Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media 2015 APR Self-Study & Documents

UNM Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media APR self-study report, review team report, response to review report, and initial action plan for Spring 2015, fulfilling requirements of the Higher Learning Commission. IFDM was absorbed by the Cinematic Arts Department following this review

Radio After Radio: Redefining radio art in the light of new media technology through expanded practice

I have been working in the field of radio art, and through creative practice have been considering how the convergence of new media technologies has redefined radio art, addressing the ways in which this has extended the boundaries of the art form. This practice-based research explores the rich history of radio as an artistic medium and the relationship between the artist and technology, emphasising the role of the artist as a mediator between broadcast institutions and a listening public. It considers how radio art might be defined in relation to sound art, music and media art, mapping its shifting parameters in the digital era and prompting a consideration of how radio appears to be moving from a dispersed „live‟ event to one consumed „on demand‟ by a segmented audience across multiple platforms. Exploring the implications of this transition through my radio practice focuses upon the productive tensions which characterise the artist‟s engagement with radio technology, specifically between the autonomous potentialities offered by the reappropriation of obsolete technology and the proliferation of new infrastructures and networks promised by the exponential development of new media. Switch Off takes as its overarching theme the possible futures for FM radio, incorporating elements from eight „trace‟ stations, produced as a series of radio actions investigating these tensions. Interviews have been conducted with case study subjects Vicki Bennett, Anna Friz, LIGNA, Hildegard Westerkamp and Gregory Whitehead, whose work was chosen as being exemplary of the five recurrent facets of radio arts practice I have identified: Appropriation, Transmission, Activism, Soundscape and Performance. These categories are derived from the genealogy of experimental radiophonic practice set out in Chapter One

Un voyage du son par les fils électroacoustiques : l'art et les nouvelles technologies en Amérique Latine

