In the real world the news of the decade was 9/11, two awful wars, staggering corporate greed and the election of an African-American president. In the art world a big event was Mr. Koons showing his sculptures at Versailles. In short, life passed art by. Maybe in the new decade they’ll meet.
Holland Cotter winding up last decade of arts in NY Times.
January 26 me and Pascal Baltazar will be doing a joint presentation at The Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London.
Trond Lossius & Pascal Baltazar
Jamoma is an open-source (GNU LGPL) software development platform for interactive research and artistic practice, co-developed by an international team of researchers, developers, artists, composers and musicians. The presentation will give a brief introduction to Jamoma Modular, a framework for structured development and control of modules in the graphical media environment Max/MSP/Jitter.
Spatial sound is a core interest to several of the developers. A stratified approach to spatialisation and the development of Spatial Sound Description Interchange Format (SpatDIF) encourage interoperability and flexibility between modules, and Jamoma supports a number of advanced algoritms for spatialisation, including Vector-Based Amplitude Panning (VBAP), first and higher-order ambisonics, as well as novel spatialisation methods Virtual Microphone Control (ViMiC) and Distance-Based Amplitude Panning (DBAP).
Most common techniques for spatialization require the listener to be positioned at a “sweet spot” surrounded by loudspeakers. For practical concert, stage, and installation applications such layouts may not be practical or desirable. DBAP offers an alternative panning-based spatialization method where no assumptions are made concerning the layout of the speaker array nor the position of the listener.
The basic principles underlying DBAP will be presented, as well as extensions to the algorithm for added flexibility and artistic expressive possibilities. Visual and interactive interfaces for DBAP will be demonstrated, and the presentation will conclude with examples of DBAP and Jamoma used in sound installations as well as musical performance and the performing arts.
January 25th at 20:00 Pascal Baltazar, Bjørnar Habbestad and Benjamin Maumus will be giving a work-in-progress performance at Kings Place in London of “Unruhigen Räume”, a new work commissioned by BEK and GMEA for 3 computer instrumentalists using a 16 sources/12 speakers DBAP system with live spatialization. The performance is part of a concert presented by the Bergen contemporary music festival Borealis:
http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/music/out-hear/borealis
Trond Lossius is an sound and installation artist based in Bergen, Norway. He is art director at BEK – Bergen Center for Electronic Arts and associate professor at Bergen National Academy of the Arts.
Pascal Baltazar is a composer and intermedia artist based in Albi, France. He is Research Manager at GMEA Centre National de Création Musicale d’Albi-Tarn, and coordinates the Virage Platform research project, funded by the The French National Research Agency.
http://www.jamoma.org/
http://www.spatdif.org/
http://www.trondlossius.no/
http://www.zkrx.org/
Conference on sound studies
University of Aarhus, Denmark
September 23–25, 2010
Today, sound studies provide an important framework for furthering cultural research related to a broad range of historical and contemporary issues. Also, sound studies contribute to the understanding of currents in social and global activity increasingly determined by auditory, sonic, and communicative materiality. At the same time, the exploration of auditivity and auditory cultures raises a series of significant aesthetic, medial, historical, cultural, and theoretical questions.
Cultural changes related to globalization and digital media have questioned traditional paradigms of vision containing notions of visual representation, semiotics, and a hermeneutics based on reading. Such changes suggest an auditive paradigm in which modes of interaction, mobile communications, and spatial and geographic fluidity lead to a renewed sense of orality and listening. In research this new paradigm is establishing itself as the interdisciplinary field of sound studies. It draws on disciplines such as musicology, performance studies, art history, anthropology, cultural studies, urban studies, and histories of technology and media while influencing these disciplines with new modes of reflection on and examination of their respective methodologies and subsequent political effects.
