Volker Grassmuck on Mon, 5 Jun 2000 22:02:21 +0200 (CEST)


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[rohrpost] International Computer Music Conference (ICMC)


------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Mon, 05 Jun 2000 20:13:01 +0200
From:          Ioannis Zannos <iani@sim.spk-berlin.de>
Reply-to:      iani@sim.spk-berlin.de
Organization:  SIM

-----------------------
ICMC 2000 in Berlin,
Workshops and Tutorials on Computer Music and Digital Arts
-----------------------

This year, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) will
take place in Berlin, August 27 - September 1. With its motto
"Gateways to Creativity", ICMC 2000 underscores the creative use of
technological developments in the arts and the emergence of a new
generation of human-oriented technologies. A special feature of ICMC
2000 will be the 11 workshops on topics from aesthetics and cognition
research to a number of important tools and techniques in sound
design and computer assisted music creation.

There will be nine short workshops lasting half a day and two long
workshops lasting 3 days each. Registration will be possible both on
an individual workhop basis and for a workshop group for the entire
duration of the event. The workshops topics are at a glance:

- Rhizome Café: Networked Digital Sound in David Tudor's Rainforest
- Soundscape Composition and Multichannel Audio Diffusion
- Computer music studies, aesthetics and intercultural issues
- Cognition and Perception of Computer Music: Principles and Issues
- Notation and Music Information Retrieval in the Computer Age
- Computer Music Programming for the Web with JSyn and JMSL
- Networked Realtime Sound and Graphics Synthesis with SuperCollider
- Collaborative Composition for String Instruments and Live Electronics
- Spatialization Techniques with Multichannel Audio
- Sensors for Interactive Music Performance
- Composing with Algorithmic Processes

In addition, four panel discussions partly with a strongly applied
workshop character will take place during the ICMC itself. The topics
are:

- Aesthetics of Computer Music
- Analysis-Synthesis Techniques
- Content Retrieval of Music
- Digital Audio Effects

What follows is a summary of the contents of the workshops and
panels. We invite students, practicing artists and researchers from
all related fields to participate. For registration details or
further information, go to:

          http://www.icmc2000.org/


-----------------------------
3 Day Project workshops: August 24 to 26
-----------------------------

*Rhizome Café: Colliding with Rainforest (Ronald Kuivila, USA)

This workshop will introduce techniques of sound analysis, sound
synthesis, and network control in order to create sound material for
a realization of David Tudor's Rainforest. The workshop should be of
interest to people who wish to familiarize themselves with Rainforest
as a work and SuperCollider as a tool. Naturally, participants
wishing to use other tools in the preparation of sound material are
free to do so. (Please notify us, so we can arrange OSC support for
the networked component of the workshop.) Rainforest is remarkably
effective at engaging musicians and non-musicians alike in the
creation of electroacoustic music, so the workshop should also be of
interest to teachers of electronic and computer music.

What is Rainforest?

In Rainforest, speaker drivers are attached to found objects to
create an orchestra of sounding objects. Rainforest objects are
better imagined as 'filters' than as loudspeakers. Many Rainforest
objects have spatial distribution characteristics ill-suited to
traditional concert presentation. For example, an oil drum hung
upside down a few feet off the ground with a driver attached creates
a reverberant miniature environment available to those who duck their
heads inside it.

Consequently, Rainforest is presented as a walk-through environment
that blurs the distinctions between "workshop", "installation" and
"concert" while remaining centered on musical concerns. This makes
Rainforest a remarkably effective 'pedagogical' work that it is
simple enough in conception for beginners, while making subtle
demands that can keep very experienced musicians quite occupied.

The Workshop

Developing a realization of Rainforest involves choosing an object,
discovering the best way to attach a 'driver' to the object, and
developing sounds for the resultant instrument. Because of the
limited time available, a collection of objects will be developed
before the workshop begins.

