INTERSYMP 2010
22nd International Conference on
Systems Research, Informatics and Cybernetics
August 2-6, 2010
Markgraf-Ludwig Gymnasium, Hardstrasse 2
Baden-Baden, Germany
===================================================
Announcing a Special Focus Symposion (August 5, 2010)
on
COMPROVISATIONS –  Improvisation Systems in Performing Arts and Technologies
chaired by
Sandeep Bhagwati, Composer and Theatre Director
Canada Research Chair for Inter-X Art,
Acting Director, Hexagram Institute of Research-Creation in Media Arts and Technologies,
Concordia University Montréal, Canada
and co-chaired by
Chris Ziegler, Performing Arts Media Artist, Research Fellow
ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe, Germany
John Schranz, Theatre Director and Professor
Coordinator, European Master’s Degree Programme in the Science of Performative Creativity, University of Malta, Valletta, Malta
Tsutomu Fujinami, Associate Professor
School of Knowledge Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Ishikawa, Japan
 
CONTEXT
Over the past decades, the performing arts have been moving away from the interpretation of fixed notations and repetitive, rehearsed performances. This shift has been intensified by increasingly reactive stage and music technologies.

This artistic reality, however, is still marginal to the mainstream public perception of performing arts – for several reasons: the desire of audiences to re-encounter reliable performances, the difficulty of analyzing and theorizing about ephemeral artmaking practices that do not rely on linear “scripts” or “scores” and the cultural prejudice, especially in Europe, that repeatable performance (“interpretation”) somehow stands on the side of “high art”, while improvisation immediately evokes a somehow “lower” realm of popular entertainment, folk, and non-western art forms.
 
The fact remains that it is much easier to convince sponsors of funding a “well-rehearsed, complex interpretation of a written masterpiece” than giving money for “something made up on the spur of the moment.” Protestant work-ethics may come into play here, as does the dualistic form-content bias of western culture, with its idea of the existence of platonic forms, the spiritual mind-body dualism, the supreme importance of the “Imitation of Christ”, and Kantian metaphysics.

All these discourses, however, mask that there is no such thing as a “pure” improvisation. All improvised performance relies heavily on rule-systems, whether learned explicitly or embodied by rigorous training. Different performing art traditions worldwide have developed elaborate improvisation systems that allow initiated audiences to judge whether a particular improvisation is an acceptable instance of “their” art form or not. Recent modernist (especially North-American) approaches to improvisation, by contrast, have emphasized a purportedly “free play” largely unfettered by explicit rules, while at the same time stressing the importance of social and consensual aesthetics and establishing close-knit communities of performers and audiences – often marketing their “free improv techniques” by expensive workshops and the certification of practitioners.
 
FOCUS
 
While embodiment vs. explicit rules, oral vs. written models etc. were real dichotomies in the pre-computer age, the advent of reactive technology has changed the playing field considerably.
 
Elaborate and complex rule systems in the form of computer software have become part of our everyday world, techniques of knowledge accumulation have moved beyond the dipole of embodied or studied knowledge into contingent, situative knowledge – knowing when and how to apply which kind of knowledge has become more important than learning and using a repertoire of acquired wisdom.
 
This cultural shift has found its expression in new forms of art called interactive, and in reactive stage and music practices – all based on extensive computer systems. Has it also influenced the aesthetics of non-technology dependent practices in performing arts ?
 
How can we understand this shift, what are its technological foundations, how do artistic rule systems influence technology and vice versa? Has this shift towards technology also influenced audience perceptions of the relative value of composed vs. improvised performance?
 
CALL FOR PAPERS
 
We invite scholarly papers and critical texts, (re)presentations of and reflections on artistic or technological work, reports on field work, presentations of survey data and posters on any of the artistic questions and research areas mentioned above from
·      performing artists
·      performance theorists
·      engineers
·      systems analysts
·      computer scientists
·      philosophers
·      cultural historians
·      social scientists
·      (ethno)musicologists
·      historians of the performing arts
·      any performing arts practitioners, performing arts enablers and thinkers.
 
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Abstracts (500 words max) in English, German or French and presentations should be written in a clear, interdisciplinary language, with ample explanations of technical terms and usages specific to the author’s field.
 
Abstracts (Microsoft Word or PDF) together with a short bio of each of the authors (100 words max), their institutional or artistic affiliation (if applicable) and their official address may be submitted electronically latest by March 30, 2010 to:
 
Sandeep Bhagwati, Concordia University Montréal
comprovisation2010@gmail.com
[Please also use this e-mail address for questions and information requests]
 
In the cover e-mail please indicate the nature of your presentation:
·      Poster
·      Paper
·      Performance Report using audiovisual media [media files up to 20 MB – as well as links to online video/audio archives – may be submitted as in addition to abstracts]
·      Live Performance [please note that all production elements and costs necessary for a live performance must be assumed by the presenter.]
 
