Showing papers in "Organised Sound in 2011"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors adopt an ecological view of digital musical interactions, considering first the relationship between performers and digital systems, and then spectators' perception of these interactions, and suggest that designers should embrace the reality that digital systems are malleable and dynamic, and may engage performers and spectators in different modalities.
Abstract: This article adopts an ecological view of digital musical interactions, considering first the relationship between performers and digital systems, and then spectators' perception of these interactions. We provide evidence that the relationships between performers and digital music systems are not necessarily instrumental in the same was as they are with acoustic systems, and nor should they always strive to be. Furthermore, we report results of a study indicating that spectators may not perceive such interactions in the same way as performances with acoustic musical instruments. We present implications for the design of digital musical interactions, suggesting that designers should embrace the reality that digital systems are malleable and dynamic, and may engage performers and spectators in different modalities, sometimes simultaneously.
54 citations
TL;DR: The Haptic Drum, the Feedback Resonance Guitar, the Electromagnetically Prepared Piano, the Overtone Fiddle and Teleoperation with Robothands are described, along with musical examples and reflections on the emergent properties of the performance ecology that these instruments enable.
Abstract: This article presents recent developments in actuated musical instruments created by the authors, who also describe an ecosystemic model of actuated performance activities that blur traditional boundaries between the physical and virtual elements of musical interfaces. Actuated musical instruments are physical instruments that have been endowed with virtual qualities controlled by a computer in real-time but which are nevertheless tangible. These instruments provide intuitive and engaging new forms of interaction. They are different from traditional (acoustic) and fully automated (robotic) instruments in that they produce sound via vibrating element(s) that are co-manipulated by humans and electromechanical systems. We examine the possibilities that arise when such instruments are played in different performative environments and music-making scenarios, and we postulate that such designs may give rise to new methods of musical performance. The Haptic Drum, the Feedback Resonance Guitar, the Electromagnetically Prepared Piano, the Overtone Fiddle and Teleoperation with Robothands are described, along with musical examples and reflections on the emergent properties of the performance ecologies that these instruments enable. We look at some of the conceptual and perceptual issues introduced by actuated musical instruments, and finally we propose some directions in which such research may be headed in the future.
50 citations
TL;DR: Spectromorphology's influence has been far reaching, inciting approaches to electroacoustic music analysis, notation, composition and education through its flexible functionality and accessible pool of vocabulary.
Abstract: Since its conception, Denis Smalley's spectromorphology has equipped listeners and practitioners of electroacoustic music with appropriate and relevant vocabulary to describe the sound-shapes, sensations and evocations associated with experiences of acousmatic sound. This liberation has facilitated and permitted much-needed discussion about sound events, structures and other significant sonic detail. More than 20 years on, it is safe to assume that within the electroacoustic music community there is an agreed and collective understanding of spectromorphological vocabulary and its descriptive application. Spectromorphology's influence has been far reaching, inciting approaches to electroacoustic music analysis (Thoresen 2007 ), notation (Patton 2007 ), composition and education through its flexible functionality and accessible pool of vocabulary.
31 citations
TL;DR: This article describes several recent projects that together illustrate an evolving practice and a philosophy of ecoacoustic sound art called EcoSono, and makes the case that the purpose of outdoor recording is not the acquisition of material samples, but to hear the world and learn from it.
Abstract: I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.
John Muir (1913)
This article describes several recent projects that together illustrate an evolving practice and a philosophy of ecoacoustic sound art called EcoSono. These projects foreground adventure-the live, in-person engagement with the world. As a technological sound art practice, EcoSono uses technology to link human and environmental expression, in an attempt to define a collaborative and symbiotic relationship between humans and the natural world. At the core of this work are computational and transduction technologies enabling deeper human-environment interaction. This paper describes three projects including the MICE (Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble) World Tour, the EcoSono Institute music/science collaboration adventure, and the Agents Against Agency series in emergent and improvised musical forms. The article also addresses several key values of interactive ecoacoustics. First, it describes the importance of 'impracticality' in creating a productive environmentalist art work. The article also makes the case that the purpose of outdoor recording is not the acquisition of material samples, but to hear the world and learn from it.
