The Public Sound Objects (PSOs) project consists of the development of a networked musical system, which is an experimental framework to implement and test new concepts for online music communication. The PSOs project approaches the idea of collaborative musical performances over the Internet by aiming to go beyond the concept of using computer networks as a channel to connect performing spaces. This is achieved by exploring the internet's shared nature in order to provide a public musical space where anonymous users can meet and be found performing in collective sonic art pieces.

The system itself is an interface-decoupled musical instrument, in which a remote user interface and a sound processing engine reside with different hosts in an extreme scenario where a user can access the synthesizer from any place in the world using the World Wide Web. Specific software features were implemented in order to reduce the disruptive effects of network latency, such as dynamic adaptation of the musical tempo to communication latency measured in real time and consistent sound panning with the object's behaviour at the graphical user interface.

Memory, according to Henri Bergson, is gleaned from the present and realises the present perception from its sensory-motor elements through movements towards that which it perceives.

The purpose of this article is to propose and debate the deliberate use of such ‘present memory’ in the sonic artwork. The suggestion is that sonic memory material – sounds that are plundered from old recordings – can be collaged into complex sonic works to produce, not a nostalgic experience in the sense of a recognition of the past, but a current production of sonic material in a continually present perception. Such a production strategy employs the affective quality of memory to ‘trigger’ a sensorial engagement in the sense of a ‘pathetic’ engagement understood as an emotional and sentimental involvement with the work. The understanding is that such an emotional engagement involves the listener centrally in the production of the artwork and challenges modernist (visual) art discourses, which evaluate the work from a distance.

The Editors are delighted to welcome this contribution from a venerable pioneer of algorithmic composition who is also a member of Organised Sound’s Advisory Board. In this article, edited from notes for a series of lectures delivered in Poland, and not previously published, Xenakis tackles first the questions arising from determinacy and indeterminacy, repetition and variation, symmetry and structure, and multidimensional musical space. He later describes his computer drawing interface, UPIC, and ends with a discussion of some of his statistical compositional methods employing a variety of probability distributions. Much of the article is illuminated by insights drawn from a lifetime’s work in the arts and sciences.

This paper explores issues related to cultural appropriation in acousmatic electroacoustic music. Through its use of sound recording technology, acousmatic electroacoustic music facilitates a broad range of potential mechanisms for cultural appropriation, from the abstract (idea) to the concrete (sound object). But appropriating culturally identifiable material is not without its hazards, and the composer may face accusations of superficial exoticism, cultural offence, or the violation of personal or legal rights. To complicate matters for the composer, each listener will bring his or her own knowledge to their understanding of the meaning of the material. A similar reception effect occurs with any artistic medium, of course. But in electroacoustic music, the clarity and immediacy of high-fidelity recording and playback can strongly enhance the identifiability of the material, and, by extension, the audience's potential attachment to it. As illustrations, I refer briefly to several works, including three of my own acousmatic pieces, that have made use of appropriation. Through those examples, we consider both the broader issues noted above and some specific concerns about language and voice. The goal is to provide an overview of some of the opportunities and possible pitfalls of cultural appropriation in electroacoustic music, as well as a brief map of one composer's journey through that thorny landscape.

This article proposes that real-time composition can be considered a new performance ecosystem. Rather than an extension of electroacoustic instruments that are used within improvisatory environments, real-time composition systems are produced by composers interested in gestural interactions between musical agents, with or without real-time control. They are a subclass of interactive systems, specifically a genre of interactive composition systems that share compositional control between composer and system. Designing the complexity of interactions between agents is a compositional act, and its outcomes are realised during performance – more so than most interactive systems, the new performance ecosystem is compositional in nature.

