News

Acoustic Ecology The JIM 09 scientific conference hall. Other artists presenting works sessions included “Real-Time and at the festival included Japanese cy- The World Forum for Acoustic Ecol- Instrumentality,” “Creative Works berpunk writer Kenji Siratori, the live ogy (WFAE) held an international Explained,” “Image, Gesture, Move- electronic composition performance conference in Mexico City 23–27 ment,” “Sonification,” and “Multi- group Kernel, Christine March 2009 (see Figure 1). Hosted by Disciplinary Training in Art, Science, Groult, and composer/performer Phil the Fonoteca Nacional of the Mexican and Technology.” A concert held on Von. National Council of Culture and the the opening evening included music Web: www.104.fr/medias/blogs/ by Jean Haury, Hugues Genevois, 113/1783-PE programme complet.pdf Arts, the conference title was “Me- Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/33/3/5/1855355/comj.2009.33.3.5.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 galopolis´ sonoras” [Sound Megalopo- Bertrand Merlier, Noe´ Guirand and lis]. The sub-theme of the conference Kevin´ Sillam, Michel Decoust, Ludger was “Cultural Identity and Sounds Brummer,¨ Jean-Claude Risset, and Musical Instrument Competition in Danger of Extinction.” Presenta- John Chowning. tions, papers, workshops, concerts, Web: acroe.imag.fr/jim09 The first annual Guthman Musical and installations by artists, engineers, Instrument Competition was held doctors, activists, environmentalists, 27–28 February 2009 at the Georgia biologists, and architects from 14 Presences´ Electronique´ Tech Center for Music Technology on countries were scheduled into morn- the campus of the Georgia Institute of ing, afternoon, and evening sessions. The fifth Festival Presences´ Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. TheWFAEisaninternationalor- Electronique´ 2009 was presented Instrument designers competed for a ganization consisting of national and by the Institut National Audiovisuel, total of US$ 10,000 in prize money. regional affiliates around the world Groupe de Recherches Musicales The competition was co-sponsored dedicated to studying and preserving (INA-GRM) and Radio in by Harmonix (makers of Guitar Hero the sonic landscape. The conference association with the Centquatre cul- and Rock Band musical games). The setting was the recently opened head- tural center 13–15 March 2009 in winner of the competition was Jaime quarters of the Fonoteca Nacional: , France. Twenty-seven artists Oliver for his Silent Drum Controller, the Alvarado House, an 18th-century presented works using the Acous- which uses a membrane stretched villa that was the last home of the No- monium speaker and spatialization over a hollow cylindrical body (see bel poet laureate Octavio Paz. With system. While lying down, the audi- Figure 2). When the membrane is facilities including meeting and semi- ence experienced the works of Philip stretched by pushing on it, peaks in nar rooms, galleries, a “sound garden” Jeck and DJ Olive Kernel and the the shape are detected with a camera multichannel outdoor sound installa- works of Luc Ferrari, Denis Dufour, and used to control sound-synthesis tion system, offices, and state-of-the- and Bernard Parmegiani in a dark algorithms. art archival labs and storage vaults, the Fonoteca Nacional was a sonic oasis in metropolitan Mexico City. Web: www.wfae.net, www.fonotecanacional.gob.mx/ foromundial/foro mundial.html [contributed by Steven Miller]

JIM 09

Les Journees´ d’Informatique Musicale (JIM 09) was organized by the Association pour la Creation´ et la Recherche sur les Outils d’Expression (ACROE) 1–3 April 2009 in Grenoble, France. The overarching themes for the event were multisensoriality and Figure 1. R. Murray Schafer at the World Forum for Acoustic multidisciplinarity. Ecology in Mexico City. (Photo: Constantinos Stratoudakis.)

News 5 Figure 2. Jaime Oliver with his Silent Figure 3. A figure from redistribution of spectral Drum Controller. (Photo: Ben the award-winning paper energy as agents harvest, Keyserling.) at EvoMUSART by Alice deposit, and recycle Eldridge and Alan Dorin. resources. (Image: Alice An evolving agent pop- Eldridge. Design After ulation traverses a spectral Nature. Centre for Elec- filter. A simple metabolic tronic Media Art, Monash model drives the constant University, Melbourne.)

Nearly 30 inventors were chosen from the submissions to compete at the Georgia Tech campus. Judges from Georgia Tech, Harmonix, and Wired magazine scored the instruments for musicality, design, and engineering. Eric Singer won second prize for his

robotic guitar, and David Wessel took Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/33/3/5/1855355/comj.2009.33.3.5.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 third prize for the SLABS Touch Pads. Web: www.gatech.edu/newsroom/ release.html?id=2674

Megapolis Festival in Boston

The Megapolis Festival was a weekend-long celebration of do-it- yourself (DIY) audio enthusiasts that took place 24–26 April 2009 in and around Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Broadcast jour- nalists and radio documentarians explored the sonic world along with musicians and circuit benders. Au- thor and radiophonic producer Gre- gory Whitehead presented “How to Cook a Radio: 13 Amuse-Bouches for the Hungry Ears of Megapolis.” There were workshops on sound improvisation, instrument build- ing, and experimental microphone technique. Sound sculptures, instal- lations, sound walks, and more were scattered throughout the city in small galleries, outdoor spaces, and living rooms, and many were broadcast on radio as well as recorded and dis- tributed through podcasts, YouTube, Figure 2 and other Web venues. Web: megapolisfestival.org