27 citations
TL;DR: A work of mine is described as a starting point to raise questions of broader relevance for current artistic practices, in terms varying from technical and specific, to more philosophical and general.
Abstract: In this paper I describe a work of mine, Background Noise Study, as a starting point to raise questions of broader relevance for current artistic practices. Issues are presented in terms varying from technical and specific, to more philosophical and general (system-theory, biocybernetics, ecology). Excursions are made into the music-theoretical (understanding of key issues in the sound arts, such as 'space', 'performance', 'form' or 'timbre') and the political (politics of sound, biopolitics of performance and listening).
21 citations
TL;DR: UrbanRemix as discussed by the authors is a platform consisting of mobile-device applications and web-based tools to facilitate collaborative field recording, sound exploration, and soundscape creation, which is used at workshops, festivals and community events.
Abstract: In this paper, the authors describe and discuss UrbanRemix, a platform consisting of mobile-device applications and web-based tools to facilitate collaborative field recording, sound exploration, and soundscape creation. Reflecting on its use at workshops, festivals and community events, they evaluate the project in terms of its ability to enable participants to engage with their aural environments and to uncover their own creativity in the process.
21 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the form's aesthetic frame, which often intends to promote our connection to nature, actually serves to disconnect us, and suggests that by confronting what it excludes from 'nature', the form might yet come to terms with ecology.
Abstract: Nature sound recording has long been criticised for the artifice of the documents it produces. Joining this easy target is the implication that the form's aesthetic frame, which often intends to promote our connection to nature, actually serves to disconnect us. This paper reviews critiques of nature sound recording and suggests that by confronting what it excludes from 'nature', the form might yet come to terms with ecology.
17 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Waters' discussion of the Performance Ecosystem as an analytic perspective argues instead for a heightened sense of continuity (Waters 2007) by developing an ecosystemically situated account of our relationships with technology and processes of skill formation.
Abstract: Whilst it is common in much discourse around contemporary musical practices to emphasise the differences between digital and acoustic ways of making music, Simon Waters' discussion of the Performance Ecosystem as an analytic perspective argues instead for a heightened sense of continuity (Waters 2007). This article lends support to this argument by developing an ecosystemically situated account of our relationships with technology and processes of skill formation. It is argued that this sense of continuity is justified, but that where differences of experiences do arise these are not, as sometimes supposed, an essential characteristic of digital technologies. On the basis that much of our skill formation consists of tacit knowledge, it is suggested that further discussion on how particular circumstances and skills arise would be revealing. Two possible headings for such discussion are suggested in the form of 'Agility' and 'Playfulness'.
16 citations
TL;DR: It is proposed that real-time composition can be considered a new performance ecosystem, specifically a genre of interactive composition systems that share compositional control between composer and system.
Abstract: This article proposes that real-time composition can be considered a new performance ecosystem. Rather than an extension of electroacoustic instruments that are used within improvisatory environments, real-time composition systems are produced by composers interested in gestural interactions between musical agents, with or without real-time control. They are a subclass of interactive systems, specifically a genre of interactive composition systems that share compositional control between composer and system. Designing the complexity of interactions between agents is a compositional act, and its outcomes are realised during performance-more so than most interactive systems, the new performance ecosystem is compositional in nature.
15 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the role of subjectivity in the creation of a group aesthetic, and the relationship between participants in a situation, a relationship that recognises the interaction between individuals, societies and institutions in its production.
Abstract: This article seeks to form a deeper understanding of the performance ecosystem by drawing parallels with Bourriaud's Relational Aesthetics and Guattari's conception of subjectivity as outlined in Chaosmosis. Through an examination of participation within performance, and a recognition of the mutability of the roles of performer, listener, instrument and environment in the creation of the music event, this article examines the place of subjectivity, the capacity for self-creation, in the formation of a group aesthetic. Such a concept places the creation of meaning not within the individual participant but rather within the relationship between participants in a situation, a relationship that recognises the interaction between individuals, societies and institutions in its production. Such a discussion helps further our understanding of the performance ecosystem as a conceptual tool.
14 citations
TL;DR: Through the use of the sonic mind-map tool, the soundscape of urban public spaces can be understood, not through speech analysis, but through spatial representations of memorised sonic ambiances.
