Category: Journals

Two online journals

Dancecult : journal of electronic dance music culture. “Dancecult is a peer-reviewed, open-access e-journal for the study of electronic dance music culture (EDMC).”

Jems : journal of experimental music studies. “Jems is an online peer-reviewed journal devoted to experimental, systems, minimal, post-minimal, ‘new’ tonal and postmodern music.” The same web site also hosts The experimental music catalogue and its article archive.

I’ve updated the meta-bibliography. All links to Music & Dance Reference should now work.

EAM and music perception

There is an interesting discussion in the online journal Empirical musicology review (EMR) concerning the use of electroacoustic music (EAM) for the study of music perception. In “Time series analysis as a method to examine acoustical influences on real-time perception of music” (EMR, vol. 5, no. 4 (October, 2010)), Roger T. Dean and Freya Bailes use an extract from Trevor Wishart‘s Red bird to analyse correlations between the acoustic properties intensity and spectral flatness, and listener arousal (perceptions of change) and valence (expressed affect). They argue that

“[p]revious studies of listeners’ real-time perceptions of affect in music have attempted to map response through time to acoustic properties of the piece […]. Missing are substantial attempts to assess which acoustic properties also drive listeners’ perceptions of the structure of the same music. Structure in this instance need not be a music-theoretic analysis of large-scale form […], but refers to the low-level assessment by a listener of change and continuity in the music. [… M]usical forms that do not rely on hierarchical structures such as tonality or meter might exhibit quite a close relationship between acoustic properties of the work, listener perceptions of structure (change in sound), and listener perceptions of affect. EAM is one such form, and the subject of the current paper.”

Dean and Bailes find that

“intensity influences perceptions of change and expressed arousal substantially. Spectral flatness influences valence, while animate sounds influence the valence response and its variance.”

Marcus T. Pearce, in “Time-series analysis of Music: Perceptual and Information Dynamics” (EMR, vol. 6, no. 2 (April, 2011)), comments that Dean and Bailes

“[…] give two reasons for using EAM in their study: first, to demonstrate that their methods generalise beyond Western tonal music which is more often used in empirical work on music perception; and second, Red Bird provides an opportunity to test their methods on idiosyncratic temporally-localised timbral features in addition to the continuous features which generalise to other musical genres (see, e.g., Dean, Bailes & Schubert, 2011). Interestingly, their timbre feature of choice is spectral flatness, which they view as a more global indicator of timbre than spectral centroid, which is more commonly used in research on music perception (though this is not true of research on audio signal processing and music information retrieval where spectral flatness is one of the standard descriptors used in the MPEG 7 standard).”

Spectral flatness is the geometric mean of the power spectrum divided by the arithmetic mean. Noisy spectra have high flatness, peaky spectra low flatness. Spectral flatness is also related to the information content of the sound. The spectral centroid, i.e. the mean, barycenter or “mass center” of a spectrum, is correlated with brightness. Both flatness and centroid are included in the MPEG 7 standard. For descriptions of these and other timbre measures, see Geoffroy Peeters, A large set of audio features for sound description, 2004.

In addition, Pearce remarks that

“Dean and Bailes also argue that EAM can be algorithmically generated in such a way that the acoustic and algorithmic parameters of interest are systematically varied in creating stimuli for research on music perception. In other work, for example, Dean et al. (2011) extend their approach to the effects of intensity on arousal in two pieces written by Roger Dean, one of which is composed in the minimalist style. We might legitimately ask what advantage such algorithmically generated music has over the stimuli often constructed artificially to create experimental conditions in empirical research on music perception. The most obvious advantage is that the results gain in ecological validity from using stimuli created by composers, using stylistically legitimate methods, with an artistic purpose. These results should generalise to the experience of similar music outside the laboratory, while results obtained with artificially created or altered musical stimuli are not guaranteed to do so. The advantage of computer-generated music over other musical styles is that it can be produced so as to conserve experimental control.”

Dean and Bailes respond to Pearce in another paper, “Modelling perception of structure and affect in music: spectral centroid and Wishart’s Red Bird” (EMR, vol. 6, no. 2 (April, 2011)) where they analyse the Red Bird extract using spectral centroid and find that

“[…] it is fairly clear that spectral centroid and spectral flatness bear a quite distant relationship to atomic perceptual processes, and it is still unclear how they may influence cognition. But acoustic intensity, on the other hand, is an immediate determinant of an important perceptual response, loudness, and this relationship is much better understood. Again, most studies use short tones, often synthetic, but it is clear that even with longer musical extracts, intensity is a close determinant of continuously perceived loudness.”

