The Electroacoustic and its Double: Duality and Dramaturgy in Live Performance

Live electroacoustic performance juxtaposes and superimposes two main elements: the real, present and physical, against the simulated and disembodied. In this sense, it is a liminal form which negotiates two different worlds on stage. In this dissertation I will address some central aspects of performance that have been reshaped and problematised by the use of the electroacoustic medium in a live context. I will investigate in particular three main dualities: the performer's body / electroacoustic sound; physical space / electroacoustic space; and performance / audience. I will also discuss a generalised duality common to all three: presence / absence. Rather than regarding these dualities as indicators of discontinuity, I will suggest that they can help develop a continuum of connections and relationships between performance elements. These connections can be designed as part of the composition process. By investigating these dualities, this research addresses the main elements of the live event. The central guiding principle here is that the live electroacoustic mode is a performance discipline, and therefore requires a dramaturgical approach that takes into consideration the elements of the live event: performer, audience and use of space. I will suggest that such an approach should guide the creative process, starting at the initial composition stages, through rehearsal and the actual performance

Human-based percussion and self-similarity detection in electroacoustic music

textElectroacoustic music is music that uses electronic technology for the compositional manipulation of sound, and is a unique genre of music for many reasons. Analyzing electroacoustic music requires special measures, some of which are integrated into the design of a preliminary percussion analysis tool set for electroacoustic music. This tool set is designed to incorporate the human processing of music and sound. Models of the human auditory periphery are used as a front end to the analysis algorithms. The audio properties of percussivity and self-similarity are chosen as the focus because these properties are computable and informative. A collection of human judgments about percussion was undertaken to acquire clearly specified, sound-event dimensions that humans use as a percussive cue. A total of 29 participants was asked to make judgments about the percussivity of 360 pairs of synthesized snare-drum sounds. The grouped results indicate that of the dimensions tested rise time is the strongest cue for percussivity. String resonance also has a strong effect, but because of the complex nature of string resonance, it is not a fundamental dimension of a sound event. Gross spectral filtering also has an effect on the judgment of percussivity but the effect is weaker than for rise time and string resonance. Gross spectral filtering also has less effect when the stronger cue of rise time is modified simultaneously. A percussivity-profile algorithm (PPA) is designed to identify those instants in pieces of music that humans also would identify as percussive. The PPA is implemented using a time-domain, channel-based approach and psychoacoustic models. The input parameters are tuned to maximize performance at matching participants’ choices in the percussion-judgment collection. After the PPA is tuned, the PPA then is used to analyze pieces of electroacoustic music. Real electroacoustic music introduces new challenges for the PPA, though those same challenges might affect human judgment as well. A similarity matrix is combined with the PPA in order to find self-similarity in the percussive sounds of electroacoustic music. This percussive similarity matrix is then used to identify structural characteristics in two pieces of electroacoustic music.Electrical and Computer Engineerin

Non-Standard Sound Synthesis with Dynamic Models

Full version unavailable due to 3rd party copyright restrictions.This Thesis proposes three main objectives: (i) to provide the concept of a new generalized non-standard synthesis model that would provide the framework for incorporating other non-standard synthesis approaches; (ii) to explore dynamic sound modeling through the application of new non-standard synthesis techniques and procedures; and (iii) to experiment with dynamic sound synthesis for the creation of novel sound objects. In order to achieve these objectives, this Thesis introduces a new paradigm for non-standard synthesis that is based in the algorithmic assemblage of minute wave segments to form sound waveforms. This paradigm is called Extended Waveform Segment Synthesis (EWSS) and incorporates a hierarchy of algorithmic models for the generation of microsound structures. The concepts of EWSS are illustrated with the development and presentation of a novel non-standard synthesis system, the Dynamic Waveform Segment Synthesis (DWSS). DWSS features and combines a variety of algorithmic models for direct synthesis generation: list generation and permutation, tendency masks, trigonometric functions, stochastic functions, chaotic functions and grammars. The core mechanism of DWSS is based in an extended application of Cellular Automata. The potential of the synthetic capabilities of DWSS is explored in a series of Case Studies where a number of sound object were generated revealing (i) the capabilities of the system to generate sound morphologies belonging to other non-standard synthesis approaches and, (ii) the capabilities of the system of generating novel sound objects with dynamic morphologies. The introduction of EWSS and DWSS is preceded by an extensive and critical overview on the concepts of microsound synthesis, algorithmic composition, the two cultures of computer music, the heretical approach in composition, non- standard synthesis and sonic emergence along with the thorough examination of algorithmic models and their application in sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition. This Thesis also proposes (i) a new definition for “algorithmic composition”, (ii) the term “totalistic algorithmic composition”, and (iii) four discrete aspects of non-standard synthesis

Concerto for Laptop Ensemble and Orchestra: The Ship of Theseus and Problems of Performance for Electronics With Orchestra: Taxonomy and Nomenclature