L'histoire de la musique électroacoustique latino-américaine est longue, intéressante et prolifique, mais peu connue, même régionalement. De nombreux compositeurs nés ou vivants en Amérique latine ont été très actifs à ce titre, dans certains pays depuis plus de 50 ans, mais la disponibilité de l'information et des enregistrements de musique électroacoustique à cet égard et dans cette région a posé de sérieux problèmes aux éducateurs, compositeurs, interprètes, chercheurs, étudiants et au public en général.\ud Compte tenu de cette situation, la question suivante s'est imposée comme point de départ de ma thèse: comment s'est développée la tradition de la création musicale avec les médias électroacoustiques en Amérique Latine. Pour y répondre, j'ai adopté une approche historique en utilisant une méthodologie ethnographique (caractérisée par une immersion à long terme dans le domaine, par des contacts personnels avec des compositeurs et par ma participation et mon souci en ce qui concerne l'évolution des arts faisant appel aux nouvelles technologies en Amérique Latine) dans toute ma recherche. Ayant commencé à travailler dans le domaine de la musique électroacoustique au milieu des années 1970 dans mon Argentine natale, il m'a été très difficile d'obtenir de l'information sur les activités reliées à ce domaine dans des pays voisins et même dans ma propre ville. Bien que difficile, il était néanmoins possible de trouver les enregistrements de compositeurs vivant en Europe ou en Amérique du Nord, mais plus ardu de trouver ceux réalisés par des compositeurs locaux ou régionaux. Dans divers pays d'Amérique latine, les universités, les organismes d'état et de grandes fondations privées avaient de temps en temps pris l'initiative de soutenir la recherche en art et le recours aux nouveaux médias, mais la plupart avaient cessé leurs activités avant même de développer les ressources pour documenter les processus et préserver les résuItats. J'ai obtenu chaque enregistrement et information que j'ai rassemblés, depuis le milieu des années 1970, en contactant directement chacun des compositeurs. Avec le temps, j'ai constitué des archives personnelles, modestes mais croissantes, comprenant des notes de programme de concerts, livres, bulletins, magazines et revues, partitions, lettres, courriels et des enregistrements sur bobines, cassettes analogiques et quelques vinyles 33 tours. J'ai décidé de partager mes trésors avec des collègues et étudiants et d'explorer des solutions pour les rendre accessibles au plus grand nombre possible. Il y a quelques années, l'UNESCO m'a demandé de rédiger des rapports sur la musique électroacoustique latino-américaine et les arts médiatiques. Les textes de cette recherche ont contribué à diffuser de l'information sur le travail de beaucoup d'artistes latino-américains. Afin de rendre également accessible au public les oeuvres musicales, et sauvegarder le matériel, j'ai cherché un endroit où la préservation des enregistrements était non seulement importante mais aussi possible. J'estimais que la fondation Daniel Langlois pour l'art, la science et la technologie à Montréal était le lieu idéal pour mon projet. Mes activités continues durant près de 28 mois comme chercheur en résidence à la fondation Daniel Langlois m'ont permis de numériser et convertir des enregistrements à partir de différents formats, faire du montage au besoin et verser dans la base de données de la Fondation tous les renseignements sur les pièces (titre, compositeur, année de composition, instrumentation, notes de programme, studio de production, version, durée, bio du compositeur, etc.). À ce jour, janvier 2006, il y a 2152 fichiers audio numériques qui sont archivés au Centre de recherche et de documentation (CR+D) de la fondation. En complément à cette thèse de doctorat, j'ai développé une collection d'enregistrements musicaux maintenant disponibles au public. Cette collection est constituée du résultat de mes recherches (textes, oeuvres musicales, quelques partitions et photographies historiques, entrevues) et diffusée sur le site Web de la fondation Daniel Langlois. Les archives comptent des pièces pour médias fixes ainsi que des oeuvres mixtes pour instruments acoustiques ou voix et médias fixes ou systèmes électroniques interactifs en direct (1722 compositions). Les archives comprennent aussi des enregistrements audio et audiovisuels d'entrevues avec des compositeurs et des novateurs techniques ainsi que des\ud photographies, des vidéos, et quelques très rares partitions.\ud Une grande partie de l'information textuelle contenue dans la base de données des fichiers de musique est accessible par le site Web de la fondation Daniel Langlois. L'information complète (ex. notes de programme) et tous les enregistrements sont accessibles au CR+D. Une courte sélection de pièces est aussi accessible pour écoute sur le site Web. La plupart des compositeurs représentés dans ces archives et dans cette dissertation sont nés dans des pays d'Amérique latine. Il y a aussi quelques compositeurs qui, bien que n'étant pas originaires de la région, ont poursuivi au moins une partie de leur carrière musicale en Amérique latine.\ud Cette thèse renferme de l'information sur des compositeurs liés à 18 pays d'Amérique latine: Argentine, Bolivie, Brésil, Chili, Colombie, Costa Rica, Cuba, République dominicaine, Équateur, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Pérou, Porto Rico, Uruguay et Venezuela. Les archives contiennent des enregistrements de compositeurs de tous les pays mentionnés. J'espère que ce texte incitera à explorer ce merveilleux univers musical plutôt inconnu, créé par des centaines de compositeurs latino-américains au cours des dernières décennies. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : musique électroacoustique, Amérique latine, art et nouvelles technologies, éthique, mémoire, culture, contexte, pionniers, interdisciplinarité