Sound modelling is an important part of the analysis–synthesis process since it combines sound processing and algorithmic synthesis within the same formalism. Its aim is to make sound simulators by synthesis methods based on signal models or physical models, the parameters of which are directly extracted from the analysis of natural sounds. In this article the successive steps for making such systems are described. These are numerical synthesis and sound generation methods, analysis of natural sounds, particularly time–frequency and time–scale (wavelet) representations, extraction of pertinent parameters, and the determination of the correspondence between these parameters and those corresponding to the synthesis models. Additive synthesis, nonlinear synthesis, and waveguide synthesis are discussed.

A flexible plastic corrugated tube known as the Hummer was a popular sonic toy in the early 1970s. It produces pleasing sonorities when whirled in the air. In this article, we propose a physically informed model of a singing corrugated tube. The model was used in the composition Garden of the Dragon, which is also described in this paper.

This article collates results from a number of applications of interactive evolution as a sound designer's tool for exploring the parameter spaces of synthesis algorithms. Experiments consider reverberation algorithms, wavetable synthesis, synthesis of percussive sounds and an analytical solution of the stiff string. These projects share the property of being difficult to probe by trial and error sampling of the parameter space. Interactive evolution formed the guidance principle for what quickly proved a more effective search through the multitude of parameter settings.

The research was supported by building an interactive genetic algorithm library in the audio programming language SuperCollider. This library provided reusable code for the user interfaces and the underlying genetic algorithm itself, whilst preserving enough generality to support the framework of each individual investigation.

Whilst there is nothing new in the use of genetic algorithms in sound synthesis tasks, the experiments conducted here investigate new applications such as reverb design and an analytical stiff string model not previously encountered in the literature. Further, the focus of this work is now shifting more into algorithmic composition research, where the generative algorithms are less clear-cut than those of these experiments. Lessons learned from the deployment of interactive evolution in sound design problems are very useful as a reference for the extension of the problem set.

What takes place in the minds of composers when they struggle to incorporate a given temporal concept into a musical work? Spectral composers have produced detailed theoretical proposals about time in music, but how exactly those ideas influenced their musical practices remains an extremely challenging question. Graphical representations in their sketches provide invaluable clues. Through the analyses of Gérard Grisey’s and Kaija Saariaho’s manuscripts, we show how the theoretical frameworks for the basic cognitive operations of blending and anchoring, which underlie the construction of complex meanings, can shed light on the intricate musical uses of timelines by spectral composers. We combine the universal claims of this cognitive analysis with the diachronic perspective of a musicological study, teasing out the mental paths that these composers may have followed to create novel aesthetic proposals from their experience with graphic representations of sound, mainly spectrograms, and from techniques of electroacoustic studios. Thus we pave the way towards a common language for understanding time representation across electroacoustics and music in general, based on this mixed methodology. Through such shared tenets, the cognitive study of music can reciprocally contribute to burgeoning fields such as time representation, meaning construction and creativity.

While much work is proceeding with regard to the preservation and restoration of audio documents in general and compositions for tape in particular, relatively little research has been published with regard to the issues of preserving compositions for live electronics. Such works often involve a distinct performance element difficult to capture in a single recording, and it is typically only in performance that such works can be experienced as the composer intended. However, performances can become difficult or even impossible to present over time due to data and/or equipment issues. Sustainability here therefore refers to the effective recording of all the information necessary to set up the live electronics for a performance. Equally, it refers to the availability of appropriate devices, as rapid technological change soon makes systems obsolete and manufacturers discontinue production. The authors have had a range of experience re-working performances over a number of years, including compositions by Luigi Nono and Jonathan Harvey, amongst others. In this paper we look at the problem as a whole, focusing on Jonathan Harvey's works with electronic elements, which span some twenty-six years, as exemplars of the types of problems involved.

In quantum mechanics a particle can behave like a particle or a wave. Thus, systems of particles can be likened to a superposition of waves. Since sound can be described as a superposition of frequencies, it can also be described in terms of a system of particles manifest as waves. This metaphor between ‘particle physics’ and sound synthesis is quantitatively developed here, suggested initially from some similarities between the two domains. It is applied to a few fundamental physical principles to show how these can be sonified. The author discusses the process of using a simulated ‘atom trap’ to compose a piece that does not require a physicist to appreciate it. This metaphor blurs the distinctions between science and art, where scientific experiment becomes musical composition, and exploring a musical idea involves playing with particle system dynamics. In the future, methods like these could be used with a real system of particles – the particle accelerator will become an expressive musical instrument, and the particle physicist will become the composerscientist.

