Impressionistic techniques applied in sound art & design

Sound art and design collectively refer to the process of specifying, acquiring, manipulating or generating sonic elements to evoke emotion and environment. Sound is used to convey the intentions, emotions, spirit or aura of a story, performance, or sonic installation. Sound connects unique aural environments, creating an immersive experience via mood and atmosphere. Impressionistic techniques such as Impasto, Pointillism, Sgraffito, Stippling introduced by 19th-century painters captured the essence of their subject in more vivid compositions, exuding authentic movements and atmosphere. This thesis applied impressionistic techniques using sound art and design to project specific mood and atmosphere responses among listeners. Four unique sound textures, each representing a technique from Impressionism, and a fifth composite sound texture were created for this project. All five sound textures were validated as representative of their respective Impressionistic technique. Only sonic Pointillism matched its emotive intent. This outcome supports the research question that sound art and design can be used to direct listeners’ mood and atmosphere responses. Partnering Impressionistic principles with sound art and design offers a deeper palette to sonically deliver more robust, holistic soundscapes for amplifying an audience’s listening experience. This project provides a foundation for future explorations and studies in applying cross-disciplinary artistic techniques with sound art and design or other artistic endeavors

Report on a medium-scale three dimensional artificial soundscape rendition: research and development system

A geodesic dome housing a 32Xspeaker <3rd order ambisonic system for Sound Art experimentation at the 2002 Maxis Festiva

Software agents in music and sound art research/creative work: Current state and a possible direction

Composers, musicians and computer scientists have begun to use software-based agents to create music and sound art in both linear and non-linear (non-predetermined form and/or content) idioms, with some robust approaches now drawing on various disciplines. This paper surveys recent work: agent technology is first introduced, a theoretical framework for its use in creating music/sound art works put forward, and an overview of common approaches then given. Identifying areas of neglect in recent research, a possible direction for further work is then briefly explored. Finally, a vision for a new hybrid model that integrates non-linear, generative, conversational and affective perspectives on interactivity is proposed

Exploring the visual styles of arcade game assets

This paper describes a method for evolving assets for video games based on their visuals properties. Focusing on assets for a space shooter game, a genotype consisting of turtle commands is transformed into a spaceship image composed of human-authored sprite components. Due to constraints on the final spaceships’ plausibility, the paper investigates two-population constrained optimization and constrained novelty search methods. A sample of visual styles is tested, each a combination of visual metrics which primarily evaluate balance and shape complexity. Experiments with constrained optimization of a visual style demonstrate that a visually consistent set of spaceships can be generated, while experiments with constrained novelty search demonstrate that several distinct visual styles can be discovered by exploring along select, or all, visual dimensions.peer-reviewe

Generative sound art as poeitic poetry for an information society

This paper considers computer music in relation to broader society and asks what algorithmic composition can learn from the metaphysical shift which is happening in the so-called information societies. This is explored by taking the mapping problem inherent in the use of extra- musical models in generative composition and presenting a simple generative schema which prioritises sound, ex- ploiting the generative potential of digital audio. It is sug- gested that the exploration of such models has more than aesthetic relevance and that the interdisciplinary nature of digital sound art represents a microcosm of an emerging reality, thereby constituting a poietic playground for com- ing to terms with the implications and challenges of the information age

Sound Art / Mobile Art

This paper examines the role of sound installation and music composition practices in addressing the relationship between sound and telecommunications devices, in this case the mobile phone. The popularity of mobile phone artworks is rapidly increasing, with handsets readily available, artists excited about sponsorship opportunities, and the general push in electronic arts. This paper focuses primarily on work by Perth mobile phone Sound Art collective, Metaphonica, which explore many issues raised by this art form. “Phonebox” (2005) was a site specific sound installation where phones are called from a remote computer, presenting a synchronized composition featuring sounds created by the artists installed on the handsets as ring tones. This was in turn subverted by visitors to the exhibition location

