papers

Sound as Art - Sound in Culture
Sound in Theory - Sound in History
Conference on Sound Studies

University of Aarhus, Denmark
September 23–25, 2010

The aim of the conference is to profile contemporary sound studies as an interdisciplinary field of studies and to contribute to the discussion and development of the auditive paradigm in general. Key concepts like 'acoustemology', 'acoustic space', 'sonic environment', and 'atmosphere' might be reflected upon and developed as well, both at a theoretical level and with regard to specific cultural, medial and aesthetic contexts.

The program of the conference will consist of keynote lectures, plenary roundtables, thematic workshops and individual presentations of papers and sound art projects. Keynote speakers are Dr. Penelope Gouk (University of Manchester), Dr. Jean-Paul Thibaud (CRESSON), and professor Adam Krims (University of Nottingham).

Special sessions will be held for sound artists to present and discuss their work, and a workshop will take place on Friday where small groups of sound artists will develop sound installations for presentation in the evening. A special call for this stream will be issued.

The conference is organized by the National Research Network on Auditive Culture, the research project Audiovisual Culture, the research group Urban Sound Institute (and www.usit.nu), and the Nordic Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

Proposals for presentations (20/10 mins) or workshops (90 mins) must be submitted to the conference organisers/programme committee by April 1, 2010 as an email attachment (rtf/pdf/doc) to soundstudies@hum.au.dk. Please include the following information: Paper abstract and title (max. 200 words), name(s), affiliation, e-mail, and technical equipment required (PC/DVD/CD/data projector/over-head projector/etc.). Notifications of acceptance will be sent no later than May 3, 2010.

The official language of the conference is English. The conference fee is 1.000 D.Kr/€135.

For more info, see http://auditiveculture.ku.dk/dokument7/

Monday 15 March 2010

New books in EMS' library

  • Teknologi för livet : om Experiments in Art and Technology
  • Adlington, Robert (ed.): Sound commitments : avant-garde music and the sixties
  • Blomberg, Katja (ed.): Peter Ablinger : hören, hören = hearing, listening
  • Broman, Per F. ; Engebretsen, Nora A. & Alphonce, Bo (ed.): Crosscurrents and counterpoints : offerings in honor of Bengt Hambræus at 70
  • Bucht, Gunnar: Rum, människa, musik : essä
  • Bull, Michael & Back, Les (eds.): The auditory culture reader
  • Collins, Nick: Introduction to computer music
  • Dogantan-Dack, Mine: Recorded music : philosophical and critical reflections
  • Dyson, Frances: Sounding new media : immersion and embodiment in the arts and culture
  • Goodman, Steve: Sonic warfare : sound, affect, and the ecology of fear
  • Howe, Hubert S.: Electronic music synthesis
  • Hultgren, Veronica: Text-ljudkomposition
  • Kim-Cohen, Seth: In the blink of an ear : toward a non-cochlear sonic art
  • Krause, Bernie: Wild soundscapes : discovering the voice of the natural world : a book and CD recording
  • Lunell, Hans: Kompilatorkonstruktion : i teori och praktik
  • Miranda, Eduardo Reck & Biles, John Al (eds.): Evolutionary computer music
  • Moore, Brian C. J.: An introduction to the psychology of hearing
  • Mossberg, Frans (ed.): Sound, mind and emotion : research and aspects : texts from a series of interdisciplinary symposiums arranged 2008 by The Sound Environment Centre at Lund University, Sweden
  • Nierhaus, Gerhard: Algorithmic composition : paradigms of automated music generation
  • Park, Tae Hong: Introduction to digital signal processing : computer musically speaking
  • Stenberg, Ulf: Den gröna potatisen
  • Taube, Heinrich K.: Notes from the metalevel : introduction to algorithmic music composition
  • Toole, Floyd E.: Sound reproduction : loudspeakers and rooms
  • Wierzbicki, James: Louis and Bebe Barron's Forbidden planet : a film score guide
  • Wisén, Marie & Karlsson, Henri (eds.): - att tvinga tonerna att tala : en bok till Ingvar Lidholm
  • Zorn, John (ed.): Arcana : musicians on music
  • Zorn, John (ed.): Arcana II : musicians on music
  • Zorn, John (ed.): Arcana III : musicians on music
  • Zorn, John (ed.): Arcana IV : musicians on music

