Sound Art

Transmission is both a telepresence performance and a research project. As a real-time visualization tool, Transmission creates alternate representations of neural activity through sound and vision, investigating the effect of interaction on human consciousness. As a sonification project, it creates an immersive experience for two users: a soundscape created by the human mind and the influence of kinetic interaction. An electroencephalographic (EEG) headset interprets a user’s neural activity. An Open Sound Control (OSC) script then translates this data into a real-time particle stream and sound environment at one end. A second user in a remote location modifies this stream in real time through body movement. Together they become a telematic musical interface-communicating through visual and sonic representation of their interactions.

The potential for participatory arts to contribute to mental health and wellbeing has been subject of parliamentary debates, all-party interparliamentary reports, research by the Arts Council of England, as well as academic research. Often, these questions stand in the light of accountability of Art, of measurable societal benefit, not at least to justify funding decisions and institutional support. Criticism of this quantitative reading of participatory arts centres around limitations in measuring social connectedness and its benefits, as well as other side-effects of reductionism (Bishop 2012). This paper presents four recent media arts projects aiming to contribute to social cohesion through a multitude of strategies. This paper discusses the potential of media arts to contribute to social connectedness as well as challenges in measuring their success.

This paper addresses challenges and opportunities posed by the design and production of network performance from the point of view of collaborative creative work. We examine strategies that, while referring to the network as a new medium for performance, make use of concepts from dramaturgy to better understand the relationships between artists, audiences and media. We characterise three distinct models for dramaturgy, particularly from the point of view of collaboration, authorship, presence and environment.

The native time delay of audio transmission over high speed networks is used to create musical devices to play on and with the network. Different strategies that have been part of the practice of the Net vs. Net collectivea permanent network ensemble playing exclusively over wide area digital networks-are discussed. A tool to synchronize displaced musicians visually cue the performers and the audience. It also activates synchronized musical processes. The latency is used to create delay effects and reverbs embedded on the bidirectional path using feedback delay network filters. We also present a technique to play distributed rhythmic patterns over the network that are designed to sound different-with diverging rhythmic and phase structures-on each location.

This paper describes a recent network music performance (NMP) study that was carried out at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Belfast in March 2007. We refer to this study as the “Apart Project”. This study is unique in that a wide variety of novel network scenarios were ...

KIMA is a holographic surround-sound installation that visualizes telepresence as both a phonetic and a synaesthetic phenomenon. The performance piece is based on the physical conditions of cymatics-the study of physically visible sound wave patterns. Two environments, a quad surround and a holographic interface, build the framework of a telematic experience that illustrates communication as wave forms while focusing on the relationship between sound and matter.

Long distance network music collaborations beyond the ensemble performance threshold (EPT) as exposed by Schuett in 2002 [14] where playability is affected beyond a roundtrip network delay of 50ms calls for the development of cueing mechanisms that are methodical and linked to musical parameters. The cueing strategies involved in such musical interactions will depend on the type of repertoire played and the network distance (ND) between the nodes involved in the performance. This paper proposes a semi-standardized cueing framework for real time collaborations over the network with latencies of more than 50ms. The paper also explores a compositional methodology for creating network centric performances, which couldn't occur outside of a networked situation.

The papers at this Convention have been selected on the basis of a submitted abstract and extended precis that have been peer reviewed by at least two qualified anonymous reviewers. This convention paper has been reproduced from the author's advance manuscript, without editing, corrections, or consideration by the Review Board. The AES takes no responsibility for the contents. Additional papers may be obtained by sending request and remittance to Audio Engineering Society, 60 East 42 nd Street,

Background is given on existing research into the perception and description of timbre. This is used to contextualise the development of visual mappings for acoustic timbre features. Two example systems are explained and discussed, which demonstrate the use of perceptually motivated mappings from acoustic features to visual properties, in specific contexts. Possible applications and extensions of such systems are proposed. Timbre. Audio analysis. Timbre visualisation. Generative computer graphics.

Noise is a participatory art piece inviting audiences to explore impact of urban noises interactively. Using specific urban sound sources, the audience experiences noise as spatial soundscapes, responding to it, physically engaging and interacting with it. KIMA: Noise creates awareness for the phenomenon of noise pollution. The paper looks at preeminent research in the field, and draws conclusions of how sound affects us as individuals. The art project KIMA: Noise is introduced technically and conceptually.

The Voice propose a sonic and visual composition as act of co-creation, an 'open work' to which everyone can contribute. We invite participants to experience tonal harmonies between one another. With KIMA: The Voice, we are looking to embed means and ways of measuring audience participation during creative engagement.

Aura investigates the relationship between spirituality and technology. When Roy Ascott asked whether there is love in the telematic embrace (Ascott 1989), he questioned technology's role in empathy. Perceived as antipodal, contradictory phenomena, the relationship between technology, and the metaphysical is complex and multi-layered. The ambiguity between technology and spirituality has historic roots. The quest to differentiate between science and spiritualism, physical and metaphysical , played a central role in the roots of modern day science, in pragmatist discourse. To this day, the term presence still entails a dual connotation of remote presence in virtual environments and spiritual presence in religious or ontological discourse.