Sound Art / Mobile Art

This paper examines the role of sound installation and music composition practices in addressing the relationship between sound and telecommunications devices, in this case the mobile phone. The popularity of mobile phone artworks is rapidly increasing, with handsets readily available, artists excited about sponsorship opportunities, and the general push in electronic arts. This paper focuses primarily on work by Perth mobile phone Sound Art collective, Metaphonica, which explore many issues raised by this art form. Phonebox (2005) was a site specific sound installation where phones are called from a remote computer, presenting a synchronized composition featuring sounds created by the artists installed on the handsets as ring tones. This was in turn subverted by visitors to the exhibition location

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound Art

The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound Art explores and delineates what Sound Art is in the 21st century. Sound artworks today embody the contemporary and transcultural trends towards the post-apocalyptic, a wide sensorial spectrum of sonic imaginaries as well as the decolonization and deinstitutionalization around the making of sound. Within the areas of musicology, art history, and, later, sound studies, Sound Art has evolved at least since the 1980s into a turbulant field of academic critique and aesthetic analysis. Summoning artists, researchers, curators, and critics, this volume takes note of and reflects the most recent shifts and drifts in Sound Art--rooted in sonic histories and implying future trajectories

(Un)censorship and sound art

There seems to be a shortage of instances—if there is any—where sound art has been censored. This becomes puzzling and poses some questions, aside from what exactly is sound art and what exactly is censorship, one might wonder if sound art can be censored. There is, certainly, a myriad of artistic modalities and works that have been censored in many ways, nonetheless, to find specific cases of sound art targeted with censorship is not an easy task. On this account, there is a lack of literature studying the relation between the concepts of sound art and censorship. Art and censorship have had a long-standing relationship and yet, this is insufficient to form a clear understanding of the mechanics of either, particularly their ways of operating. To look at this relationship between censorship and sound art—a very recent artistic practice historically speaking—is necessary in order to discuss whether sound art is susceptible to censorship. This research proposes to form a conceptual framework to allow a better framing of the problematic and the question of investigation itself, consequently raising a set of more relevant questions that allow us to explore this issue in a more reliable way. In order to further understand how this could be achieved, this research relied primarily on the literature review and later, on the meanings and interventions of multiple participants with artistic involvement and experience to assemble and form that very same conceptual framework. This group of participants was confronted with the question of investigation, discussed the problematic and ultimately gathered a set of questions and possible future approaches on how this investigation should proceed.Parece haver falta de instâncias—se é que há alguma—onde a arte sonora tenha sido censurada. Isto torna-se intrigante e coloca algumas questões, para além do que é exactamente arte sonora e do que é exactamente censura, pode-se perguntar se a arte sonora pode ser censurada. Há, certamente, inúmeras modalidades e obras artísticas que têm sido censuradas de muitas maneiras, no entanto, encontrar casos específicos de arte sonora alvo de censura não é uma tarefa fácil. Por este motivo, existe uma falta de literatura que estude a relação entre os conceitos de arte sonora e a censura. A arte e a censura têm uma relação de longa data e, no entanto, esta é insuficiente para formar uma compreensão clara da mecânica de ambos, particularmente das suas formas de funcionamento. Olhar para esta relação entre censura e arte sonora—uma prática artística muito recente historicamente falando—é necessário para discutir se a arte sonora é susceptível à censura. Esta investigação propõe-se a formar um quadro conceptual que permita um melhor enquadramento da problemática e da questão da própria investigação, levantando consequentemente um conjunto de questões mais relevantes que nos permitam explorar esta questão de uma forma mais fiável. A fim de compreender melhor como isto poderia ser conseguido, esta investigação baseou-se principalmente na revisão da literatura e, mais tarde, nos significados e intervenções de múltiplos participantes com envolvimento artístico e experiência para montar e formar esse mesmo quadro conceptual. Este grupo de participantes foi confrontado com a questão da investigação, discutiu a problemática e acabou por reunir um conjunto de questões e possíveis abordagens futuras sobre a forma como esta investigação deveria prosseguir