The primary focus of the workshop will be on creating sound material
for these objects and incorporating that material into performance
structures based on network communication. A detailed understanding
the acoustical characteristics of the objects in Rainforest makes it
much easier to develop sound material form them. Consequently, the
workshop will also introduce methods for extracting impulse responses
from the objects and graphing their spectra.

Ideally workshop participants will develop their own objects and
bring them to the workshop. The 'drivers' (speaker coils, not
software!) needed are available from:

          http://www.centuryinter.net/invisiblestereo/index.html

Additional information, assistance, and software (see below) will be
available throughout the summer via email to registered workshop
participants.

Day 1:
The Rainforest Toolkit

The Rainforest Toolkit is a library of classes and examples written
in SuperCollider and designed for use as an extensible environment
for creating sound material for Rainforest. The toolkit can be used
naively as a library of preexisting 'patches' for which users can
save 'presets'. (It is possible to interactively interpolate between
these presets, in a manner similar to that found in GRM tools.) The
first half of the day will introduce the basic features of the
toolkit (including impulse response extraction) and apply them
directly to Rainforest objects.

The second half of the day will introduce the basics of synthesis in
SuperCollider, how to make synthesis programs, how to use the
Rainforest Toolkit to make GUI controls, and how to add the resultant
'patches' to the toolkit. This segment will stay firmly focused on
the unit generator library augmented by discussion of lists,
closures, classes, and objects only where necessary.

Day 2:
Morning: SuperCollider as a sequential programming language

One of the most challenging aspects of Supercollider for newcomers is
the interaction between sound synthesis and event oriented control.
We will introduce the basic syntax of the underlying programming
language and take a process oriented approach to using this language
to control sound synthesis, using mechanisms provided by the
Rainforest toolkit that simplify control.

We will then illustrate the support of Open Sound Control that
SuperCollider provides and with a simple networked spatialization
scheme. (The audio outputs of each computer will be connected to a
sixteen channel spatialization system. OSC packets from those
computers will control where the sound of each computer appears in
the Rainforest.)

Afternoon: SuperCollider as a object oriented programming language

SuperCollider provides a more powerful object oriented approach to a
score language. We will provide a brief overview of this approach,
introducing the Stream, Pattern, and Event abstractions and
illustrating their application both to note oriented Event's (as
found in Event.protoEvent in the Supercollider source) and
non-standard event abstractions more suited to Rainforest.

Day 3:
Preparing realizations

This day will be devoted to preparing and assembling sound material
for the installation and rehearsing performance structures based on
network intercommunication.

An ensemble structure based on 'flocking' algorithms applied to the
spatial and temporal distribution of sound material from the
participants will be a simple first step. Workshop participants are
invited to propose their own network-based structures for
realization. (Please do this early, so there is time to prepare
them.):

Evening:
Performances with the Rainforest installation will run from 8:00PM until
midnight. The evening will begin and end with a 'walkthrough'
performance based on the sound material created in the workshop.
Other performances through the evening will be the network based
structures together with individual contributions that approach the
collection of objects as a single 'instrument'.

Afterwards:

Rainforest will run as a sound installation throughout the ICMC using
the sound material prepared during the workshop.


* Soundscape Composition and Multi-channel Audio: Techniques, Issues
(Barry Truax, CA)

The workshop will focus on soundscape composition in the context of
multi-channel diffusion. Drawing on the pioneering work of the World
Soundscape Project and contemporary compositions by composers
associated with Simon Fraser University, the workshop will include
presentations on the processing of environmental sound using granular
and other approaches, the psychoacoustics of multi-channel diffusion
(comparing discrete-channel approaches to emerging commercial
formats), as well as an overview of the hardware and software systems
involved. These presentations will be complemented by listening
sessions for octophonic works, and hands-on experience with a
multi-channel system.

