Call for papers: EMS 2020 conference, hosted by MTI!

Next June MTI will be hosting the 2020 EMS conference! The call for proposals is out, on the theme 'Future Directions of Electroacoustic Music Studies' - deadline for submissions February 20th:

http://www.ems-network.org/ems20/call.html

Call for proposals:

Electroacoustic Music Studies Network conference:
Future Directions of Electroacoustic Music Studies

Music, Technology and Innovation – Institute for Sonic Creativity (MTI2)
De Montfort University, Leicester UK
Wed. 17 – Sat. 20 June 2020

Deadline for paper submission: 20 February 2020

Celebrating 20 years of Music, Technology & Innovation at De Montfort University, and 25 years of the ‘Organised Sound’ journal, 2020 is an opportune moment to investigate the state of our field and, perhaps more importantly, look to the future. As sonic creativity continues to develop rapidly, its field of study is arguably still in search of itself. Are we suffering from the old adage that music cannot be studied until it has existed for a long time? Or perhaps from our field being too interdisciplinary in nature?

EMS20 seeks to present, alongside up-to-date research results, a number of papers investigating how today’s and tomorrow’s specialists expect this important field to evolve. Will it settle in as a contemporary sub-area of musicology? Or will it find its own foci of scholarly endeavour thanks to the fact that it incorporates all sounds as well as many forms of technology?

ADDITIONAL EMS20 THEMES
The conference is also open to other topics relevant to the history and/or contemporary practice of electroacoustic music. We encourage the submission of papers relating to any aspect of the field, including but not limited to analysis, perception, listening, terminology, composition, performance, cultural issues and education.

Analysis:
- What types of discourse are relevant to electroacoustic works?
- Which analytical methods are currently being developed?
- Can one adapt existent analytical methods of music to electroacoustic works, many of which involve no prescriptive notation?
- How can we further develop the field of study of electroacoustic musics?

Transcription and representation of sound, new audio-visual tools:
- How are analytical tools being produced and disseminated in the community?
- Which means are available for communicating this sonic art form through symbolic and graphic representations?
- Does the study of electroacoustic musics require specifically designed tools or can it take advantage of methods conceived for other musics?

Taxonomy, terminology - 'meaningful' units of music description:
- Which systems of classification are in use or should be developed?
- How can we become more consistent in our use of terminology in a field as dynamic as electroacoustic music?

Real-time music making:
- How can live performance/composition strategies be analysed
- What is 'live' electronic music?

Performance, presentation, dissemination:
- What is the 'work'?
- New presentation spaces, technologies.
- Aesthetical and musical issues raised by Internet communities, group compositions, telematics and performances.

Listening, Intention-Reception
- Issues of perception and interpretation.
- How do the composer's intentions relate to what is perceived?

Semiotics/semiology, 'meaning':
- What (and how) do different electroacoustic music genres express?

Soundscape, sound ecology:
- Analytical tools for the understanding of soundscapes.
- New approaches to sound ecology, sonification, sound environment.

Genres/styles, 'languages':
- Questions of unity, diversity, plurality, multicultural resources, polystyle, hybridisation, 'local music'.

Gender issues:
- Have gender balances shifted since the early days?
- The relationship between technology/electroacoustic music and gender.
- Unrecognised contributions: revising history.

Research on history of electroacoustic music:
- Research on historical documentation.
- Studies on the genesis, development and activities of private and public studios.
- How can and should we revise history?

Socio-cultural issues:
- What are the socio-cultural ramifications of electroacoustic music?

Pedagogy:
- Curriculum design.
- Balance between theory and practice, general and specific approaches.
- Real-time and interaction versus fixed medium and studio techniques.
- Teaching material: how to select it, and language issues.

Caution: Participants are discouraged from submitting proposals focusing on their own compositions as well as those discussing the development of new technological resources for musical application that have a better home at events such as ICMC.

Deadline for submissions: 20 February 2020

All approved/presented papers will be published on the EMS site that has an ISSN number.

Tonight!! Bret Battey artist's talk, Phoenix 6:30pm

Tonight, Monday December 9th 2019, MTI Prof. Bret Battey will be giving an artist's talk at Phoenix Leicester at 6:30pm:

https://www.phoenix.org.uk/event/bret-battey-artists-talk/

Phoenix Leicester, Screen Room
4 Midland St, Leicester LE1 1TG
Free Entry

"Bret Battey joins us to talk about the making of his audiovisual installation Three Breaths in Empty Space, its relationship to his earlier works and his longstanding partnership with Phoenix as an artist and curator.

Born in the United States, Bret Battey is Professor of Audiovisual Composition at De Montfort University. He creates electronic, acoustic, and multimedia concert works and installations, synthesising a diverse professional and educational background in music composition, computer science, design and electronics. Bret has exhibited internationally and has been recognised with many awards and prizes, including Prix Ars Electronica."