Abstract: This article presents the different tools for assessing soundscapes within urban public spaces and develops in particular the use of the sonic mind map. We will successively define the notions of sonic perception and representation, and sonic and spatial evaluation; we will approach the concept of soundscape and finally give details about the sonic mind-map tool. Through this tool, the soundscape of urban public spaces can be understood, not through speech analysis, but through spatial representations of memorised sonic ambiances.
Investigation results based among other things on sonic mind-map analyses explain the significance of sonic spatialisation and of the sound source distance in urban soundscape assessment. Using the sonic mind map to analyse the sonic representations associated with certain urban spaces seems to be relevant for researchers in space sciences or even for urban planners.
TL;DR: An application of ecological psychology to electroacoustic music would consider the listener in relationship with both the work and the environment, in a dynamic and mutually informing relationship as mentioned in this paper, which is applied to various electroACoustic concert paradigms, demonstrating a wide range of listening experiences.
Abstract: An application of ecological psychology, based on the work of James J. Gibson, to electroacoustic music would consider the listener in relationship with both the work and the environment, in a dynamic and mutually informing relationship. This perspective is applied to various electroacoustic concert paradigms, demonstrating a wide range of listening experiences; the implications for electroacoustic music as a genre are examined. Several qualities of acousmatic music are used to explore some potential limitations of Gibson's theories. Finally, some relative strengths and weaknesses of ecological psychology are considered, as well as some potentially fruitful cooperations with other, somewhat divergent, theoretical approaches.
TL;DR: This paper examines the use of soundscape elements and mimetic sound-identities in the music of Denis Smalley to reconcile these elements with the acousmatic tradition from which his music emerges, illustrating that it does not represent a contradiction, but a refined aesthetic where spectromorphological and soundscape concerns relate in symbiosis.
Abstract: This paper examines the use of soundscape elements and mimetic sound-identities in the music of Denis Smalley. It attempts to reconcile these elements with the acousmatic tradition from which his music emerges, illustrating that it does not represent a contradiction, but rather a refined aesthetic where spectromorphological and soundscape concerns relate in symbiosis. A close look at key works, including Empty Vessels (1997), Valley Flow (1992) and Pentes (1974), reveals how these elements manifest themselves in his work, and how the spectromorphological and soundscape aspects of these pieces work together toward shared goals.
TL;DR: In this paper, the formation and segregation of timescales in electroacoustic music were investigated, where the authors examined how the perception of time is affected by the semantic meaning and the spectromorphological characteristics of sound events.
Abstract: Inspired by Denis Smalley's theoretical ideas on spectromorphology and Albert Bregman's ( 1990 ) auditory scene analysis, I began an investigation into the formation and segregation of timescales 1 in electroacoustic music. This research inevitably led me to an exploration of the factors that shape our perception of time passing and estimation of durations, where spectromorphological issues intermingle with extra-musical associations, autobiographical experiences, emotional responses, and the surrounding environment at the time of listening. Ultimately, time perception affects the structural balance of a composition. This paper, which is part of my ongoing research, examines how the perception of time is affected by the semantic meaning and the spectromorphological characteristics of sound events.
TL;DR: In this paper, a method called sound/listening walk has been applied to enhance the everyday meanings connected to sounds and to emphasise the cultural and historical layers related to them.
Abstract: Environmental sounds give information to individuals who have learned to interpret them as members of their acoustic communities. Those living within a soundscape not only receive the acoustic information passively, but also construct their surroundings by their activities.
A lot of acoustic information escapes our conscious attention partly for perceptual psychological reasons, partly because of the amount of acoustic information. A method called sound/listening walk has been applied to enhance these everyday meanings connected to sounds and to emphasise the cultural and historical layers related to them.
The article introduces earlier research and methodology on the subject, applies the recording of acoustic environments to sound/listening walks and then proposes a preliminary method called recorded listening walk for acoustic communication research and soundscape education. The article draws theoretically on acoustic communication and acoustemology.
TL;DR: In this article, a micro-spatial, perceptual morphology called the texton is proposed as an aesthetic approach to acousmatic music, in terms of intrinsic properties, the way they propagate in time, and how they organise in distributions to form spatial textures.