Soundscape studies began formally with Canadian composer R. Murray
Schafer's call to establish the World Soundscape Project (WSP) in
Vancouver, Canada in the late 1960's. The original WSP culminated in
a number of definitive texts (such as Schafer's The Tuning of the
World [1977] and Barry Truax's Handbook for Acoustic Ecology [1978]
), as well as archival and recording projects (including the European
Sound Diary and the Vancouver Soundscape [1973] recordings).
Soundscape studies and composition continue to have an international
influence (with soundscape projects from New Delhi, Brasilia, Madrid,
Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, and Soundscape Vancouver [1996]). For a
brief account of the WSP see:

          http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/wsp.html

The history of multi-channel diffusion is equally rich, from early,
experimental works of the 1950's (Schaeffer's Potentiometre d'espace
[1951], Varèse's Poème Electronique, [1958], et al.) to the latest
automated, psychoacoustically-informed, multi-channel systems. Our
own research designing and composing with automated matrix mixers
begins with the development of the DM-8 (first used at the Banff ICMC
[1995], subsequently in the Soundscape Vancouver [1996] realizations)
and continuing with Vancouver-based commercial development of the
AudioBox/ABControl diffusion system. For an overview of research into
automated diffusion at Simon Fraser University see:

          http://cec.concordia.ca/contact/contact101Tru.html.

And: Barry Truax, "Composition and Diffusion: Sound in Space in
Sound", Organised Sound, 3(2), 1998, pp. 141-6.

Soundscape composition and automated, multi-channel diffusion
complement one another. Soundscapes (both real and imaginary) are
inherently immersive and so best conveyed through multiple-speaker
arrays, while the difficult technical problems associated with
controlling complex, multi-channel diffusion are solved by using
flexible, automated systems driven by a host computer.

There are also some cautionary lessons to be drawn from soundscape
studies and our research with discrete-channel systems with regards
to emerging industrial multi-channel audio formats. Public and home
theater surround sound systems, for example, are being marketed as
new technologies, when in fact, there is already a long-standing
musical aesthetic and practice for multi-channel sound reproduction.
If that practice and accumulated compositional and listening
experience is brushed aside, are the new technologies then likely to
enhance our collective listening experience, or degrade it (as in the
case of so many modern additions to the urban soundscape)?

Additionally, we would hope to extend the minimal scenario for the
workshop to a longer period and include active participation and
composition/diffusion realizations by local and visiting composers.

Repertoire and Links

Over several years we have accumulated a diverse repertoire of
musical material which could be presented in the workshop or
concurrent and subsequent listening sessions. Others are currently
being developed. A brief selection of existing soundscape diffusions
includes:

The Hidden Tune Sabine Breitsameter (Germany)
Pendlerdrøm Barry Truax (Canada)
Recharting the Senses   Darren Copeland (Canada)
Sequence of Earlier Heaven Barry Truax (Canada)
Vanscape Motion Hans Ulrich Werner (Germany)
Vancouver Soundscape Revisited Claude Schryer (Canada)
Talking Rain Hildegard Westerkamp (Canada)
Toco y me voy Damián Keller (Argentina)

Further artist information and discographies are available at:

          http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/cdlist.html
          http://earsay.com

For current concert and workshop information relating to the
AudioBox/ABControl system and additional repertoire (soundscape and
other) see D. Copeland's Sound Travels site:

          http://www.interlog.com/~darcope/adven.html

For AudioBox manufacturers' software and hardware technical documentation see:

          http://thirdmonk.com   (Third Monk Software, ABControl
diffusion software)
          http://hfi.com   (Harmonic Functions, AudioBox matrix mixer)


-----------------------
Workshops / Tutorials: August 26 and 27
-----------------------

* Computer Music: For whom is this music intended? (Leigh Landy, UK)
(Computer music studies, aesthetics and intercultural issues)

This workshop focuses on a number of contemporary topics within the
area of computer music studies, in particular that of new aesthetics
and accessibility issues. Questions presented, which will be subjects
for debate, include:

1.Why is a good deal of computer music marginalised (ane what are the causes)?
2.Are there new aesthetic approaches to computer music?
3.Similarly, are there 'schools' of computer music, and, if so, what
holds them together?
4.How does computer music reflect today's multi-cultural world?
5.How might bridges be built to a broader electroacoustic community?

