The sonic environment is an indicator for the quality of life: One crucial aspect, however, remains open and leads to a multitude of questions: Is this, what our hearing is exposed to, satisfying and enhancing our individual, social, functional, biological, economical, aesthetic and existential needs and endeavors? If not, which concepts exist to “orchestrate” everyday life’s cacophony? Which methods exist to successfully evaluate the quality of soundscapes? Which criteria and values have to be developed, which practical constraints and habits to be dismissed in order to design the everyday as a “Hörenswürdigkeit”, which means: as something worth listening to?

How to improve the Global Composition to make the world more liveable?

Within this process: What role does media play and relation to its commodification of sound? Are there valid approaches to or even successful examples of shaping the soundscape in ways that are beneficial or at least acceptable for a majority? Are there strategies for overcoming the societal, political and economic hindrances that inhibit the inclusion of auditory considerations in the making of a sustainable society? What is the role of art in developing paradigms for auditory solutions applied to our living environments?

How to foster listening abilities within the concert of the senses?

Last but not least, what educational concepts and methods exist for integrating listening abilities into the concert of the senses, and develop auditory faculties as important tools for understanding, criticizing, shaping and designing the global environment?

Proposals are invited for roundtable discussions, workshops, papers/posters, applied and artistic contributions, relating, but not limited to the conference’s main focus. The conference’s official language will be English.

Providing a specially positioned “Next Generation”-thread, the conference is very interested, to create a forum for young scholars, scientists, artists as well as for students, and encourages them to send in their proposals. Please send abstracts for roundtable discussions, papers/posters, workshops & proposals for compositions or other artistic contributions by March 1,
2012.

As keynote presenters we expect Bill Fontana, R. Murray Schafer, Hildegard Westerkamp et al.

Please note, that our venue is situated not far from Frankfurt airport in beautiful historic surroundings, providing not only the productive frame for an interesting conference, but also attractive landscapes, very good wine, culinary highlights, therefore good conditions for exchange and conviviality. All this makes, too, a central starting point for your summerbreak, be it locally, nationally or internationally.

“Recently, I have begun translating weather data collected in cities into musical scores, which are then translated into sculptures as well as being a source for collaboration with musicians. These pieces are not only devices that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but are also functional musical scores to be played by musicians. While musicians have freedom to interpret, they are asked not to change the essential relationship of the notes to ensure that what is still heard is indeed the meteorological relationship of weather data.” (Scroll down for the Call for Composers.)

Axis Ensemble (Philip Acimovic, Elliot Cless, Michael McLaughlin, Glenn Dickson, Jason Coleman and Sid Richardson.)

1913 Trio (Janet Schiff, Scott Johnson and Victor DeLorenzo)

Elaine Rombola, piano

Jonathan and Esthelle Rand, French Horn and electric guitar

Composers Wanted!

Dear Composer,

Weather Scores explores the intersection of meteorology with visual art and music, through a unique collaborative compositional process involving weather data, woven sculptures, graphic/indeterminate musical scores and musical performance. The core of the project is a series of musical scores entirely based on weather data, which are adapted by composers to piano performance. In conjunction, these scores are also translated into woven sculptural, data translations that also function as 3D musical scores.

I am a sculptor who focuses on the intersection of art and science and the visual articulation of scientific observations. Using the methodologies and processes of both disciplines, I translate scientific data related to ecology, climate change and meteorology into three-dimensional structures. My method of translation is principally that of weaving – in particular basket weaving – as it provides me with a simple yet highly effective grid through which to interpret data in three-dimensional space.

Three years ago, I began to integrate musical scores into the process, which led to an ongoing collaboration with Elaine Rombola. Together we’ve created a series of scores based on weather data that have been translated into musical performances and sculptures. Our work together has sparked the interest of cross-disciplinary audiences due to its curious location at the intersection of art, science and music, and we’ve had the opportunity to present the collaboration in lectures, exhibitions, and performances.