Sunday 21 February 2010

CeReNeM Journal call for papers

The Journal of the Centre for Research in New Music at the University of Huddersfield is currently soliciting articles for its second edition. The theme of this edition of the Journal will be 'Physicality and Tactility in Contemporary Electronic Music'.

The Journal will be peer reviewed and published online by CeReNeM at the University of Huddersfield. All submissions on this topic will be considered. We are particularly interested in articles concerning the following areas:
  • physicality as aesthetic in all areas of electronic music (electroacoustic, glitch, microsound, ambient etc.)
  • live-electronic improvisation
  • new interfaces
  • extended instruments
  • performance practice
  • sonification of external physical data
  • sensors
  • issues of virtuosity in new technology
  • live coding as performance
  • perception of physicality in electroacoustic music
Articles should be between 3000 - 6000 words using the attached template and submitted by email to monty(dot)adkins(at)hud(dot)ac(dot)uk by Friday 21st May.

This edition will be co-edited by Dr Monty Adkins and Dr Scott McLaughlin and will be published in July 2010. Further details and enquiries can be made to monty(dot)adkins(at)hud(dot)ac(dot)uk.

FIMPaC 2010 call for papers

Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition (FIMPaC)
Thursday 20 and Friday 21 May 2010
In Association with: Journal for Music, Technology and Education, www.intellectbooks.co.uk

The Forum for Innovation in Music Production and Composition takes place at Leeds College of Music from Thursday 20th to Friday 21st May 2010. FIMPaC is an annual event focusing on research and practice related to innovations in Music Production and Composition. This year's event is in association with the Journal for Music, Technology and Education. FIMPaC¹s goal is to bring together composers, producers, music industry representatives, academics, educators and students to discuss their practice, research and industry experiences; FIMPaC encourages participants and delegates that represent the commercial music industry and academia.

Keynote Speakers
  • Jazzie B, founder of the collective Soul II Soul is our Keynote for 20th May and will open the conference. He will discuss his experiences within the Commercial Music Industry.
  • David Toop will open the second day of the conference and address connections between commercial and experimental music and whether we can sustain notions of their independence. David will also be performing in the evening.
Call for Papers
This year's call for papers is in association with the Journal for Music, Technology and Education. Proposers are asked to indicate on their submission if they would like their work to be considered for publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal.

For more information go to http://www.lcm.ac.uk/research-conference/fimpac.htm.

Monday 15 February 2010

SUM - symposium and concert in Stockholm

SUM symposium and concert in Stockholm, Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Systematic Understanding of Music
Today, digitally informed music has reached a point where it has become feasible to detect emotion content in the musical audio stream (sound). When this is applied in real-time to aspects of its response, a new context for the creation, performance and listening to music is established where man and machine can interact in much more meaningful ways than previously. This provides for new and more engaged expressions, giving new horizons for musical artwork.

The purpose of the SUM project is to develop such tools by building on existing work by internationally outstanding scholars in the Nordic countries in digital signal processing, music cognition, emotion expression, and interaction software development. For additional information about the SUM project: http://re-new.org/research/sum/

SUM symposium
Onsdagen den 17 februari 2010 kl 10.00-17.00
A330 (Kompositionsseminariet), Kungliga Musikhögskolan, Valhallavägen 105, Stockholm (T-Bana Stadion)
Lars Graugaard (DK), Anders Friberg (KTH), Marcus Wrangö (KMH)