This article discusses a range of self-reflexive tendencies in field recording, soundscape composition and studio production, and explores examples of sonic practices and works in which the personal listening experiences of the composer are a key contextual and compositional element. As broad areas for discussion, particular attention is given to soundscape composition as self-narrative (exploring the representation of the recordist in soundscape works) and to producing the hyperreal and the liminal (considering spatial characteristics of contemporary auditory experience and their consequences for sonic practice). The discussion then focuses on the specific application of autoethnographic research methods to the practice and the understanding of soundscape composition. Compositional strategies employed in two recent pieces by the author are considered in detail. The aim of this discussion is to link autoethnography to specific ideas about sound and listening, and to some tendencies in field recording, soundscape composition and studio production, while also providing context for the discussion of the author’s own practice and works. In drawing together this range of ideas, methods and work, sonic autoethnography is aligned with an emerging discourse around reflexive, embodied sound work.

By way of a multidisciplinary approach, this article advances the idea that our listening to certain practices of contemporary art music (electroacoustic, classical contemporary, and electronic music) relies on precise connections to the early stage of perception. These styles of music are characterised by essential sound configurations that evolve in time, thus eliciting a sensorial impact which transcends features regarding sound sources and affective responses. Listeners grasp what Scruton calls ‘pure events’ in a ‘world of sound’, being able to distinguish, separate and sort acoustic stimuli. The article establishes a key parallel among seminal works of Bregman, McAdams, Kubovy, Bayle and other authors, highlighting a fundamental agreement of perceptual studies in psychology, neurophysiology and musicology for the understanding of the early stage of sound perception. Music practices typical of this perspective develop certain sound configurations, such as figure/ground arrangements, recurrent elements and morphological distinction, that closely mirror our innate mechanisms of prediction in perception. A parallel is made between studies in the philosophy of perception and the neurophysiology which allows us to postulate the idea that these styles of music are essentially based on pure temporal proto-objects.

The word ‘noise’ has taken on various meanings throughout the course of twentieth-century music. Technology has had direct influence on the presence of noise, as phenomenon and as concept, both through its newfound ubiquity in modernity and through its use directly in music production – in electroacoustics. The creative use of technologies has lead to new representation systems for music, and noise – considered as that outside of a given representation – was brought into meaning. This paper examines several moments in which a change in representation brought noise into musical consideration – leading to a ‘noise music’ for its time before simply becoming understood as music.

In this article we discuss how contemporary computational and electronic music-making practices might be characterised as a post-digital avant-garde. We also discuss how practitioners within the higher education sector can play a role in leading the development of these practices through their research and teaching. A brief overview of twentieth-century avant-garde practices is provided to set the scene before a case for defining a post-digital avant-garde is made. By way of illustration, the authors describe their own post-digital creative practices and then discuss how these integrate into their academic duties. We reflect on themes that run through avant-garde practices and continue into the post-digital. Finally, we describe how these themes inform an undergraduate music technology programme such that it might be shaped to reflect these developments and prepare students for a post-digital future.

This paper presents CODES – COoperative Music Prototype DESign, a Web-based environment for cooperative music prototyping. Its main goal is to allow any user – especially those with no expertise in music – to draft musical pieces collectively, in a prototyping manner. So, such musical sketches – we call them music prototypes – can be repeatedly tested, listened to, and modified, not only by their original creators but also by the online partners that will cooperate in their refinement, until their final form is reached. CODES enables sharing of knowledge by means of rich interaction and argumentation mechanisms associated to each prototype modification, which are also secure ways of providing awareness to this asynchronous collaborative environment. In this paper, we present the concept of music prototyping and introduce the main aspects related to cooperative prototyping of musical pieces, focusing on issues concerning a musical piece as a collective creation of a virtual community. We will also show some usage examples as a means to describe the overall architecture, behaviour and potentials of the CODES environment.

