CONVERGENCE 2019
International Conference/Festival of Music, Technology & Ideas
12-15 September 2019
MTI² Institute for Sonic Creativity, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK
2019 Theme: Complexity & Simplicity
TO REGISTER:
https://store.dmu.ac.uk/product-catalogue/faculty-of-computing-engineering-media/conferences/convergence
SCHEDULE:
https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/events/events-calendar/2019/september/convergence-2019-programme-information.aspx
More info:
https://www.dmu.ac.uk/about-dmu/events/events-calendar/2019/september/convergence-complexity-and-simplicity.aspx
21st century musical creativity rides on the convergence of many streams of musical cultures, styles and value systems. The previous century’s passage through modernist and postmodern imperatives has propelled us into a state of glorious collision, where tradition and innovation coexist in fusion and confusion. New technologies are a central element in this creative ferment - from elaborate, immersive multichannel and audiovisual environments, expressions of artificial intelligence and transmedia narratives to hardware hacking.
How might we make sense of this multiplicity of creative endeavours? What are the tensions and synergies we feel amongst the creative approaches of practitioners and between the insights of theorists and critics? What, if anything, might we sense is our relationship with the ideals and cultural products of the past?
Convergence 2019 proposes that we consider these issues from the perspectives of complexity and simplicity. Can we conceive ever more elaborate designs and complex ways to divine meaning in music, or should we find in the plethora of possibilities a path that leads to a more immediate clarity, even simplicity? And how, as curators of our artistic fate, might we expect 21st century audiences to respond?
Convergence aims to bring together many of the diverse strands of music made with new technologies and to celebrate these alongside some traditional practices. In 2019 we will also be working with the Darbar Fringe Festival to bring high quality traditional and experimental Indian music projects to the conference.
Keynote speaker and guest composer for Convergence 2019 will be eminent composer/researcher Curtis Roads. Dr. Roads' presence at Convergence is made possible by the kind support of the US Embassy and the British Association of American Studies.