More specifically, the areas of computer music studies will be
delineated. Recent discoveries of importance and new paradigms will
be introduced. Delicate problem areas, such as the schism between
computer music studies and that of traditional forms of music will be
discussed. Similarly, the separation between computer 'art music' and
'popular music' studies will be criticised.

Following a general introduction, several subjects will be
introduced, including relevant demonstrations, and a number of
debates will take place. The session will be issue and method based.
The goal of the workshop is not only to increase understanding of new
music, but also to increase awareness of the issues this
electroacoustic music raises in a very dynamic society.


* Cognition and Perception Issues in Computer Music (Ian Whalley, NZ)

This workshop will give an introduction to current research issues
and methods about music cognition and perception and their
application on the composition of Computer Music, as well as their
implications in developing new music theory. A main area of focus
will be the use of systems dynamics modelling to map narratives as a
way of approaching composition, including demonstrations of this
principle with computer software that allows users to develop their
own models. Furthermore, a basic introduction to connectionist
(Neural Network) models for auditory perception as well as to
auditory scene analysis will be given.


* Notation and Music Information Retrieval in the Computer Age
(Carola Böhm, UK)

The interrelated issues of description, representation and retrieval
of time-based data are subjects of rapidly accelerating interest to
the ever wider community of users of digital resources. One area with
its own technical, cognitive, perceptual, and aesthetic problems is
that of music. The very word 'music' embraces an enormous range of
cultural activities and meanings. Technical aspects, as for instance
"Representation", "Standards", "Storage and Retrieval" and "User
Interfaces" need to be reconsidered in a music relevant context. Any
or all of these may have importance in the design of systems intended
to handle 'music' in the context of digital service provision.

The workshop addresses the need to redefine certain traditional
Computing Science methodologies within the context of music and asks
the question if traditional methodologies are still valid or need to
be changed or expanded to fit the special needs of music and music
relevant use contexts. While doing that, the addressed methodologies
will be briefly explained. These will draw on the results of Music
Information Retrieval Workshops in the UK at the DRH99 and the
SIGIR99 in the US, while exploring current fundamental problems of
Music Information Retrieval. Whenever systems are planned or
standards are proposed, funding bodies and the scientific world in
general, expects the music technologists to build and base their
development upon existing, standardised, conventional or proven
methodologies coming out of the Computing Sciences in general,
specifically from the fields of Information Retrieval, Human omputer
Interaction, Signal processing, Object orientation, Language design,
and similar. The question seldom asked or answered is: do these
methodologies still work within the context of music? More
specifically, kinds of issues addressed are:

User interfaces:
-Human-Computer-Interaction (HCI): What is a user-friendly interface
in a musical context?
- HCI: Are traditional Evaluation Models like Nielson, Nivergelt,
Conceptual models,
Golden rules of HCI enough to evaluate interaction in a musical
context? And if not, with what do they have to be expanded? ·

Information-Retreival (IR):
- How can a large number of relevant musical search 'hits' be
represented clearly and how can this relevance be measured?

Music representation:
-Data Structures: Music Encoding Syntaxes vs/and/or (?) Music
Programming Environments
-Language Design: What makes a good Music Language?

Standardization Processes:
-MPEG7 and SMDL, a promising future, never to be fulfilled?
-The need for interchange file formats

Storage and retrieval:
-Signal Processing: and Metadata: Data compression vs Data
description explosion?
-IR: Can traditional IR evaluation methodologies be used for music
information retrieval?
- HCI: The specification of what the user wants to find in a (content
based) musical search?