The aim of the conference is to profile contemporary sound studies as an interdisciplinary field of studies and to contribute to the discussion and development of the auditive paradigm in general. Key concepts like ‘acoustemology’, ‘acoustic space’ or ‘sonic environment’ might be reflected upon and developed as well, both at a theoretical level and with regard to specific cultural, medial and aesthetic contexts.
The programme of the conference will consist of keynote lectures, plenary roundtables, thematic workshops and individual presentations. Individual presentations and entire workshops may draw inspiration from the following array of questions:
Proposals for presentations (20/10 mins) or workshops (90 mins) must be submitted to the conference organisers/programme committee by April 1, 2010 as an email attachment (rtf/pdf/doc) to soundstudies@hum.au.dk. Please include the following information: Paper abstract and title (max. 200 words), name(s), affiliation, e-mail, and technical equipment required (PC/DVD/CD/data projector/over-head projector/etc.).
Notifications of acceptance will be sent no later than May 3, 2010.
Keynote speakers are Dr. Penelope Gouk (University of Manchester), Dr. Jean-Paul Thibaud (CRESSON), and professor Adam Krims (University of Nottingham).
The official language of the conference is English. The conference fee is 1.000 D.Kr/€135. Please contact one of the organisers mentioned below in case you need more information.
The conference is organized by the “National Research Network on Auditive Culture” (http://auditiveculture.ku.dk/), the research project “Audiovisual Culture” (http://www.ak.au.dk/en), and the Nordic Branch of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.
On behalf of the organisers,
Ansa Lønstrup
University of Aarhus
aekal@hum.au.dk
Morten Michelsen
University of Copenhagen
momich@hum.ku.dk
The topic of cross-disciplinarity is of ongoing interest to me. Lately I have stumbled upon two texts providing interesting perspectives on it.
The first is a Swedish report on Cross-disciplinarity in research by Sanström et. al (2004). Three core terms are defined and form the basis for further discussions: disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary. Cross-disciplinary is an umbrella term covering multi-disciplinary as well as inter-disciplinary:
The second text is by Jost Reekveld for a recent seminar at Baltan Laboratories. He is criticising how cross-disciplinary often ends up before going on to suggest yet another term, auto-disciplinary:
The common ideals of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinarity also imply some kind of common ground. Projects can certainly be interesting if disciplines are enriched by the contact with other disciplines, but I would like to present two images that capture the down-to-earth reality of many of these projects. One image is that of the round table with a hole in the middle; representatives of various disciplines sit around this table, the hole remains empty and the disciplines themselves are not questioned. The second image has become very common: many organisations have an office for interdisciplinary affairs in the same corridor as the offices for the traditional disciplines. Just as in the other offices, a specialised language is spoken in the office for interdisciplinary affairs, which sets it apart from the rest.
(…)
With the term ‘autodisciplinarity’ I would like to propose yet another disciplinary word that I hope helps to think about structures for new kinds of activity. It resembles all kinds of self-referential things that are commonly thought not to be possible, such as lifting oneself up by pulling ones own hair or pulling ones bootstraps. In a similar vein it can be thought that riding a bicycle is impossible: it is impossible to achieve speed without maintaining balance by steering, and it is impossible to steer without having speed. As seen from an armchair, riding a bike is clearly an impossible task.
Spatial explorations in art, science, music and technology
25 – 28 February 2010 in Paradiso, de Balie, NIMk and STEIM, Amsterdam
Early Bird Discount
20% Early Bird discount on the festival passe-partout until 15 January 2010!
Order tickets via http://www.sonicacts.com
The thirteenth Sonic Acts Festival in Amsterdam is entirely dedicated to the exploration of space in performative and audiovisual art, film, music and architecture. Sonic Acts XIII – The Poetics of Space examines the importance of physical space in times of far-reaching technological developments, and the physical and psychological impact of spatial designs.
The evening programme in the Paradiso comprises a wide-ranging exploration of the spatial dimensions of image and sound and examines the relationship between spatial architecture and the listening ear and how our brains process sensory input. Events include immersive audiovisual performances, highly intensive listening experiences, experiments with spatial sound, multi-screen projections and films that extend beyond the screen and pure light.