Abstract: The concepts introduced by Smalley in the context of space-form (2007) have firmly put acousmatic music on a discourse of spatial exploration, holding much potential for the developing of aesthetics in new directions. This article approaches space from the low level of musical structure, with a multi-dimensional attitude to space-form, exploring spatial texture, a concept introduced by Smalley to describe the temporal formations of space in spectromorphology (1997). Spatial articulation is investigated in the context of granular-oriented textures, proposing a micro-spatial, perceptual morphology ??? the texton ??? as an aesthetic approach to acousmatic music. This follows Albert Bregman's speculation regarding equivalents to visual perception in texture, where the theory of textons was first developed by the neuroscientist B??la Julesz.
The article discusses acousmatic textons, in terms of intrinsic properties, the way they propagate in time, and how they organise in distributions to form spatial textures. The emergent macroscopic qualities of textonal formations are also reflected upon in the introduction of a group of textural states, where source-bonded spaces and abstract musical thinking coalesce.
TL;DR: New ways of considering ecologies of sounds in time are explored, and their consequences for human musical experience are explored.
Abstract: Most accounts of rhythm focus on notions of duration, pulse and metre, to explore the practices and constructs by which those involved in music performances co-ordinate their involvement. Yet there is a significant body of musical practice where sounds co-habit in time, without the same sorts of constraints found in metric co-ordination: from the gentle singing of Joseph Beuys during his Action Piece I Like America and America Likes Me, to Paul McCartney's song 'Blackbird'. This is similar, say, to the improvisation practice of composer and trombonist George Lewis in his work with the computer programme Voyager. Starting from some ideas laid out by Gaston Bachelard and Gregory Bateson, and recent writings on critical post-humanism, this paper explores ways of considering ecologies of sounds in time, and their consequences for human musical experience.
TL;DR: Arguing that soundscape compositions present an ‘acoustic ontology’, the article explores a form of belonging and being that is, following Jean-Luc Nancy, singular plural in which sound signals ‘unwork’ collectivities through the processes of ‘sharing’ and ‘splitting’ characteristic of listening and recording.
Abstract: Drawing on field research carried out in the abandoned villages of the Ara Valley, this article seeks to readdress notions of acoustic community and communication in terms of a 'haptic aurality' in which listening, as a mode of touch, approximates a figure of spacing, fragmentation and withdrawal in contrast to more conventional communicational models of intimacy, presence and exchange. Arguing that soundscape compositions present an 'acoustic ontology', the article explores a form of belonging and being that is, following Jean-Luc Nancy, singular plural in which sound signals 'unwork' collectivities through the processes of 'sharing' and 'splitting' (partage) characteristic of listening and recording. Referring to the work of writer W.G. Sebald (1944-2001), whose hybrid 'literary ethnography' was the impetus for my own soundwalks and fieldwork, and considering the role of soundscape composition within the discipline of Trauma Studies, the article scopes out to consider the possibilities of soundscape composition as a form of testimony in light of Agamben's (1999) insistence that testimony is necessarily incomplete. As a form of 'myopic witnessing' (Jenckes 2010), the sonic memories of ruined soundscapes are presented as spacings and absences, fragments and lacunae, that are themselves characteristic of both the ontology of ruins and those of testimony.
TL;DR: This paper will focus on performance for flute with electronics, the influence of voice, and the play with Maskenfreiheit as I investigate performative layers as they have emerged in my own performances of selected notated works.
Abstract: Researching the inside story of music performance, the core of the performative act, is a journey of infinite discovery of self-and musical connection. Establishing the discourse for such an investigation can, indeed, present its challenges. Do we focus on fundamental research methodologies, strive to fit within empirical investigations, or search for new forms of articulation as we choose what to observe and share, and decide what meanings, presences, dialogues or 'folding in of new substances' (Schroeder and Rebelo 2009 : 137) we wish to pursue in the quest for new understanding? In this paper I will focus on performance for flute with electronics, the influence of voice, and the play with Maskenfreiheit, 1 as I investigate performative layers as they have emerged in my own performances of selected notated works. The influence of the electronics is integral to these encounters with extended acoustic instrument, the place of the performer's voice and the ambiguities of projection, through narrative and reflection.
