Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music and Technology
Call for submissions
Volume 15, Number 3
Issue thematic title: Sound <–> Space: New approaches to
multichannel music and audio
Date of Publication: December 2010
Publishers: Cambridge University Press
Issue co-ordinators: Scott Wilson and Jonty Harrison {s.d.wilson.1, d.j.t.harrison}@bham.ac.uk
In recent years the field of multichannel electroacoustic music and
audio spatialisation has experienced something of a renaissance. In
addition to the development and increased availability of new
technologies (higher order ambisonics, vector base amplitude
panning, wave field synthesis, various spectral diffusion
approaches, etc.) we have seen multichannel presentation of
electroacoustic music become standard in a way that it never was in
the past. 'Eight channel is the new stereo,' one practitioner is
known to have declared. At the bleeding edge of this trend we have
seen the extension and development of large-scale multichannel
systems for performance and research, such as the ZKM Klangdom,
BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre), the Sonic Arts
Research Centre at Queen's University in Belfast, and the Allosphere
at UCSB in California.
Along with the possibilities presented by these techniques and
systems come problems and challenges. Issues of accessibility,
portability, and practicality arise. Historical problems (e.g. the
need to adapt to less than ideal performance spaces, the cost of
accessing the space for sufficient preparation and rehearsal time,
the sweet spot issue, etc.) remain very much in play.
Issue 15/3 of Organised Sound will explore this growing field of
multichannel audio and music in aesthetic and social, as well as
technical terms.
Potential subjects include:
1) Aesthetics
- Historically one might roughly divide spatialisation
approaches into two broad categories: the virtual (i.e. artificial
reality simulation and holophony), and the pragmatic (i.e diffusion
and other space and system adaptable and/or specific approaches).
What value do these different approaches have in the current
context? To what extent are they combinable?
- What are the aesthetic implications of different approaches?
Which amongst the possibilities enabled by new systems and
technologies are the most 'musically' relevant (in the broadest
sense), and are these in any way distinct from those more suited for
virtual reality applications?
2) Practicality and Portability
- How can pieces be composed to be adaptable to the growing
variety of system configurations (rings of eight with various
orientations, domes, spheres, 'horizon' approaches such as WFS,
'acousmoniums' like the GRM, hybrid systems such as BEAST, ad hoc
non-symmetrical and/or non-homogenous setups; i.e. sound
installations, etc.)?
- Can or should presentation systems be designed with maximum
adaptability to existing formats/paradigms (stereo diffusion, quad,
5.1, ring of eight, massively multichannel, etc.) in mind?
- Is a spatial interchange format (e.g. the recent 'SpatDIF'
proposals) practical and/or desirable? What are the implications of
combining low level (i.e. implementation specific) and high level
(i.e. human-meaningful) descriptors in a single format?
3) Techniques and implementations
- What are the current solutions to software control of
(especially large-scale) multichannel systems?
- What future developments will be possible and/or desirable?
- What role should performance (in the broadest sense) play in
spatialisation, whether for pragmatic or aesthetic reasons?
4) Accessibility
- To what extent do the new large-scale multichannel systems
represent a return to the historical accessibility problems of
electroacoustic and computer music? Are we seeing a return to the
'institutionalisation' of electroacoustic music and sound art? To
what extent (if any) does the availability of relatively inexpensive
commodity hardware (powerful computers, MOTU 24I/O interfaces, etc.)
help with this problem?
5) Hybridisation
- Historically, different approaches and techniques have
exhibited particular strengths and weaknesses, while attracting
(sometimes almost religious) communities of advocates, who (perhaps
for reasons of technical limitation as much as anything else) made
use of these techniques relatively exclusively. Given the current
state of the art, what advantages or disadvantages do hybrid
approaches present to the user?
As always, submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however,
those that fall outside the scope of this theme are always welcome.
Deadline for submissions is 15 January 2010. Submissions may consist
of papers, with optional supporting short compositions or excerpts,
audio-visual documentation of performances and/or other aspects
related to your submission that can be placed onto a DVD and the CUP
website for “Organised Sound”. Supporting audio and audio-visual
material will be presented as part of the journal's annual DVD-ROM
which will appear with issue 15/3 as well on the journal’s website.
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SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 January 2010
SUBMISSION FORMAT
Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the
inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or at the
following url:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayMoreInfo?
jid=OSO&type=ifc (and download the pdf)
Properly formatted email submissions and general queries should be
sent to: os@xxxxxxxxx, not to the guest editors.
Hard copy of articles and images (only when requested) and other
material (e.g., sound and audio-visual files, etc. – normally max.
15’ sound files or 8’ movie files) should be submitted to:
Prof. Leigh Landy
Organised Sound
Clephan Building
De Montfort University
Leicester LE1 9BH, UK.
Editor: Leigh Landy
Associate Editors: Ross Kirk and Richard Orton
Regional Editors: Joel Chadabe, Kenneth Fields, Eduardo Miranda,
Jøran Rudi, Barry Truax, Ian Whalley, David Worrall
International Editorial Board: Marc Battier, Hannah Bosma,
Alessandro Cipriani, Simon Emmerson, Rajmil Fischman, David Howard,
Rosemary Mountain, Tony Myatt, Jean-Claude Risset, Francis Rumsey,
Margaret Schedel, Mary Simoni
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