Over the last five years, KIMA, an art and research project on sound and vision, has investigated visual properties of sound. Previous iterations of KIMA focused on digital representations of cymatics—physical sound patterns—as media for performance. The most recent development incorporated neural networks and machine learning strategies to explore visual expressions of sound in participatory music creation. The project, displayed on a 360-degree canvas at the London Roundhouse, prompted the audience to explore their own voice as intelligent, real-time visual representation. Machine learning algorithms played a key role in meaningful interpretation of sound as visual form. The resulting immersive performance turned the audience into cocreators of the piece.

This paper discusses the design, construction, and development of a multi-site collaborative instrument, The Loop, developed by the JacksOn4 collective during 2009-10 and formally presented in Oslo at the arts.on.wires and NIME conferences in 2011. The development of this instrument is primarily a reaction to historical network performance that either attempts to present traditional acoustic practice in a distributed format or utilises the network as a conduit to shuttle acoustic and performance data amongst participant nodes. In both scenarios the network is an integral and indispensible part of the performance, however, the network is not perceived as an instrument, per se. The Loop is an attempt to create a single, distributed hybrid instrument retaining traditionally acoustic interfaces and resonant bodies that are mediated by the network. The embedding of the network into the body of the instrument raises many practical and theoretical discussions, which are explored in this pa...

The potential for Participatory Arts to contribute to Mental Health and Wellbeing has been subject of Parliamentary Debates, All-Party Interparliamentary reports, research by the Arts Council of England as well as academic research. Often, these questions stand in the light of accountability of Art, of measurable societal benefit, not at least to justify funding decisions and institutional support. Criticism of this quantitative reading of participatory arts centres around limitations in measuring social connectedness and its benefits, as well as other side-effects of reductionism (Bishop 2012). This paper presents four recent media arts projects aiming to contribute to social cohesion through a multitude of strategies. This paper discusses the potential of media arts to contribute to social connectedness as well as challenges in measuring their success.

In digital art theory, the histories of generative art and interactive art are considered fundamentally interrelated, yet distinctively defined mutually dependent, yet clearly separated by their respective discourse shaping definitions. Equally, in art practise, a multitude of hybrid art forms challenge these definitions allowing for questions on the nature of the two currents. Both genres share a longstanding tradition in the practise of digital arts, while their theoretic concepts have been constantly refined by scholars over the last decades. Recently, their discussion has gained further momentum as both art forms received heightened attention in institutional discourse, curatorial display and theoretic reception. This paper focuses on the two neighbouring fields in the digital arts, their respective traditions, their conceptual demarcation lines and theoretic implications. We are singling out examples of hybrid nature, conceptual cross-overs between interactive art and generativ...

This paper provides an overview of a proposed demonstration of 3DinMotion, a system using real time motion capture of one or several subjects, which can be used in interactive audiovisual pieces and network performances. The skeleton of a subject is analyzed in real time and displayed as an abstract avatar as well as sonified based on mappings and rules to make the interplay experience lively and rewarding. A series of musical pieces have been composed for the interface following cueing strategies. In addition a second display, “the prompter” guides the users through the piece. 3DinMotion has been developed from scratch and natively, leading to a system with a very low latency, making it suitable for real time music interactions. In addition, 3DinMotion is fully compatible with the OpenSoundControl (OSC) protocol, allowing expansion to commonly used musical and sound design applications.

Many commercial software applications for timbre creation and manipulation feature an engineering-focused, parametric layout. This paper argues the case for a perceptually motivated approach to interface design in such tools. `Perceptually motivated' in this context refers to the use of common semantic timbre descriptors to influence the digital representation of timbre. A review is given of existing research into semantic descriptors of timbre, as well as corresponding acoustic features of timbre. Discussion is also given on existing interface design techniques. The perceptually motivated approach to interface design is demonstrated using an example system, which makes use of perceptually relevant mappings from acoustic timbre features to semantic timbre descriptors and visualises sounds as physical objects.

This paper provides an overview of a multi-media composition, Leech, which aurally and visually renders BitTorrent traffic. The nature and usage of BitTorrent networking is discussed, including the implications of widespread music piracy. The traditional usage of borrowed musical material as a compositional resource is discussed and expanded upon by including the actual procurement of the musical material as part of the performance of the piece. The technology and tools required to produce this work, and the roles that they serve, are presented. Eight distinct streams of data are targeted for visualization and sonification: Torrent progress, download/ upload rate, file name/ size, number of peers, peer download progress, peer location, packet transfer detection, and the music being pirated. An overview of the methods used for sonifying and and visualizing this data in an artistic manner is presented. Copyright: c 2011 Curtis McKinney et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

The culture of laptop improvisation has grown tremendously in recent years. The development of personalized software instruments presents interesting issues in the context of improvised group performances. This paper examines an approach that is aimed at increasing the modes of interactivity between laptop performers and at the same time suggests ways in which audiences can better discern and identify the sonic characteristics of each laptop performer. We refer to software implementation that was developed for the BLISS networked laptop ensemble with view to designing a shared format for the exchange of messages within local and internet based networks.