TL;DR: This paper focuses on the use of non-musical models in spectromorphological design in order to show how sonorous qualities, imaginative factors and extra-Musical meanings concurred in defining new cognitive itineraries and in extending the terminology adopted, thereby establishing the basis of a new compositional approach.
Abstract: Denis Smalley devoted himself to the elaboration of a method based on the analysis of spectral transformations by connoting sonorous motions and adopting metaphors borrowed from non-musical contexts. While considering Smalley's earlier theorising within the context of past and contemporary research, this paper focuses on the use of non-musical models in spectromorphological design in order to show how sonorous qualities, imaginative factors and extra-musical meanings concurred in defining new cognitive itineraries and in extending the terminology adopted, thereby establishing the basis of a new compositional approach.
TL;DR: By drawing concept diagrams of Smalley's seminal writings, the authors have attempted to show how Smale's ideas on acousmatic music have evolved from manipulating sound objects to creating???space-forms???.
Abstract: By drawing concept diagrams of Smalley's seminal writings, I have attempted to show how Smalley's ideas on acousmatic music have evolved from manipulating sound objects to creating ???space-forms???. The work Wind Chimes is analysed with respect to spectromorphology and sound shapes, and it is compared to the work Base Metals, which is analysed with respect to spectral space. A connection is then made between the evolution in writing and the evolution in composition.
TL;DR: The project investigates how a composer/performer's cognitive archetypes can be associated with or ‘mapped’ onto sound synthesis and processing parameters in such a way that the system will play an active role and act reciprocally, involving a certain degree of variation and unpredictability at its output.
Abstract: ENACTIV is a project that addresses, explores and offers solutions for converting a performer/composer's expressive sonic and kinetic patterns into continuous variables for driving sound synthesis and processing in real-time interactive composition. The investigation is inspired by the achievements in cognitive science, in particular Umberto Maturana and Francisco Varela's Santiago Theory (1980, 1987), in which the authors explain how the process of cognition arises through ???structural coupling??? ??? a mutual influence among living beings, and living beings (humans in particular) and the environment, and how this process stipulates certain patterns of organisation driving the individual's behaviour.
The project investigates how a composer/performer's cognitive archetypes, which have been developed via his or her ???structural coupling??? with the social and natural environment and expressed through voice and unwitting hand gestures, can be associated with or ???mapped??? onto sound synthesis and processing parameters in such a way that the system will play an active role and act reciprocally, involving a certain degree of variation and unpredictability at its output. The aim of the project is to develop a creative tool which will allow professional musicians, multi-media artists and non-expert participants to engage with multi-modal improvisation in an intuitive way.
TL;DR: The systemic perspective is extended, describing what I call self-organising music, and discussing my algorithmic composition Ephemeron as a case study, and a discussion of the difference between natural and artificial self- Organising systems.
Abstract: In this paper, I will focus on the musical work as a self-organising entity within a systemic framework. In particular, two significant and inter-related systemic concepts will be mentioned: self-organisation and open system. Firstly, I shall explain the two concepts within the context of systems thinking with reference to a graphical model of second-order cybernetics. This section will conclude with a discussion of the difference between natural and artificial self-organising systems. I will then extend the systemic perspective, describing what I call self-organising music, and discussing my algorithmic composition Ephemeron as a case study.
TL;DR: The paper examines issues emergent from the construction of my work the bird ghost at the zaouia, which transliterates recorded experience and memory of time and place and argues for an approach that is inclusive of the sonic and the full spectrum of vibration through ramified networks of memory and meaning.
Abstract: The paper examines issues emergent from the construction of my work the bird ghost at the zaouia, which transliterates recorded experience and memory of time and place. Islamic ritual and public spaces were recorded, reworked, re-routed and re-sited in a work that references, comments upon and potentially reconfigures the Islamic sonic-social. Tracing my own stance, the paper foregrounds emergent issues in the recording and use of highly culturally freighted sounds. I trace three broad areas: 1. Sonic Orientalism-the use of sound that carries 'Eastern' cultural and religious significance in order to signal a certain kind of alterity; 2. The development of a compositional strategy that seeks a middle-path between acousmatic and acoustic-ecological debates; and 3. A cross-cultural comparison between modes of listening. In addition I discuss the contexts of debates on the permissibility of music within Islam, and also world-musics that trade on the romanticised alterity of sonic tourism. I draw parallels between an 'ethically responsive sensorium' characteristic of Islamic aural disciplines and the 'aesthetically attuned sensorium' engaged by sonic arts. I argue for an approach that is inclusive of the sonic and the full spectrum of vibration through ramified networks of memory and meaning.