This dissertation is an examination of the problems faced when staging a work for electronics and orchestra. Part I is an original composition and model for the exploration of those problems. Part II is a monograph reviewing those problems and concentrating on issues of taxonomy and nomenclature. Part I is a concerto for laptop ensemble and orchestra titled The Ship of Theseus. It is named after a philosophical paradox. If every component of an object (i.e. the boards of a ship) is replaced with newer parts, at what point does the original cease to exist? Likewise, if the music performed by an instrument or ensemble is sampled and played back on stage, is it still an orchestra, or is it a recording? The role of the soloists is also explored throughout the work. Similarly to the dialogue of a Classical concerto, at times the soloist enhances the orchestra; at other times it clashes. Part II is an exploration of the etymology and nomenclature of electroacoustic music. In chapter 1, I explore broad problems and concerns specific to electronics and orchestra. In chapter 2, I break down the etymologies of both the orchestra and electroacoustic music, focusing on general issues surrounding the latter specifically. A new taxonomy for electroacoustic music is presented. In chapter 3, I investigate the nomenclature of three well-known terms: live electronic, real time, and interactive. Each of these terms is problematic and often misused; as a result the new term transformational is introduced and defined. This term should not be associated with the general idea of a musical transformation (although such an idea is not unwarranted), but with the flow of musical information in and out of a system. It is my hope that with the introduction of a new classification based on musical information, I will not merely pad the decades-long discourse on nomenclature of electroacoustic music, but rather provide a starting point for composers and technicians to reconcile technology with the music itself. The terms presented in this dissertation should not be considered definitive, but rather the inception of a new dialogue

Audio-Based Visualization of Expressive Body Movements in Music Performance: An Evaluation of Methodology in Three Electroacoustic Compositions

An increase in collaboration amongst visual artists, performance artists, musicians, and programmers has given rise to the exploration of multimedia performance arts. A methodology for audio-based visualization has been created that integrates the information of sound with the visualization of physical expressions, with the goal of magnifying the expressiveness of the performance. The emphasis is placed on exalting the music by using the audio to affect and enhance the video processing, while the video does not affect the audio at all. In this sense the music is considered to be autonomous of the video. The audio-based visualization can provide the audience with a deeper appreciation of the music. Unique implementations of the methodology have been created for three compositions. A qualitative analysis of each implementation is employed to evaluate both the technological and aesthetic merits for each composition

Tracing the Compositional Process. Sound art that rewrites its own past: formation, praxis and a computer framework

The domain of this thesis is electroacoustic computer-based music and sound art. It investigates a facet of composition which is often neglected or ill-defined: the process of composing itself and its embedding in time. Previous research mostly focused on instrumental composition or, when electronic music was included, the computer was treated as a tool which would eventually be subtracted from the equation. The aim was either to explain a resultant piece of music by reconstructing the intention of the composer, or to explain human creativity by building a model of the mind. Our aim instead is to understand composition as an irreducible unfolding of material traces which takes place in its own temporality. This understanding is formalised as a software framework that traces creation time as a version graph of transactions. The instantiation and manipulation of any musical structure implemented within this framework is thereby automatically stored in a database. Not only can it be queried ex post by an external researcher—providing a new quality for the empirical analysis of the activity of composing—but it is an integral part of the composition environment. Therefore it can recursively become a source for the ongoing composition and introduce new ways of aesthetic expression. The framework aims to unify creation and performance time, fixed and generative composition, human and algorithmic “writing”, a writing that includes indeterminate elements which condense as concurrent vertices in the version graph. The second major contribution is a critical epistemological discourse on the question of ob- servability and the function of observation. Our goal is to explore a new direction of artistic research which is characterised by a mixed methodology of theoretical writing, technological development and artistic practice. The form of the thesis is an exercise in becoming process-like itself, wherein the epistemic thing is generated by translating the gaps between these three levels. This is my idea of the new aesthetics: That through the operation of a re-entry one may establish a sort of process “form”, yielding works which go beyond a categorical either “sound-in-itself” or “conceptualism”. Exemplary processes are revealed by deconstructing a series of existing pieces, as well as through the successful application of the new framework in the creation of new pieces

Sonification abstraite/sonification concrete: An 'aesthetic persepctive space' for classifying auditory displays in the ars musica domain

Presented at the 12th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD), London, UK, June 20-23, 2006.This paper discusses æsthetic issues of sonifications and the relationships between sonification (ars informatica) and music & sound art (ars musica). It is posited that many sonifications have suffered from poor internal ecological validity which makes listening more difficult, thereby resulting in poorer data extraction and inference on the part of the listener. Lessons are drawn from the electroacoustic music and musique concrète communities as it is argued that it is not instructive to distinguish between sonifications and music/sound art. Edgard Varèse defined music as organised sound, and sonifications organise sound to reflect mimetically the thing being sonified. Therefore, an æsthetic perspective space onto which sonifications and musical compositions alike can be mapped is proposed. The resultant map allows sonifications to be compared with works in the ars musica domain with which they share characteristics. The æsthetics of those ars musica counterparts can then be interrogated revealing useful design and organisation constructs that can be used to improve the sonifications' communicative ability