EvoMUSART

The seventh European Workshop on Evolutionary and Biologically Inspired Music, Sound, Art and Design was held 15–17 April 2009 in Tubingen,¨ Germany (see Figure 3). General topics included Generation of Art (drawings, images, animations, Figure 3 sculptures, poetry, text, designs, Web

6 Computer Music Journal Figure 4. Computer At Sea at the 2009 Bent Festival. (Photo: Stuart Smith.)

April 2009 (see Figure 4). Open Stu- dios with expert circuit benders and hardware hackers hosted visitors and novices in a range of experimental electronics workshops each day, and two advanced workshops were offered for the more experienced. The space

at the Tank was also filled with works Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/33/3/5/1855355/comj.2009.33.3.5.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 by installation artists. A book release party celebrated the new edition of Nic Collins’s book, Handmade Elec- tronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking. Three evening concerts showcased some of the leading in- ternational Bent performers, includ- ing Lesley Flanigan, Die Schrauber, Tokyo-based Devgon Ash, Wil Lind- say, Family TV, and Pixel Form. Web: www.bentfestival.org

Peninsula Arts

The Peninsula Arts Contempo- rary Music Festival was held at the University of Plymouth in the UK 27 February–1 March 2009. This year’s festival celebrated the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, appropriate particularly given the concentration of evolutionary computer music research pursued at Plymouth. Directed by Simon Ible and Eduardo R. Miranda, the festival included talks, installations, films, pages, buildings, music, instruments, New York 2–4 April 2009. In addition and workshops of contemporary etc.), Theory, Computer Aided Cre- to paper sessions, the festival show- acoustic and . ativity, and Automation. A Best Paper cased 120 new musical and instal- Web: cmr.soc.plymouth.ac.uk/ award was given to Alice Eldridge and lation works with over 15 concerts, event.htm Alan Dorin for “Filterscape: Energy three of them curated. Recycling in a Creative Ecosystem.” represented on the concerts included Music at Boston Cyberarts Papers from the conference are being Pete Stollery, Pierre Alexandre Trem- published in a volume of the Springer blay, Mathew Adkins, Adrian Moore, Music and Technology events were Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Hans Tutschku, Martin Bedard,´ an important theme for the annual Web: www.evostar.org Georges Forget, and Geof Holbrook. Boston Cyberarts Festival, which Web: www.nycemf.org took place 24 April–10 May 2009 New York City EA Festival in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Bent 2009 The Longy School of Music pre- The New York City Electroacoustic sented Wired for Sound, two days Music Festival and Conference was The 2009 Bent Festival was hosted of performances and workshops to hosted by the City University of by the Tank in New York City 16–18 commemorate the tenth anniversary

News 7 of their electronic music studio. The The festival included lectures, panel Model: A Research Review” by Cur- Brandeis Electroacoustic Music Stu- discussions, and a hands-on vintage tis Roads, “Illusions in Music and dio (BEAMS) presented a half-day synthesizer expo. Morton Subotnick Speech” by Diana Deutsch, “Brain musical marathon featuring Charles presented a concert and a public Networks for Tracking Musical Struc- Dodge and pianist Sarah Bob. The lecture. Other artists presenting ture” by Petr Janata, and “Aesthetics AXIOM Center for New and Exper- at the festival include Christopher of Natural Radio” by Douglas Kahn. imental Media presented Ensemble DeLaurenti, Sebastian Mendez, Gosia Web: artsci.ucla.edu/sound/

Robot: New Music for Robots and Wlodarczak, and Matt Ingalls. Downloaded from http://direct.mit.edu/comj/article-pdf/33/3/5/1855355/comj.2009.33.3.5.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Humans featuring the Heliphon, an Web: www.beaf.org Linux Audio 8-foot-tall robotic glockenspiel. The Berklee College of Music Synthesis Sound and Science The seventh Linux Audio Conference Department presented a performance took place 16–19 April 2009 at the of beat deconstructions and circuit The UCLA Art|Sci Center + Lab La Casa della Musica in Parma, bent sound, and the New England and the University of California Italy, this year for the first time Conservatory showcased multimedia Digital Arts Research Network outside of Germany. Papers covered works including sounds, instruments, (UCDARnet) presented the Sound topics on network audio, signal and dance. + Science Symposium, a transdis- processing, distortion synthesis, and Web: www.bostoncyberarts.org ciplinary exploration of scientific 3D audio for games. The opening research and technology concerned concert included a live performance BEAF with sound, hearing, and aurality byMalteSteinerusingadataglove 5–6 March 2009 in Los Angeles, and visualization. The next evening The sixth Bellingham Electronic Arts California. Presentations included was the occasion for the Linux Sound Festival was held 29 April–2 May 2009 “When Sounds Collide: Environmen- Night of performances at a club in the North Puget Sound town of tal Influences on the Evolution of venue, and the closing night concert Bellingham, Washington, USA. A mix Acoustic Communication” by Peter featured Fernando Lopez-Lezcano’s of regional and international artists Narins, “The Computer as an Aid piece, A Very Fractal Cat. presented a variety of electronic or Hindrance to Musical Expression” Web: lad.linuxaudio.org/ music, visual, and installation art. by Miller Puckette, “Gabor’s Sonic events/2009 cdm

8 Computer Music Journal