As the scores I write become more complex, we both feel the next step is to invite composers into the process. We would like to commission them to take my scores and create works based on them (less 10 minutes, for solo piano or piano with small ensemble and/or voice), with the final goal being to produce a series of concerts/sculptural exhibitions to be performed in a variety of venues across the country.

One of the first scores we are looking to collaborate on with composers is The Ghostly Crew of the Andrea Gail. In October 1991, an event meteorologists still refer to as “The Perfect Storm” entered the Gulf of Maine. The confluence of two major storm systems, a low-pressure system building over Nova Scotia called “the Halloween Storm” and a dying Hurricane Grace off Bermuda, created oceanic conditions never recorded in New England Waters. Combining weather data and fishing lore, this score follows the sinking of the Andrea Gail, a Gloucester-based fishing vessel that sank during the storm. Central to this score is the exploration of the human perspective of this tragic, yet awesome weather event.

If this sounds like a collaboration you would be interested in exploring, please contact us for more information at n_miebach [at] hotmail.com or elaine.rombola [at] gmail.com

We look forward to hearing from you,

Nathalie & Elaine

This workshop focuses on the theory of field recording, audio recording of environmental sound.

The World as Instrument that López has organized worldwide introduces the participants to the art of field recording through huge sonic samples and discussion. At the end of the workshop, the participants will experience the depth of the art at his blind live performance. The live performance will be held on September 10, 2011 at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

Application in English, contact [jo.kazuhiro@noc.geidai.ac.jp]

Francisco López is internationally recognized as one of the main figures on the stage of sound art and experimental music. His experience in the field of sound creation and work with environmental recordings covers a period of 30 years, during which he has developed an impressive sound universe that is completely personal and iconoclastic and based on profound listening to the world.

THE WORLD AS INSTRUMENT: The “real world” as a source for sonic creation :: Workshop + live immersive performance by Francisco López

For many years now the “real world” (as opposed to the instrumental realm) has been used for sound creation as a source of sound materials. This is a consequence of the technical possibility of recording sound but, much more importantly, of the conception of sound recordings as entities by themselves in their potential to generate sonic possibilities, both original and transformed, real and virtual. The socialization of different kinds of recording technology, as well as the shifting conceptions on what a sound recording can be (in all its manifestations since the mid-XIXth century until the present day) has gone through several stages that have had a paramount impact in the understanding of sound creation and in the popularization of an exploratory praxis of that “real world”, which nowadays involves thousands of people worldwide.

This theoretical workshop is focused on the historical, sociological and philosophical (rather than technical) aspects of different practices that have the “real world” as a source, or an inspiration, for sonic creation. From ancestral manifestations of music derived from nature to the present massive sonic exploration of our world, analyzing the historical attempts at recording sonic reality and creatively transform it, from musical notation to digital technology. With a multitude of sonic examples, from traditional to electronic music, the workshop aims at stirring up discussion and at challenging many stereotypical and misleading conceptions about recorded sound in many diverse areas and objects of study, from bioacoustics to experimental music, from phonographs to hard disk recorders, from birds to cosmic radio emissions.

The workshop is completed with a live immersive performance in the dark, using a large multi-channel surround sound system with blindfolds provided for the audience. This sound experience –more a journey through sound than a normal concert- has been created with original environmental sound recordings done by the author in the tropical rainforests of Costa Rica, in large buildings in New York City and in the vast expanses of Patagonia, over a period of ten years, constituting his “Trilogy of the Americas”.

—
Kazuhiro Jo
Assistant Professor
Art Media Center
Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku (Tokyo University of the Arts)
12-8 Ueno Park, Taito Ward, Tokyo 110-8714 Japan
Tel. +81(0)50 5525 2473

Miebach likes to collect the data herself, spending hours and days in the field trying to understand complex, dynamic relationships between different variables in an environment. The key, she says, often isn’t to examine the numbers on the instrument — it’s to observe the different things that are going on around you.

More recently, Miebach has begun turning the data into sheet music too: “These pieces are not only devices that map meteorological conditions of a specific time and place, but are also functional musical scores to be played by musicians.