Contemporary trains of thought largely denounce hylomorphism and a series of dichotomies of the past in favour of rather hybrid, all-inclusive and non-anthropocentric schemata. Yet, the former seem to still pervade our understanding of music and sound art in several respects. For many, composition is a primarily abstract process, musical instruments and audio-related technologies are fixed material means, and artists are creative individuals who are solely and primarily responsible for the artworks they produce. In this article a series of ad hoc and context-dependent compositional traits are scrutinised, with reference to theory as well as to actual artistic practice (both historical and contemporary), and are shown to transcend such assumptions in more or less straightforward ways. In particular, a series of practices is examined that revolves around material inquiry, anti-optimality, and hybrid, reflexive or ‘meta’ interfaces. More, DIWO (Do It With Others) approaches to composition are discussed and shown to echo adhocracy and contextual dependency in various respects and by means of emergent autopoiesis. Certain slants to DIWO are finally examined with respect to a series of powerful (in the author’s opinion) metaphors, namely emergence, transience and post-selfhood.

Composers working with sounds and moving images are immediately confronted with a paradox. On one hand, audiovisual materials appear to offer the possibility of complementing one another – of forming a highly effective means of communicating artistic ideas – and on the other, they appear to carry the risk of detracting from one another – of deforming the musical language that he or she has worked so hard to create. Durk Talsma and Max Mathews succinctly state the opposing principles. ‘Many behavioural studies have provided evidence for the hypothesis that integrating visual and auditory stimuli serves the purpose of enhancing perceptual clarity … These results suggest that communication between the visual and auditory brain areas is a highly effective and relatively automatic process’ (Talsma, Doty and Waldorff 2007: 679). ‘I personally find most combined music-video art problematic. It seems to me that the sound and images often compete for my attention … If I pay attention to what I am seeing, I often miss what I am hearing, and if I try to concentrate on the music, the images can often be an irritating distraction…’ (Mathews 2007: 94). This article seeks to transcend this paradox through the identification of audiovisual materials that function in different ways. Examples of creative work are offered to illustrate more general points of ‘language’, a model for classifying media pairs is put forward, and practical methods of audiovisual composition are proposed. The narrow findings of the study offer a vocabulary for discussing the functionality of audiovisual materials, detailed methods of media pairing, and techniques of parametric alignment, while the wider findings extend to associated domains such as live electronic music, and hyper-instrument design.

This paper investigates some of the ways in which composers and sound artists have used recordings of speech, especially in works mediated by technology. It will consider this within a wider context of spoken word, text composition and performance-based genres such as sound poetry. It will attempt to categorise some of the compositional techniques that may be used to work with speech, make specific reference to archive and oral history material and attempt to draw some conclusions.

This paper gives a personal perspective on the application and relevance of generative processes to art production. This view is that of a computer programmer, rather than that of a user of computer programs written (or hardware constructed) by others. The programmer is in the unique position of being able to describe and manipulate abstract processes which may be used as a unique means of artistic expression. This gives a greater amount of freedom to the programmer/artist than is the case when he or she is limited by programmed procedures defined by others.

Prior to the development of a formal means of specifying visual and aural events, a concrete machine or set of rules for their manipulation and a means of bringing these representations back into the world as physical events, abstract processes were things to be contemplated but not experienced. Musical and spatial notations employed by artists, engineers and others, in concert with the programming of computing hardware, have opened the way for those who wish to manipulate processes in their artistic practice.

In order to focus study and practice in the area of such generative computer art, the Center for Electronic Media Art (CEMA) has been established in Melbourne, Australia. The Center has spawned an international conference series on generative/process-based electronic art called Iteration. The perceived roles of the Center and Iteration conferences are discussed in this paper.