New issue of Hz, #16

Quantum Improvisation: The Cybernetic Presence
by Pauline Oliveros
“It’s already evident that computers and human intelligence are merging. What would I want on a musician chip if I were to receive the benefit of neural implant technology? What kind of a 21st Century musician could I be?” Composer/musician and one of the key figures of electronic music Pauline Oliveros’ essay from 1999 centres around the question by revisiting 100 years of music history since the first magnetic recording in 1899.

Moistmedia, Technoetics and the Three VRs
by Roy Ascott
One of the most influential theoreticians/artists in the field of telematics Roy Ascott’s article about Moistmedia, written in 2000, in which he predicts “a convergence of three VRs” (Virtual, Validated and Vegetal): “At this interspace lies the great challenge to both science and art: the nature of consciousness. A technoetic aesthetic is needed which…may enable us as artists to address the key questions of our time.”

Grains of Gold in All This Shift: Web 2.0, Crowdsourcing and Participatory Art
by Amanda Wasielewski
“The Web 2.0 ideas of ‘social networking’ and ‘crowdsourcing’ have filtered through to the art world where artists are, whether consciously or not, using Web 2.0 principles and forms in their work.” Amanda Wasielewski’s critical examination over the recent activities of participatory art both on and offline which “begins to look like crowdsourcing.”

Dynamic screen / room:
by Thore Soneson
“During the last decades moving images, video and screens have expanded from on-the-wall projections to dynamic and multi-modulated images in different spatial settings – on multiple screens, in dynamic and interactive room environments and in an immersive physical context.” Film maker/producer Thore Soneson’s research into the contemporary “dynamic screen” for his project “Journey to Abadyl”.

First Museum Shooters
by Mathias Jansson
“When the small company id Software in Texas, USA, 1993 released the videogame Doom few would have guessed that this game would change the entire game industry, and even fewer would have guessed which impact Doom would have on the art world.” Game Art specialist Mathias Jansson’s article about “museum shooters” in the field of Game Art.

SONOMATERIA: Audio-tactile Composition
by Irad Lee
Irad Lee, sound and interaction designer, “describes the inspiration and implementation of SONOMATERIA, a multi-user sound sculpture, installation, tangible sound interface and intersensory composition,” which “aims to explore the mutual reinforcing effect that the manipulation of tactile and auditory perceptions can have on each other….”

New journal: JAR – The journal for artistic research

“The journal for artistic research (JAR) is an international, online, Open Access and peer-reviewed journal for the identification, publication and dissemination of artistic research and its methodologies, from all arts disciplines. The Journal is underpinned by the Research Catalogue (RC), a searchable, documentary database of artistic research work and its exposition, that functions as an inclusive, open-ended, bottom-up research tool supporting the development of the Journal’s academic contributions.”

Issue #0 presents work by:

  • Bertha Bermudez, Scott deLahunta, Marijke Hoogenboom, Chris Ziegler, Frederic Bevilacqua, Sarah Fdili Alaoui, Barbara Meneses Gutierrez, Amsterdam
  • Richard Blythe, Melbourne
  • Sher Doruff, Amsterdam
  • Cathy van Eck, Zürich
  • Mark Fleischman, Cape Town
  • Abhishek Hazra, Bangalore
  • Anders Hultqvist, Gothenburg
  • Daniel Kötter, Constanze Fischbeck, Berlin
  • Tuija Kokkonen, Helsinki
  • Elina Saloranta, Helsinki
  • Sissel Tolaas, Berlin
  • Otto von Busch, Gothenburg

JAR is published by the Society for Artistic Research (SAR). “[SAR] was established in March 2010 as an independent, non-profit organisation for the purpose of publishing JAR.” SAR:s institutional members are art and design schools and universities.

The journal invites submissions. JAR is peer-reviewed, but not the RC.

The journal of music and meaning revamped

In the new issue, no. 9, of The journal of music and meaning, the editors announce that the journal will be published in blog format from now on. Entire issues will not be published at the same time. Instead, papers will appear in the blog when ready. The posts consists of and abstract, the author’s credentials, and a link to the paper in PDF. This is good news, although I find the new format somewhat confusing, perhaps because the new issue lacks a table of contents.

