Sonification (what, where, how, why), A Symposium :: March 4-5, 2010 :: École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix en Provence, Aix en Provence, France.

The purpose of this symposium is to conduct a state of the art review of the use sonification* within art projects, with a focus on the use of data taken from our surroundings (in a broad sense) as opposed to gestural interfaces or electronic instruments.

What distinguishes sonification from other forms of data mediation? What are the different ways in which sonification is used in art? What parallels, similarities, differences & contradictions exist between the use of sonification or audio display for technical & for artistic purposes? What differences in the artistic approach does the use of realtime as opposed to recorded data imply? What is the importance of the relationship between the source of data and the way in which it is mediated?

The symposium SONIFICATION will be organized as a series of 4 half day round table debates + 1 evening sessions where participants are invited to propose demonstrations, performances or documentation of work related to the theme. The Symposium is organized by Locus Sonus (École Supérieure d’Art d’Aix en Provence, École Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Nice Villa Arson) and LAMES MMSH (Laboratoire Méditerranéen de Sociologie) in partnership with CRiSAP (Creative Research into Sound Arts Practice, LCC Univ. of the Arts London), IMERA (Institut Méditerranéen de Recherches Avancées) & Seconde Nature.
Observers : Jean-Paul Ponthot (ESA Aix en Provence), Cathy Lane (CRiSAP UAL London).

The schedule is as follows:

* On Thursday the 4th, two round table sessions of half a day will be held at LAMES MMSH
* On Thursday evening, Second Nature is set aside for demos and performances at Seconde Nature.
* On Friday the 5th, two other round table sessions of half a day will be held in the amphitheater at l’Ecole Superieure d’Art d’Aix en Provence.

* “Sonification is the use of non-speech audio to convey information data to sound”. G. Kramer, B. Walker, T. Bonebright, P. Cook, J. Flowers, N. Miner, and J. Neuhoff, “Sonification report: Status of the field and research agenda,” Tech. Rep., International Community for Auditory Display, 1999, http://www.icad.org/websiteV2. 0/References/nsf.html.

Locus Sonus Lab :: Julien Clauss, Alejandro Duque, Scott Fitzgerald, Jérôme Joy, Anne Roquigny, Peter Sinclair. http://www.locusonus.org

Locus Sonus is a research group specialized in audio art. It is organized as a post graduate lab by the Art Schools of Aix en Provence (ESAA) and Nice (ENSA Villa Arson) in the south of France. We have a partnership with sociology lab CNRS, LAMES Aix en Provence (who are interested by the way that practices related to new technologies are creating modifications in artistic production and the way that the public responds to these modifications), and we currently continue collaborations with the CRESSON, architecture lab CNRS in Grenoble (sonic spaces research centre), the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), and other international partners.

Locus Sonus is concerned with the innovative and transdisciplinary nature of audio art forms, in the framework of networked sonic spaces, some of which are experimented and evaluated in a lab type context. An important factor is with the collective or multi-user aspects inherent to many emerging audio practices and which necessitate working as a group. Two main thematic define this research – audio in it’s relation to space and networked audio systems. Today our research is grouped under two main headings Field Spatialization and Networked Sonic Spaces.