Music and Digital Media

Anthropology has neglected the study of music. Music and Digital Media shows how and why this should be redressed. It does so by enabling music to expand the horizons of digital anthropology, demonstrating how the field can build interdisciplinary links to music and sound studies, digital/media studies, and science and technology studies. Music and Digital Media is the first comparative ethnographic study of the impact of digital media on music worldwide. It offers a radical and lucid new theoretical framework for understanding digital media through music, showing that music is today where the promises and problems of the digital assume clamouring audibility. The book contains ten chapters, eight of which present comprehensive original ethnographies; they are bookended by an authoritative introduction and a comparative postlude. Five chapters address popular, folk, art and crossover musics in the global South and North, including Kenya, Argentina, India, Canada and the UK. Three chapters bring the digital experimentally to the fore, presenting pioneering ethnographies of anextra-legal peer-to-peer site and the streaming platform Spotify, a series of prominent internet-mediated music genres, and the first ethnography of a global software package, the interactive music platform Max. The book is unique in bringing ethnographic research on popular, folk, art and crossover musics from the global North and South into a comparative framework on a large scale, and creates an innovative new paradigm for comparative anthropology. It shows how music enlarges anthropology while demanding to be understood with reference to classic themes of anthropological theory. Praise for Music and Digital Media ‘Music and Digital Media is a groundbreaking update to our understandings of sound, media, digitization, and music. Truly transdisciplinary and transnational in scope, it innovates methodologically through new models for collaboration, multi-sited ethnography, and comparative work. It also offers an important defense of—and advancement of—theories of mediation.’ Jonathan Sterne, Communication Studies and Art History, McGill University 'Music and Digital Media is a nuanced exploration of the burgeoning digital music scene across both the global North and the global South. Ethnographically rich and theoretically sophisticated, this collection will become the new standard for this field.' Anna Tsing, Anthropology, University of California at Santa Cruz 'The global drama of music's digitisation elicits extreme responses – from catastrophe to piratical opportunism – but between them lie more nuanced perspectives. This timely, absolutely necessary collection applies anthropological understanding to a deliriously immersive field, bringing welcome clarity to complex processes whose impact is felt far beyond what we call music.' David Toop, London College of Communication, musician and writer ‘Spanning continents and academic disciplines, the rich ethnographies contained in Music and Digital Media makes it obligatory reading for anyone wishing to understand the complex, contradictory, and momentous effects that digitization is having on musical cultures.’ Eric Drott, Music, University of Texas, Austin ‘This superb collection, with an authoritative overview as its introduction, represents the state of the art in studies of the digitalisation of music. It is also a testament to what anthropology at its reflexive best can offer the rest of the social sciences and humanities.’ David Hesmondhalgh, Media and Communication, University of Leeds ‘This exciting volume forges new ground in the study of local conditions, institutions, and sounds of digital music in the Global South and North. The book’s planetary scope and its commitment to the “messiness” of ethnographic sites and concepts amplifies emergent configurations and meanings of music, the digital, and the aesthetic.’ Marina Peterson, Anthropology, University of Texas, Austi

Music and Digital Media: A planetary anthropology

Anthropology has neglected the study of music. Music and Digital Media shows how and why this should be redressed. It does so by enabling music to expand the horizons of digital anthropology, demonstrating how the field can build interdisciplinary links to music and sound studies, digital/media studies, and science and technology studies. Music and Digital Media is the first comparative ethnographic study of the impact of digital media on music worldwide. It offers a radical and lucid new theoretical framework for understanding digital media through music, showing that music is today where the promises and problems of the digital assume clamouring audibility. The book contains ten chapters, eight of which present comprehensive original ethnographies; they are bookended by an authoritative introduction and a comparative postlude. Five chapters address popular, folk, art and crossover musics in the global South and North, including Kenya, Argentina, India, Canada and the UK. Three chapters bring the digital experimentally to the fore, presenting pioneering ethnographies of an extra-legal peer-to-peer site and the streaming platform Spotify, a series of prominent internet-mediated music genres, and the first ethnography of a global software package, the interactive music platform Max. The book is unique in bringing ethnographic research on popular, folk, art and crossover musics from the global North and South into a comparative framework on a large scale, and creates an innovative new paradigm for comparative anthropology. It shows how music enlarges anthropology while demanding to be understood with reference to classic themes of anthropological theory

FINDING THE “TECH” IN TECHNIQUE: A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO ELECTROACOUSTIC CONCERT PERCUSSION PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