Audio excerpts available at: www.sethayyaz.com/sound-works/bird-ghost-at-the-zaouia
TL;DR: A new order of surrogacy is created that in its object relation is positioned beneath Smalley's first-order surrogacy – an impossible/paradoxical category that will be termed transgressive sound surrogacy.
Abstract: This four-part exposition revisits Denis Smalley's concept of sound surrogacy from a critical constructive approach. In the first part, Smalley's article from 1997 serves as a point of origin for a close investigation of his concept. We examine the precise definitions and demarcations in his concepts and we attempt to systematise the model. In the second part of the investigation we attempt to solve some of the problems in Smalley's model by suggesting a new surrogacy model originating in Smalley's idea, but with a more formal structure and obvious demarcations. Having presented this new surrogacy model, with references to Georges Bataille's theories on base materialism as well as anthropological studies, we attempt to create a new order of surrogacy that in its object relation is positioned beneath Smalley's first-order surrogacy (as the remote surrogacy order is placed above the third-order surrogacy) ??? an impossible/paradoxical category that will be termed transgressive sound surrogacy. In the fourth part we demonstrate this new surrogacy order in a series of examples found in art and culture.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors adapts Martin Heidegger's philosophy of "dwelling" in order to effect a liaison between acousmatic music and ecological concern, and propose this as an alternative to both the propagandist use of music as a means of protest and to using the science of ecology as a domain that might furnish new compositional means.
Abstract: This paper adapts Martin Heidegger's philosophy of 'dwelling' in order to effect a liaison between acousmatic music and ecological concern. I propose this as an alternative to both the propagandist use of music as a means of protest and to using the science of ecology as a domain that might furnish new compositional means. I advance the interpretation that acousmatic music 'occupies the air' in ways that transform the meaning of that dimension. It allows the sky to be sky and the earth, earth. I use the precedent of bell ringing as an example of sonic activity that occupies the air in order to further dwelling.
TL;DR: This article problematises this encounter and seeks to uncover the various approaches to listening that occur when dealing with field recordings, as well as the possibilities within field recordings for exploring essentialism, imagined sound and the conceptual.
Abstract: This is an essay exploring issues of essentialism, sound-in-itself and representation that were central to a project I completed in 2010. It covers this project in the context of theory and work by Seth Kim-Cohen, CREED, Don Ihde and Annea Lockwood.
The field recording is often presented in sound art as an unproblematic account of a sonic event or environment. It also prompts a particular kind of listening that approaches the sound as somehow real or accurate. This article, and my work in general, problematises this encounter and seeks to uncover the various approaches to listening that occur when dealing with field recordings, as well as the possibilities within field recordings for exploring essentialism, imagined sound and the conceptual.
TL;DR: A detailed study of two works that arrive at sounds composed through the experience of sounds heard, A Sound Map of the Danube and Centre Bridge, through an investigation of Lockwood's and White's firsthand experiences as both listeners and composers.
Abstract: This paper presents a detailed study of two works that arrive at sounds composed through the experience of sounds heard. Frances White's composition Centre Bridge, composed in 1999 for two shakuhachi and tape, is based largely on the sounds of a sonorous metal grate bridge that crosses the Delaware River between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. ASound Map of the Danube, composed by Annea Lockwood in 2005, reflects four years of sound recording along the length of that river's European to Balkan trajectory. Employing a range of diverse technical tools and aesthetic ideas, both works convey, powerfully and dynamically, a sense of deeply invested listening. I approach the discussion of specific compositional processes and musical outcomes in these two works through an investigation of Lockwood's and White's firsthand experiences as both listeners and composers. Centring on the exchange between sensing body and thinking mind, my research here engages with the arc of the creative process as an experience permeated by spaces of perception, reflection, imagination and action.