With performances and films by Jürgen Reble & Thomas Köner, Haswell & Hecker, Fred Worden, Paul Sharits, Anthony McCall, Takashi Ito, Yann Beauvais, Bruce McClure, Optical Machines, Annea Lockwood, Jacob Kirkegaard, Barry Truax, BJ Nilsen, Eric La Casa, Gilles Aubry, Hildegard Westerkamp, a tribute to Maryanne Amacher, TeZ, Francisco López, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfland, Paul Prudence, Hans W. Koch and Yutaka Makino.
The three-day conference in de Balie forms the heart of the festival. Besides lectures and presentations, the comprehensive programme also features interviews, film screenings and short performances. An international gathering of theorists, artists, researchers, composers and critics will shed light on different aspects involved in working with space, centered on the theme: how does technology change our experience of space, how do artists investigate this in their work, and how do they enhance or modify the spatial experience?
With: Brandon LaBelle, Daniel Teruggi, Raviv Ganchrow, Barry Truax, Naut Humon, Christopher Salter, Branden W. Joseph, Marcos Novak, Dirk Hebel & Jörg Stollmann, Trace Reddell, Roger Malina, Jacob Kirkegaard, Edward Shanken, Yolande Harris, Robert Whitman, HC Gilje, Michael J. Morgan, Hildegard Westerkamp, Philip Beesley, Eric Kluitenberg, Duncan Speakman and Fred Worden.
Audiovisual works and interactive installations can be viewed in the Netherlands Media Art Institute and at other special locations. With: Carlo Bernardini, HC Gilje, Jacob Kirkegaard, Ralf Baecker and many others. The exhibition in the Netherlands Media Arts Institute (NIMk) will be open to the public until 1 May 2010.
For additional and updated information check out our website at: www.sonicacts.com
Coming Monday, January 11 at 17:00, I have been invited to give a self presentation at MUU galleria in Helsinki, discussing recent works with a focus on sound installations using Max/MSP. The presentation is part of an Interactive Sound art class organized by Muu Media Base from December 2009 until March 2010. The course is focusing on sound and installation using the Max/MSP software. Below is the text used to announce the event.
If you happen to be in Helsinki, please pop by and say hello!
Trond Lossius is a sound and installation artist living in Bergen, Norway. He has collaborated with other artists on a large number of cross-disciplinary projects, in particular sound installations and works for stage. His projects has been presented at major venues in Norway and abroad.
He graduated with a master degree in geophysics from the University of Bergen, and went on to study music and composition at The Grieg Academy. Trond Lossius is currently art director of BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, Associate Professor at Bergen National Academy of the Arts and member of the Management committee of an European research project on Sonic Interaction Design.
Trond Lossius will talk about his recent works with a focus on sound installations using Max/MSP program, such as: Imploding Spaces, a multichannel sound installation at Fjell fortress built by the German occupation forces during World War II and Cubic Second, an audio-visual installation, exploring the gallery space as a venue for audio-visual experience.
The Artists Talk by Trond Lossius is part of an Interactive Sound art class organized by Muu Media Base, from December 2009 until March 2010. The course is focusing on sound and installation using Max/MSP software.
Supported by AVEK
Part of the Audio Autograph program, with an aim to promote contemporary sound artists and their collaborative projects. Recent activities include Net Radio (since June 2009), the CD-publication MUU FOR EARS (september 2009) and collaboration with Kunstforeningen in Tromsø at Insomnia festival (October 2009). www.muu.fi/sound
Audio Autographs is supported by: Nordic Culture Point and Arts Council of Finland.