Awards for John Young & Louise Rossiter at Musica Nova competition

The 2019 Musica Nova competition in Prague has recognised two MTI composers this year:

Prof. John Young has received an Honorary Mention for his orchestral work 'Spirit', while alumna Louise Rossiter has received an Honorary Mention for her acousmatic composition 'Neuronen'.

Congratulations to both!

These and the other winning works will be celebrated in a concert in Prague on Tuesday December 10th 2019:

https://musicanova.seah.cz/cds/MusicaNova2019/index.htm

This weekend: Aural Diversity Conference 2019!

Join us for the first Aural Diversity Conference, which will take place this weekend, on Saturday November 30th and Sunday December 1st 2019 at the University of Leicester:

http://auraldiversity.org/conferences.html

PROGRAMME SUMMARY

SATURDAY NOVEMBER 30th, 2019

9.00-9.30 Registration. University of Leicester, George Davies Centre (GDC)

9.30-9.45 Welcome. Prof. Andrew Hugill/Prof. John Levack Drever (GDC)

10.00-11.30 SESSION 1: Hearing & Listening 1 (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever.

• Keynote 1: Dr. Alinka Greasley (University of Leeds) “Exploring the music listening behaviour of people with hearing impairments: patient and practitioner perspectives”.
• Prof. William Davies (University of Salford) “Autistic Listening”
• Lena Batra (Independent Hearing Therapist) “Assisting the Musically Diverse Patient”

12.00-13.00 SESSION 2: Composing, Music & Sound Art 1. Attenborough Arts Centre (AAC). Chaired by Prof Andrew Hugill.

• Jay Afrisando (composer) “The (Real) Laptop Music :))” (multimedia performance)
• Simon Allen (composer) “After Cornell” (multimedia performance)
• Josephine Dickinson (composer/artist/poet) “ALPHABETULA” (performance)
• John D'Arcy (digital media researcher) "Do You Hear What I Hear?" (presentation)

14.00-14.10 Welcome address by Professor Paul Monks, Head of the College of Science and Engineering, University of Leicester (GDC)

14.15-16.00 SESSION 3: Hearing & Listening 2 (GDC). Chaired by Dr. Alinka Greasley.

• Keynote 2: Prof Peter Rea (University Hospitals Leicester) “Aural Diversity: the consequences of pathology and treatment. A surgeon’s perspective”.
• Dr. Samuel Couth (Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness) ”The show must go on: understanding the effects of musicianship, noise exposure, cognition and ageing on real-world hearing abilities.”
• Dr. Marie Thompson (University of Lincoln) & Dr. Patrick Farmer (Oxford Brookes University) “Tinnitus, Auditory Knowledge and the Arts”
• Ed Garland (Aberystwyth University) “Textual hearing aids: how reading about sound can improve sonic experience”
16.00-17.00 SESSION 4: Panel Discussion - Aural Diversity (GDC). Chaired by Dr. Simon Atkinson (De Montfort University).
• Panel includes keynote speakers (John Drever, Alinka Greasley, Andrew Hugill, Peter Rea). Contributions from the floor invited.
19.30-21.30 SESSION 5: Aural Diversity Concert #2 Led by Duncan Chapman.
***
SUNDAY DECEMBER 1st
9.00-9.30 Late registrations, organisational questions.
9.30-10.30 SESSION 6: Composing, Music & Sound Art 2 (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever.
• Keynote 3: Prof. Andrew Hugill (University of Leicester) “Consequences of Ménière’s Disease and other forms of hearing impairment for musicians, their music-making, hearing care and technologies”.
• Christopher Cook (Goldsmiths College) “Co-composing with Trevor, who has Mild Cognitive Impairment”
11.00-12.00 SESSION 7: Composing, Music & Sound Art 3 (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever.
• Dr. Balandino Di Donato (University of Leicester), Dr. Tychonas Michailidis (Solent University), Christopher Dewey (University of Huddersfield) “SoundSculpt: sculpting and experiencing sound-objects through mid-air haptics and holographic projection.”
• Prof. Matthew Sansom (Sunway University, KL, Malaysia) “Aural and other perceptually diverse inclusivity in an example of interdisciplinary arts practice”
• Dr. Matthew Spring (Bath Spa University) “Thomas Mace: a functioning deaf musician and music theorist in the seventeenth-century”.
12.30-13.30 SESSION 8: Soundscape, Environment & Acoustic Ecology 1 (GDC). Chaired by Dr. Alinka Greasley.
• Keynote 4: Prof. John Levack Drever (Goldsmiths College) “Phonating Hand Dryers: exploits in aural diverse composition and co-composition”.
• Dr. Karla Berrens Torruella (University of Barcelona) “Sound, discomfort and the making of place in an urban environment.”
14.00-15.00 SESSION 9: Artists’ Statements (GDC). Chaired by John Drever
• Alan Jacques (musician and trustee of the Ménière's Society) “A Tale of Two Inner Ears - Learning to live with Cochlear Amusia”
• Josephine Dickinson (composer/artist/poet) “ALPHABETULA”
• Lena Batra (Independent Hearing Therapist) “Embracing the Inbetween”
15.30-16.30 SESSION 10: Soundscape, Environment & Acoustic Ecology 2 (GDC). Chaired by Prof Andrew Hugill.
• Dr. Meri Kytö (University of Eastern Finland) “Cochlear implant as soundscape arranger: rethinking the signal-to-noise ratio”
• Johan Malmstedt (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) “Ecological Ears: Modes of Listening in the Writings of Murray Schafer and Bernie Kraus”
• Additional item: David Holzman (concert pianist) “Deep River - A Pianist’s Journey With Hearing Loss”
16.30-17.00 SESSION 11: Plenary discussion (GDC). Chaired by Prof John Drever. Questions to be sought from delegates in advance of the conference. The discussion will also focus on planning of future events and research.
17.00 Close
ADDITIONAL EVENT: CONCERT
Sara Stowe (soprano) and Matthew Spring (early instruments) Apollo, Orpheus, Midas and Pan. Hearing and mythology in early song. December 3rd 2019, 12:45-1:45pm (approximate) in the Main Hall, Attenborough Arts Centre.