“While musicians have freedom to interpret, they are asked not to change the essential relationship of the notes to ensure that what is still heard is indeed the meteorological relationship of weather data.”

Miebach will be exhibiting her work between now and next year, at various US galleries. It’s also included in a book titled Data Flow 2: Visualizing Information in Graphic Design, available now from Amazon.

For those interested in sound from weaving from ecological data, see
Carrie Bodle, Sewing Sonifications Performance.

image: the Gowanas Canal, Brooklyn by Tod Seelie

Accepting submissions for an exhibition of sound work to take place in a massive industrial space in Brooklyn :: Sound Fields is about sound and the city, different acoustic territories and the control of them:: The exhibition will take place at the 8000 sq ft Gowanus Hotel from September 23rd to the 25th. Visit our website or contact sound.culture@yahoo.com for more information.

Constructing acoustic boundaries by listening allows us to recognize sounds and utilize them to navigate the city. This is at the core of Sound Fields: Mapping Acoustic Territories. Critical awareness of sound is an important tool for perception and the production of meaning. The exhibition will allow the participants to forge their own path through shifting landscapes of sound.
For more: http://sensoryregimes.byethost12.com/?page_id=2

Ocean Voices is a collaboration between Boston-area sound artist Halsey Burgund and California marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols and features spoken-voice recordings from people around the world woven into a musical score for acoustic and electronic instruments performed by Burgund and his group Aesthetic Evidence. The voices have been collected via in-person interviews, an interactive website and an iPhone application.

Initially performed on June 3 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco to honor World Oceans Day and the 100th anniversary of Jacques Cousteau’s birth, this work aims to “open minds and expand awareness” about the world’s oceans.

Ocean Voices is co-presented by Artists in Context and the Museum of Science in conjunction with the Museum’s current exhibition WHALES|TOHORA.

Event Highlights: July 9 - ‘Citizen Sound’ symposium (5-7 p.m.) opens with a wine and cheese reception, introductions to each of the ASAE chapters, and presentations by leaders in Chicago’s cultural and advocacy scene at Columbia College, 33 E. Congress Parkway, basement lobby and room # LL11. Featured guests include Lou Mallozzi, Executive Director of Experimental Sound Studio and architect Graham Balkany of the Gropius in Chicago Coalition. A media lounge, where guests can sample CDs and peruse publications by participants, performers and ASAE members, will be open all night. Following dinner at a local eatery, we’ll be treated to a concert (8:30-10:30 p.m. - $10) featuring ASAE member composers, performers and special guests.

Saturday, July 10 - Head “out of town” for an afternoon soundwalk (2-4PM) in Miller Woods, at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. After the dunes soundwalk, it’s back to the city for another group dinner (6:30-8:15 p.m.) followed by a Chicago nightlife soundwalk (8:30-10 p.m.). This day’s events should provide plenty of opportunities for informal conversation and networking among members.

Sunday, July 11 - ASAE members lead a workshop for children (2-3 p.m.) and families near Gallery 400, on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. ASAE members from New York, San Francisco, the Midwest, Southwest and beyond will present a concert in the gallery, 3:30-5:30PM at 400 S. Peoria Street (MC 034). This event will also be streamed live. The evening concludes with a live radio performance on Philip von Zweck’s “Something Else” show at 10 p.m.-12:00 a.m. on WLUW 88.7FM.

Listening for the Future is organized by the American Society for Acoustic Ecology, and hosted by the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology and the World Listening Project. Sponsors include Vocalo.org (89.5 FM), The National Park Service and Columbia College.

The purposes of World Listening Day are:

• to celebrate the practice of listening as it relates to the world around us, environmental awareness, and acoustic ecology • to raise awareness about issues related to the World Soundscape Project, World Listening Project, World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, and individual and group efforts to creatively explore phonography • and to design and implement educational initiatives which explore these concepts and practices.