10.00 Introduktion till SUM / Lars Graugaard
11.00 Känslor i musik / Anders Friberg
12.00 Probabilistic melody maker / Anders Friberg & Lars Graugaard
13.00 Lunch
14.00 Kreativa möjligheter
Systematiskt bruk av känslor i musik / Lars Graugaard
15.00 Demo: Gestiska sensorer / Marcus Wrangö
16.00 Tillämpningar och presentationer
(re-new digital arts festival) / Lars Graugaard
17.00 Slut

Konsert
Onsdag 17 februari, kl 20.00. Fylkingen, Torkel Knutssongatan 2, Stockholm (T-Bana Mariatorget)

Symposiet är gratis, konserten kostar 80 kr (student 60 kr).

Ljudkultur

Some info in Swedish only about the course Sonic culture - soundscapes and the making of sound at Linköping university.

Ljudkultur - ljudlandskap och skapande av ljud är en fristående kurs (30 hp) vid Institutionen för studier av samhällsutveckling och kultur/Enheten Kultur Samhälle Mediegestaltning på Linköpings universitet, Campus Norrköping. Den ges på både grundläggande och avancerad nivå och startar höstterminen 2010. Lärare är bl.a. Magnus Alexanderson.

Saturday 6 February 2010

Call for Papers: COMPROVISATIONS - Improvisation Systems in Performing Arts and Technologies

INTERSYMP 2010
22nd International Conference on Systems Research, Informatics And Cybernetics
August, 2­-6, 2010
Markgraf-­Ludwig Gymnasium, Hardstrasse 2, Baden-­Baden, Germany

Special Focus Symposion (August 5, 2010) on COMPROVISATIONS - Improvisation Systems in Performing Arts and Technologies

Submission details are available as a PDF.

Linux Audio Conference 2010 call for papers, music and workshops

The conference about Open Source Software for music and audio
May 1-4 2010
Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU)
Utrecht, The Netherlands
http://lac.linuxaudio.org/2010

Calls are under the tab Participation on the website.

Monday 1 February 2010

"Sound is Motion" symposium and doctoral thesis defence

KTH, Stockholm, Sweden, February 11-12

A symposium entitled "Sound is Motion" will be held on February 11, in connection to Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen's doctoral thesis defence on February 12. Both events take place at the Department for Speech, Music and Hearing, KTH, in Stockholm, http://www.speech.kth.se/info/location.html and are open for all, and if you happen to be around Stockholm at the time, you are very welcome to participate.

"Sound is Motion" symposium, February 11, 14:00

Sound is usually the result of actions, such as body gestures or mechanical movements. Therefore sound is closely related to motion. Humans are very sensitive to variations of the acoustical signal in the time-frequency plane, making it possible to discriminate between body gestures even in sound.

In recent years, significant advances have been made in the study and development of techniques for musical motion data analysis and motion capture. In general, body gestures allow expressive control in sound production, and interpretation of gestures enables the extraction of the expressive content in human continuous actions.

In the "Sound is Motion" symposium, six experts will tackle the field of Sound and Motion from different perspectives. The symposium starts at 14:00. Place: Room Fantum, Department for Speech, Music and Hearing, KTH, in Stockholm.

"The acoustics and performance of DJ scratching" PhD defence, February 12, 10:00
Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen will defend his thesis "The acoustics and performance of DJ scratching. Analysis and modeling". This thesis focuses on the analysis and modeling of scratching, in other words, the DJ (disk jockey) practice of using the turntable as a musical instrument. Scratching has developed to become a skillful instrument-playing practice with complex musical output. The impact on popular music culture has been significant, and for many, the DJ set-up of turntables and a mixer is now a natural instrument choice for undertaking a creative music activity. Six papers are included in the thesis, where the first three approach the acoustics and performance of scratching, and the second three approach scratch modeling and the DJ interface.

The defense starts at 10:00. Place: Room F2, Lindstedtsvägen 26, KTH, Stockholm

Via Roberto Bresin