JMM #9 contains some articles of particular interest to readers of this blog:

More radio and sound art

Here are some assorted links mostly related to radio and sound art:

And now for something completely different:

New issue of Hz, #15, September 2010

Contents

“Towards a Soundly Ecstatic Electronica” by Joseph Nechvatal
Artist/art theoretician Joseph Nechvatal’s text deals with a phantasmagorical theorization of electronic-based sound art that places sound art in the context of the abstract unlimited-field of representation made possible by electronic communications.

“Of Ultrasound, Art and Science” by Michael Dotolo
Multimedia artist/musician Michael Dotolo discusses sound art in the context of art-science relating to ultrasound. “My intent in studying the invisible sonic spectrum is to understand the importance that these frequencies bare on the complex communicative fabric of the natural and technological aspects of our lives.”

“Acoustics, Not Theatre” by Adrian Knight
Composer Adrian Knight: “Sound, time and space are our way of dividing a multidimensional reality into manageable subunits. Sound in time and space constitute what we call music….[O]f these three subunits, space is the most complex, and also most dependent on social and architectural necessity and availability”

“Iannis Xenakis: Form and Transformation” by JD Pirtle
“Avant-garde composer, architect and music theorist Iannis Xenakis consistently pushed the boundaries of music, mathematics, architecture and science in his work.” Artist JD Pirtle examines Xenakis’ hybridised and interdisciplinary practice in which Xenakis was able to “augment, transform, invert or rotate” the many ways architecture and music are related.

“James Turrell’s Mendota Stoppages and Roden Crater: When the Studio and the Art Become One” by JD Pirtle
Artist JD Pirtle reviews the relation between the space and the art in the practice of James Turrell, whose early departure from the white cube tradition manifests break-down of the division “studio, non-studio, anti-studio.” Two of Turrell’s pieces, Mendota Stoppages and Roden Crater are revisited.

“Teorema Ritournelle” by Chritina McPhee
Chritina McPhee: “This text came into being as I struggled to explain to myself why the idea of a witness, or wit(h)nessing could apply to the status of an object like a drawing. Teorema Ritournelle turns on some observations and flights around Pasolini’s film TEOREMA, and applies them to the transposition of drawings into presences of an inordinate kind.”

Hz #14

Hz #14 December 2009:

Metal and Wind: Bertoia and the Space of Reverie by Michael Filimowicz

“Offering to the Wind, as the Bertoia sound sculpture is now known, offers one possible solution to the problem of soundscape design for the city’s places of leisure and reverie…It reverses a certain urban deafness, returning the possibility of silences between sounds, producing a quietude in the midst of the city roar.”

Embodiment and Technology: Towards a Utopian Dialectic by Belinda Haikes

“David Rokeby’s A Very Nervous System and Steve Mann’s Wearable Computer are discussed in this essay as examples of “Utopian quest for technological embodiment… … that seeks to move beyond the anxiety of new media and to position our culture to examine the space between the ultimate dialectics, that of man and the machine.”

Sensory Substitution by judsoN

“There is some debate whether cases of sensory substitution are the results of imaginativeness, psychological effects or neurological (mis-)wiring….We have evidence such substitutions do happen….Whether or not Wagner, Klee or Kandinsky actually had synesthesia, there is a rich history of people equating one type of sensory stimuli for another.”

Chong! A Parallel Environment by Joaquin Gasgonia Palencia

“Chong! endeavors to showcase an interfacial encounter between humans and robots, much like human peers meeting for the first time, without the robot having to fulfill a function…. The end purpose of this environmental installation is to give the human a small window into how a robot may perceive humans and how it processes that information.”

Artistic Textual and Performative Paths in New Media Correlations: An Interview with Annie Abrahams by Evelin Stermitz

“Evelin Stermitz’ interview with net artist Annie Abrahams, whose “works are structured on both digitized hyper and on site realities. She constructs forms of collective writings on the net and reconstructs them into offline perceptions, which leads to creations of net-operas and other web based interventions.”

Progressions: Toward a Poetic Improvisation of Listening by Brian Schorn

Brian Schorn’s poems here “…are an attempt to create a writing environment parallel to that of musical improvisation…by using the Surrealist technique of automatic writing while listening to a representative number of improvised recordings….Six classifications of improvisation and nine composer/performers were used to generate the writings…”

Hz Net Gallery presents 6 net art works:

Buffalo weekly videos by Alysse Stepanian,

The Natual “High-Times” Sound Shuttle by Rudi Punzo,

Baptize by Aaron Oldenburg,

In His Memory (Starman) by Aaron Higgins,

Keyword Intervention by Owen Mundy and

Radiant Copenhagen by Anders Bojen & Kristoffer Ørum