World Listening Day is being organized by the World Listening Project, in partnership with the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology. July 18 was chosen as the date for World Listening Day because it is the birthday of the Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, who is one of the founders of the Acoustic Ecology movement. The World Soundscape Project, which Schafer directed, is an important organization which has inspired a lot of activity in this field, and his book The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World helped to define many of the terms and background behind the acoustic ecology movement.

The World Listening Project invites you to participate in World Listening Day. Here are several possibilities—
• You can set aside some time when you pay attention to your soundscape.
• You can organize a soundwalk or a listening party when people play field recordings.
• You can organize a performance event that involves field recordings and other artistic expressions that explore our soundscape and how we can listen to our sonic environment.
• You can facilitate an educational event that relates to acoustic ecology, field recordings, or a similar topic.
• You can contact organizations that are participating in World Listening Day, to see if you can get involved that way. For a list of organizations and individuals: http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php?fcode=188d914b1&f=100001229085236#!/event.php?eid=115927385097324

Updates regarding more events and participating individuals on World Listening Day will be announced soon. Please email worldlistening@gmail.com for more info.

Sun Boxes are an environment to enter and exit. It’s comprised of twenty speakers operating independently each powered by solar panels. There is a different guitar sample in each box all playing together making the composition. The guitar samples are all of different lengths so the whole piece keeps evolving.

Participants are encouraged to walk amongst the speakers. It sounds different inside of the array. There is a different sense of space inside. Certain speakers will be closer and louder therefore the piece will sound different to different people in different positions throughout the array. Creating a unique experience for everyone.

There are no batteries involved. The Sun Boxes are reliant on the sun. When the sun sets the music stops. The piece changes as the length of the day changes. Making the participants aware of the cycle of the day.

Read an interview.

How do music information retrieval (MIR), music performance, and music composition overlap? What tools are being developed in MIR research that may have interesting uses in creating new music? How might the needs and practices of composers and performers inform MIR work? How can we support better collaboration and cross-visibility between MIR researchers and the computer music community? These are some questions that we believe are worth exploring in a dedicated workshop at ICMC.

This will be a tutorial of urMus for iPhones and iPod Touches. The goal of the tutorial is to introduce instrument building and music performance on mobile smart phones and lead the participants through the process of building their own using urMus as the environment. urMus is designed to allow multiple levels of entry. It offers a graphical patching interface that can be used to design musical interactions without any direct programming, but it also offers a rich programming language API in the Lua programming language. Lua is a simple multi-paradigmatic language that should be easy to learn for anybody who has mastered another programming language. The tutorial will be accessible for both performers who want to start building interactive systems quickly as well as for instrument designers who want to develop delicate interactions. The workshop will be using iPhone and iPod touches. Participants are welcome to use their own, but we will be providing sufficient devices for all participants.

First 2 hours: Introduction to the urMus mapping environment, urSound and FlowBoxes, multirate signal flow, semantic connections, live-patching, functionality decoupling and urMus interface examples. This part will be accessible for participants who are familiar with digital sound synthesis environments such as pd, Max/MSP, CSound, RTCMix, ChucK, or Nyquist and is intended to be broadly accessible. This will be joint with the long track.

Second 2 hours: Programming urMus in Lua. Introduction to Lua, urMus layouting API, urMus flowbox API, programmatic layouting practice, event handling, 2D drawing engine, vis versus dac, towards fully integrated art and music artifacts. This track requires the participant to have a MacBook and XCode/iPhone SDK installed and is intended for audience with programming experience, though the entry level will be moderate. Participants of the short track are welcome to stay on and observe.

Instructor: Georg Essl is currently Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Music at the University of Michigan. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Princeton University working with Perry Cook and has since then taught and worked at the University of Florida, the MIT Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland and Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, TU-Berlin. For the last 5 years he has shamelessly abused mobile phones into noise making machines that transcend the annoyance of ring tones! Physical models and other sound synthesis methods such as the noise-heavy circle maps help in this endeavor.

More Information and How to Enroll: http://icmc-workshop-urmus.eventbrite.com