Premise and Objectives In our increasingly technology driven society, the impact of technology touches nearly every aspect of our lives in some form or another. This has been acutely felt within the world of percussion, with electroacoustic works representing perhaps the most rapidly expanding area of concert percussion over the last twenty years. Electroacoustic music couples electronic technology with traditional acoustic instruments and/or performance practices. Broadly, this paper outlines a systematic approach to teaching electroacoustic performance practice, based on elements found in a cross-section of percussion literature. In using such an approach, not only does each student become more capable of dealing with this growing body of literature, but also the process of educating these students becomes more efficient for the teacher. As a result, delivery becomes more effectively standardized, and resources can be shared more efficiently among multiple students who may be studying different types of electroacoustic repertoire. Method To organize this exploration, three main genres of electroacoustic repertoire for percussion are compared: prerecorded soundscape, live processing, and electronic pieces. This comparison illuminates the tools and techniques that are relevant to each type of repertoire and reflects not only the narrower focus of electroacoustic percussion, but also the broader goals of applied percussion instruction in the context of a “total” percussion program. Each classification is explored by addressing its critical elements using prime examples from the relevant standard repertoire. For the first classification of works, tape pieces, the project includes discussion on signal flow, balancing electronic and acoustic sound sources, an introduction to digital audio workstations (DAWs), and monitoring techniques. Two primary examples of the repertoire are used to contribute to this discussion; Javier Alvarez’s Temazcal for maracas and tape, and Brian Blume’s Strands of Time. Live processing works present increased challenges with concepts, including sound reinforcement, recording production, how to edit and creatively manipulate sound both in post-production and live, and detailed concepts of signal flow, often including MIDI protocol. To explore the concepts specifically relevant to live processed works, Nigel Westlake’s classic work, Fabian Theory, for amplified marimba and three toms, is offered. Electronic works give students further opportunity to explore MIDI mapping, patch and parameter changes using both hardware and software, and sometimes sound design. In this context, there is a brief exploration of Steve Reich’s Violin Phase. Finally, an exploration of Hans Werner Henze’s, Prison Song demonstrates how all of this technology and technique can come together in combination works. The work requires live sound reinforcement, pre-recorded soundscapes, separate monitoring, live processing, and live MIDI controllers. The paper closes with a brief summary of extra pedagogical considerations, including resource management, pedagogical philosophy, and further implications. Conclusion By examining the logical steps of pedagogically developing through the different broad categories of electroacoustic music, with an emphasis on its reflection of broader liberal values and critical applied analysis, it is believed that this research could yield a model for a more thoughtful approach for applied percussion teachers

(Global) Hip Hop Studies Bibliography

This bibliography documents Hip Hop scholarship outside of America, including scholarly works that may be US centric, yet expands its analysis to other parts of the world. Hip Hop Studies outside the boundaries of the United States stretches as far and wide as Hip Hop itself. This scholarship started in 1984, and the amount of scholarship beyond American boundaries has continued to grow up through present day. The first wave, before Mitchell\u27s Global Noise (2001), includes a wider range of scholarly works such as conference presentations and books written by journalists, in addition to traditional academic sources such as books and journal articles. I included the variety of scholarly works in the first wave that I do not include in the second wave because the earlier works can function as primary sources and document how the field has grown

Fretless Architecture: An Exploration of the Fretless Electric Guitar

The main focus of my post-doctoral research addresses the development of new techniques and original notation, specific to the fretless electric guitar: the incorporation of improvised passages within through-written material; the use of an array of effects pedals, loops and Ebow etc.; and the use of the instrument in a variety of contexts. In addition I work with several Iranian traditional/popular music crossover projects and an improvisation based trio in which I utilise the fretless electric guitar. This research and practical experience has enabled the exploration of new timbre possibilities and the development of performance repertoire for fretless electric guitar. Last year I released an international call for solo fretless electric guitar scores, in conjunction with Colchester New Music. This allowed me to work closely with composers in order to develop new repertoire for, and explore the potential of this new and exciting instrument. A live performance and recording(s) of a selection of the entries took place in November 2015 at Colchester Arts Centre where five submissions from the call were premiered. This lecture-recital will include performances of several extracts from these pieces for solo fretless electric guitar; specifically those that best demonstrate the fretless qualities of the instrument and discoveries of new techniques, sounds and approaches to notation. I will also discuss the challenges encountered during the project with particular reference to practice, new techniques, and notational devices. The performance will also include a premier of Divisions 2 composed by Andrew Hall, a longer piece written specifically for the IGRC conference, built upon the findings and outcomes from the previous call for scores