While in Helsinki early next week I will also take the oportunity to visit Media Lab and Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing at Helsinki University of Technology. At HUT I will give a brief presentation of my work. I am very much looking forward to learn more about current development related to Directional audio coding. I heard it demoed at AES 2006 in Paris, and was quite impressed with how it managed to create an impression of depth that I have sometimes found lacking in e.g. ambisonics.
Trond Lossius is a sound and installation artist living in Bergen, Norway, mainly working on audio-visual installations and other cross-disciplinary projects, often using multi-channel sound reproduction in his installations for sculptural exploration of the space as well as creating imagined spaces through sound. He will talk about the exploration of various spatialisation techniques in his work, and development related to spatialisation within the framework of Jamoma.
Jamoma is an open-source (GNU LGPL) software development platform for interactive research and artistic practice, co-developed by an international team of researchers, developers, artists, composers and musicians, providing a framework for structured development and control of modules in the graphical media environment Max/MSP/Jitter. Spatial sound is a core interest to several of the developers. A stratified approach to spatialisation and the development of Spatial Sound Description Interchange Format (SpatDIF) encourage interoperability and flexibility between modules, and Jamoma supports a number of advanced algoritms for spatialisation, including Vector-Based Amplitude Panning (VBAP), first and higher-order ambisonics, as well as novel spatialisation methods Virtual Microphone Control (ViMiC) and Distance-Based Amplitude Panning (DBAP).
Most common techniques for spatialization require the listener to be positioned at a “sweet spot” surrounded by loudspeakers. For real-world concert, stage, and installation applications such layouts may not be practical or desirable. DBAP offers an alternative panning-based spatialization method where no assumptions are made concerning the layout of the speaker array nor the position of the listener. The basic principles underlying DBAP will be presented, as well as extensions to the algorithm for added flexibility and artistic expressive possibilities.
Trond Lossius graduated with a master degree in geophysics from the University of Bergen, and went on to study music and composition at The Grieg Academy. He is currently art director at BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts, Associate Professor at Bergen National Academy of the Arts and a member of the Management committee of a COST action on Sonic Interaction Design (SID).
http://www.bek.no
http://www.jamoma.org
http://www.spatdif.org
http://www.trondlossius.no
Charles Stross is contemplating the future of writing in the age of digital distribution in this very interesting blog post:
The internet is business-model neutral; it’s like the postal service, or the telephone — all it does is put suppliers in touch with consumers. The revolutionary new quality it adds is that it cuts out middlemen — if a supplier can make their existence known to a consumer, there’s no need for wholesaler warehouses, distributors, and a pavement-pounding sales force.
Enter Google. (…) Google’s revenue stream is predicated on their success as an advertising company first and foremost. (…) Google’s business model is to monetize all internet content by slapping advertising on it and positioning themselves as the most convenient find-everything-at-your-fingertips gateway.
I’m increasingly having a problem with the “information wants to be free” viewpoint — because it ain’t necessarily so, depending on how you define “information” and “free”. Bandwidth is in the process of becoming so cheap it might as well be free, at least by the standards of the 1990s, let alone any earlier decade. Information is another matter, though. Not all information is created equal, and the cost of compiling and producing something new is disproportionately high.
Paper books are going to be around for a long time to come, but I’m betting on the ebook cannibalizing the mass-market paperback by 2020 at the latest — which is where half the paper book revenue stream comes from. Hardcovers pay much better than paperbacks, but far fewer people are willing to pay for them. (…) But the ebook shift is potentially catastrophic: ebook royalties are typically in the 15-30% range, but the cost of e-goods in general is being deflated towards the $1.99 price point by the App Store model pushed by Apple and their competitors. Amazon aren’t helping either (…) Not only does it mean less royalties for the authors, it means less money for the publishers — or, more importantly, their marketing divisions.
(…)
So I’m trying to figure out what constitutes a workable business model in the post-Google age for someone who wants to earn a living by writing.
This is the kind of questions that the recording industry seldom raise, instead hiding their heads in the sand chasing pirate copying.
|
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Norway License. |