Please take note of the registration conditions, deadlines and registration fees at http://www.iias.edu/frameset_start_inters_ann.html before submitting the abstract.
 
Review Process and Conference Proceedings
All submitted papers and abstracts will be peer-reviewed as soon as they arrive. Final papers should not exceed 5 single-spaced typed pages. Conference Proceedings will be published and selected papers may be published in book format.
 

Important Dates
· March 30, 2010  Abstract due
· April 9, 2010      Notice of Acceptance
· May 9, 2010       Final Paper due
 

General Chair
Professor George E. Lasker
IIAS
P.O.Box 3010
Tecumseh, Ontario, Canada  N8N 2M3
 

 

 METAMORPHOSES 2010 COMPETITION

DL : 2 April 2010

The Métamorphoses composition competition comprises two categories:

–    category A for composers under the age of 28 and composition students (proving such quality) and
–    category B for all composers of less than 50 years old who wish to compete in this category.

The competition takes place in two stages:

1. Members of the pre-selection jury receive and listen to all the competing works. Then they meet at the end of June 2010 to listen again to the best entries and choose the 5 or 6 works from category B that will be selected for the October 2010 final and published on stereo CD.

This jury also elects the winner of category A, whose work will also be included on the CD.

A spatialization competition will be held during the festival L’Espace du Son in October 2010. The candidates will perform a set work chosen from the works received for the Métamorphoses competition. The jury reserves the right to decide whether this work will be included on the CD.

2. During the final of the Métamorphoses competition which will take place on 21 October 2010, the finalist composers who wish to do so can spatialize their work in public on the M&R acousmonium (loudspeaker orchestra). At the end of the evening, a jury different from the preselection jury will determine the ranking and award prizes.

Prize for category A

1st Prize: Publishing of the work on CD, performance at the concert of 21 October 2010, and 10 copies of the CD.

Prizes for category B

1st prize: 2500 Euros.
Audience Prize: 500 Euros.
M&R prize: residence at the composition studio “Métamorphoses d’Orphée”. All finalists’ works will be published on CD and 5 copies of the CD will be offered to each finalist.

The stereo work chosen by the pre-selection jury will be performed as the set work in the spatialization competition that will take place in the context of the festival L’Espace du Son. The jury reserves the right to decide whether this work will be included on the CD.

The biennial Métamorphoses competition of acousmatic composition is organized by Musiques & Recherches with the support of Communauté française Wallonie-Bruxelles de Belgique.

(non official translation of the FRENCH version. In case of inconsistencies with the French version, the French version prevails)
a214_1640_METAMORPHOSES_EN.pdf

 

Call for Submissions

Sounding Landscapes: a multi-channel audio event

http://www.holophon.ca/submissions.html

This call is for sonic art explorations of literal or fantastic
interpretations of acoustic space, utilizing spatial production
innovations and the relationship between space, time and physical
energy.

For an upcoming multidisciplinary concert event in March,
holophon.ca is looking for multi-channel sonic compositions in any
genre. In particular, we are looking for works that trouble the
definitions of space and place through multi-channel audio methods.

Your multi-channel composition(s) can range from four to eight
channels. All accepted submissions will be presented through an
eight-channel octophonic (equal-spaced, lateral plane ring) speaker
system.

Also:

1. We will consider sonic works that have video or live components, including dance, poetry or experimental theater.




2. Artists must make their own arrangements for performers if this is a component of your work.




3. We are interested in Saskatchewan-based submissions for live
   performance: these works must consider multi-source, spatial sound
   (live and/or pre-recorded) in presentation. Travel expenses will be
   provided for out of town performers as funding allows.




4. All artists featured in the concert will receive an honorarium

Multi-channel submissions should be sent via a filesharing website
(such as yousendit or sendspace) or ftp server as individual .wav or
.aif files for each channel. We request that you label each file as
follows:

Composition title – Channel number – speaker position

Example: amazingspace_ch1_leftfront.wav

All submissions must include a completed submission form located at http://www.holophon.ca/submissions.html

Submissions may be sent by email to the following address: holophon3@gmail.com

OR

regular postal address

holophon.ca

PO Box 33089

3015 13th Ave

Regina, Saskatchewan

S4T 1P0 Canada

Submissions should be submitted by February 1st, 2010 to be considered for this event.