Bret Battey: 'Three Breaths in Empty Space' Installation

Bret Battey's new installation Three Breaths in Empty Space was commissioned by Phoenix Cinema, Leicester, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of their move to the Cultural Quarter. It will run mid-November to the end of December 2019, filling the Phoenix Gallery with abstract computer animations and surround sound generated with custom software systems. The work invites participants to contemplate continuous change and shimmering instabilities in everything from subatomic activity to the level of the cosmos. Are we witnessing quantum foam on invisible waves, nerve patterns in the body-mind, maps of social structures coalescing and transforming, or transfigurations of some vast nebula? As ghostly fragments of Maurice Ravel’s piano work Ondine occasionally materialise and dissolve at peaks of audiovisual intensity, we can ponder how phenomena arise and pass in Emptiness.

For more information: https://www.phoenix.org.uk/event/three-breaths-in-empty-space/

Simon Atkinson: Night Music, Greenwich October 16th

On Wednesday October 16th, MTI's Simon Atkinson will be performing a solo concert at St. Alfege Church, Greenwich, London, as part of the University of Greenwich's Loudspeaker Concert Series:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/simon-atkinson-loudspeaker-orchestra-concert-tickets-73423173689

"Simon Atkinson presents a programme of acousmatic and lowercase music inspired by the nocturnal and evocative of the night, projected over the Loudspeaker Orchestra.

"Simon is Associate Professor and a founding member of the MTI: Institute for Sonic Creativity at De Montfort University, Leicester. His work is primarily in musical composition made possible through digital technologies, exploring the evolution of timbre and texture through time. He has worked in a diverse and eclectic range of musical projects, mediums and contexts over the years, recently in notable collaborations with dance and digital dance.

"The Loudspeaker Orchestra presents immersive acoustic experiences through programmed concerts of multichannel sound design, sonic art and electroacoustic music. Regular concerts, featuring work by international artists alongside students of Sound Design, take place in and around Greenwich."

Further Concert Dates: http://bit.ly/2lZacgS

New article by MTI² director Leigh Landy

The latest issue of Cambridge Journals' Organised Sound, on the theme of 'Borrowing, Quotation, Sampling and Plundering', includes a new article by MTI² director, Prof. Leigh Landy, titled 'Re-composing Sounds … and Other Things':

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/article/recomposing-sounds-and-other-things/6AA9E8D99FF45A1E44F02643C2FFBAE5

"In this article, based on four decades of experience of using samples in diverse ways in experimental, particularly electroacoustic compositions, the author investigates the world of what he calls ‘sample-based sound-based music’ and suggests that there is a relative lack of scholarship in this important area. The article’s contextual sections focus on briefly delineating this world of sonic creativity and placing it within today’s sampling culture as well as dealing with two political aspects of sampling, a musician’s attitude towards the reuse of sonic materials and the legality of sampled sounds, including musical passages, in the discussion of which current legislation related to sampling is challenged. Following this, a number of categories are presented in terms of the types of sampling material that is being used as well as how sample-based works are presented. The subsequent section is perhaps the most poignant in the article, namely the opening up of this form of innovative composition from a more traditional ‘artist creates work’ mode of operation to a more collaborative one which is essentially already part of most other forms of sampling culture. The objective here is to suggest that such collaborative approaches will enable sample-based sound-based music to become part of the lives of a much broader group than those currently involved with it."