In this context the workshop will contribute to the experiences
shared by (1) academic users pursuing music research or education,
(2) people involved with music management and retrieval systems, and
(3) music industry.

Specifically the area of Music Information Retrieval will benefit for
example: (1) Digital Libraries using information retrieval
technologies for time-based Media, (2) Applications using
synchronisation technologies for creation processes of multiple and
different types of time-based media, and (3) Educational applications
with usage of dynamic and changing music representation over wide
area networks.


* Computer Music Programming for the Web with JSyn and JMSL (Phil
Burk and Nick Didkovsky, USA)

The web can be your concert hall. Using JSyn you can develop complex
interactive computer music pieces that run in a web browser. JSyn is
a Java API that provides real-time synthesis for Java applications
and Applets. It is based on a unit generator model and is designed
for real-time interaction. JMSL, the Java Music Specification
Language, is a composition toolkit written in Java that can control
JSyn or JavaSound. JMSL provides hierarchical scheduling tools,
distribution functions and sequence generators based on the tools in
its predecessor HMSL.

The tutorial will cover:

-creating, connecting and controlling unit generators,
-loading and queuing sample data,
-creating and queuing envelope data,
-creating complex patches,
-building hierarchies of composition objects using JMSL,
-using various algorithmic tools of JMSL,
-using the Java network API to make interactive multi-user pieces,
-practical issues involving plugins and browser compatibility,
-how to put an interactive algorithmic computer music piece in a web page.

This workshop will explain how to write computer music programs in
Java that can be placed in a web page. We will use the JSyn API to
synthesize audio in real-time using a library of unit generators. We
will then use the JMSL API to create high level compositions that can
include hierarchical scheduling. Because JSyn and JMSL are Java
based, composers can combine any of the Java APIs including
networking, 3D graphics, GUI tools, etc. with these two powerful
music packages.

JSyn can be downloaded for free at:

          http://www.softsynth.com/jsyn

Details on the workshop leaders can be found under:

          http://www.softsynth.com/philburk.html
          http://www.ingress.com/~drnerve/nerve/pages/nick.shtml


* Networked Realtime Sound and Graphics Synthesis with SuperCollider

This is a hands-on tutorial on creating interactive musical
applications with SuperCollider. SuperCollider is an extremely
versatile object oriented programming environment with a large number
of generators for real time sound and graphics synthesis. It supports
both MIDI and the Open Sound Control communication protocol. For more
info on SuperCollider see the website:

          http://www.audiosynth.com


* Collaborative Composition for String Instruments and Live
Electronics (Hugh Livingston, USA)

Advancing techniques of instrumental performance while advancing
sophistication and imagination in the interface are appropriate goals
of interactive music. Up-close and hands-on access to a cellist with
a wide range of extended techniques - including nearly a hundred
pizzicato sounds - establishes a framework for incorporating new
techniques into composition with live electronics. The process of
'extending the extended techniques,' suggested by composer Bruce
Bennett, is examined. The objective is to build a library of
techniques, both instrumental and technological, which are available
as a shared resource for musicmaking. Performances and discussion of
existing collaborative efforts are offered.

Diverse directions in instrumental technology are considered, with
demonstrations of commercial electric instruments contrasted with the
impact of materials technology on the natural instrument. Is there a
palpable difference in cellos with titanium endpins, tungsten
strings, carbon fiber bows, wooden tailpieces, bridges with pickups?
The range of expression of each instrument is demonstrated in order
to draw up a blueprint for the future of instrumental technology.
Much of the seminar will be devoted to exploration of extended string
techniques, their application and versatility, with potential
interface designs. Participants will receive a CD-ROM with audio
examples of many techniques which can be used to test a new
generation of DSP tools. Participants are encouraged to bring sample
sketches and patches (by prior arrangement) for workshop
consideration. Arrangements will be made for subsequent testing of
new patches, with the hope that new compositions will result from the
collaboration.

The workshop is designed to be interactive and to offer considerable
opportunities for audience participation. I wish to bring into close
contact the ideas put forward by performers, composers and e
ngineers, setting up a framework for continued interaction at future
conferences. The instrument will serve as the essential focus.
Exposure to a new idea about cello sound is guaranteed.


* Spatialization Techniques with Multichannel Audio (Olivier Warusfel, FR)

This workshop will explain principles of sound spatialization based
on sound spatialization software developed at IRCAM, using the
real-time synthesis environments jMax and MAX/MSP, and ambisonics
techniques.
It will show how composers and sound designers can use these tools to
simulate the movement of discrete sound sources in virtual sound
spaces, using multichannel audio.


* Sensors for Interactive Music Performance (Yoichi Nagashima, JP)

This workshop focuses on sensor technology for interactive music
performance. Several different types of sensors as interfaces between
human and computer systems will be demonstrated, and discussed both
from a technical and from an artistic viewpoint, giving examples from
multi-media works. An introduction on the design of sensing system
will be provided, explaining how to create such without expert
knowledge of electronics. The handling sensor information to create
interactive art will be shown based on the MAX graphical programming
environment. Starting with a number of given sample "patches" or
simple programs, we shall give a hands-on introduction to the
treatment of sensors, the programming of new algorithms and the
composition of sample works. Finally, we will discuss the overall
implications of "new human interfaces" and interactivity in
multi-media technology.

Links to material on this workshop:

          http://nagasm.org/ASL/11-11/


* Composing with Algorithmic Processes (Rick Taube, USA)

A hands-on introduction to computer-based music composition
techniques, focusing primarily on random and iterative processes.
Topics include, but are not limited to, the use of noise, discrete
and continuous random selection, weighted randomness, markov chains,
looping, phasing, state machines, rewrite systems, dynamical systems.
The workshop presents the thoretical content in a non-technical
manner together with interactive, graphical demos that the
participants can use to explore the concepts presented.


-----
Panels
-----

* Aesthetics of Computer Music

The purpose of this panel session is to foster discussion on cultural
aspects of computer musics. Main questions addressed are; Why is a
good deal of computer music marginalised? Are there new aesthetic
approaches to computer music? Are there 'schools' of computer music,
and, if so, what holds them together? How does computer music reflect
today's multi-cultural world? How might bridges be built to a broader
electroacoustic community?


* Analysis-Synthesis Techniques

The aim is to compare different analysis techniques and software
packages running on the same input material, in order to gain insights
on questions such as; What are the subtle differences between models?
Which techniques are better suited for which class of sounds? How do
different analyses trade off mutability for accuracy of resynthesis?
What are typical artifacts and trade-offs? Materials will be made
available in SDIF format accompanied by generic display tools and
example code on the web. For more information, see:

          http://cnmat.CNMAT.Berkeley.EDU/SDIF/ICMC2000


* Content Retrieval of Music

This panel will discuss current issues of content processing and
retrieval of audio and music related to new international standards
such as the MPEG 7 proposal on timbre description, their impact on
media industry, music distribution, and musical creation practices.
This panel is organized in cooperation with the european research work
group CUIDAD. For more information, see:

          http://www.ircam.fr/cuidad/


* Digital Audio Effects

This panel will focus on different aspects of digital audio effects :
signal processing, high level processing (extraction of features,
adaptive effects), control, perceptual and musical aspects,
implementations for educational and musical use; it will include a
presentation of the first results of the european COST-G6 DAFx action
and a discussion on the way information on digital audio effects can
be gathered and distributed (web, book, sounds). For more information
about DAFx see:

          http://echo.gaps.ssr.upm.es/COSTG6/
          http://www.sci.univr.it/~dafx/


----------------------------------------------

"Versuchungen sollte man nachgeben. Wer weisz, ob sie wiederkommen..."
                                            Oscar Wilde

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