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The Place and Meaning of Computing in a Sound Relationship of Man, Machines, and Environment

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The Place and Meaning of Computing in a Sound Relationship of Man, Machines, and Environment Proceedings ICMC|SMC|2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece The place and meaning of computing in a sound relationship of man, machines, and environment Agostino Di Scipio Electroacoustic Music Dept., Conservatory of L'Aquila, Italy [email protected] ABSTRACT other than digital in order to make sense of what in the world can be computed - provided there is anything really The following is a revised version of the text prepared by computable in music-related activities (a problematic the author for his keynote speech at the opening session question, often debated years ago). However, today the of the International Computer Music Conference 2013 particular manner in which digital technologies are sided (12.08.2013 Heath Ledger Theatre, State Theatre Centre, by, and integrated in, different but overlapping techno- logical layers, seems to be increasingly significant to Perth, Western Australia). It bears on conceptual changes practitioners. This is clear from live performance prac- that have taken place, along the decades, in the shared tices where computing devices do not represent some- notion of "computing" as relative to creative practices of thing standing on its own, and are rather embedded in a sound- and music-making. In particular, the notion of larger "performance ecosystem" (Waters, 2011) where computing is considered vis a vis the relationship, either other technogical layers and agencies play an (equally?) implicity established or deliberately designed by practi- important role, whether they are human agencies (per- tioners, to the (necessarily hybrid) technological infra- formers), mechanical agencies (music instruments and structures of their work, as well as to the surrouding various infrastructures), or devices ranging from basic physical space where such practices take place. A path is analog gear to "software ecosystems"1. More in general, outlined across subsequent connotations of computational in this view what counts is the array of looser or tighter tasks and the coupling (or decoupling) of computing re- relations among the agencies involved in the performance sources to the physical environment: from "calculation", process, as well as their relationship to the physical space to "communication", to "media processing", to "embed- where the performance takes place. Significantly, a prac- ded (or physical or tangible) interfaces". The author then tice-led account gets increasingly necessary to propertly illustrates features of a sound installation of his own, situate the performer's (and listener's) body in such ap- where a structural coupling is handled between the proaches on musical performance (Green, 2013). acoustics of a room environment and the equipment (the One can ask, then, where does computing take place, in latter including simple computational resources, beside such circumstances? What is its place and role within the pro- and consumer-level electroaoustic tranducers). The larger infrastructures that are anyway needed for any example raises questions as to the potential complexity computer music to exist, and what is the role of the infra- structure components for any computing to actually take and richness of creative sound-making emerging when place? I think answers may largely vary depending on larger and larger sets of data streams - from different what we mean by "computing". Far from being a term of sources in the environment - are admitted to, and are co- shared meaning, it has taken up different connotations in ordinated as part of, the computing process. A compre- history. hensive view of the "performance ecosystem" is needed to handle this strong integration of technological layers, 2. EARLY CONNOTATIONS and a practice-led account is needed to propertly situate the performer's (and listener's) body in such performative OF "COMPUTING" practices. Based on research in information theory and early cyber- netics (first half of the 20th century), the computer has 1. INTRODUCTION existed for decades mainly and foremost as a kind of re- fined and programmable "calculator", hosted in very pe- Computing in general, and music computing in particular, culiar installments mostly closed to the outside world, i.e. are today going through a variety of changes and devel- in the rather anodyne environment of mainframe com- opments. I'd like to pick some of those that, in my view, puter centres. That was before and after the advent of are relevant for current sound-making creative practices, particularly in the light of the theme [set to the 2013 1 The notion of "software ecosystem" has come to mean "net- ICMC: "international developments in electroacoustics"]. works of mutually coordinated software applications". While it My discussion moves from the very trivial observation lends itself well to software analysis issues (Lungu, 2009), it that in fact one always needs analog electroacoustic remains merely and loosely metaphoric and has raised criticism. equipment in order to turn digital signals into sound and Richard Stallman considers it an entirely faulty if dangerous viceversa. More generally, one always needs resources metaphor, because it conveys the view that artifacts - such as human-made networks, and even computer-mediated commu- Copyright: © 2014 First author et al. This is an open-access article dis- nities (social networks) - can be as void of implications of "in- tributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License tentionality" and "ethics" as natural ecosystems are 3.0 Unported, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.en.html). reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. - 47 - Proceedings ICMC|SMC|2014 14-20 September 2014, Athens, Greece "commercial computing", which historians date to the "Now that computation's denial of physicality has gone as years 1945-1955 (Ceruzzi, 2003). In that context, com- far as it can, it is time for the reclamation of [physical] puting was largely connoted in terms of academic re- space as a computation medium" (Greenwold, 2003). search and science (not only in the hard sciences: the "electronic brain" metaphor was quickly adopted in psy- 3. CURRENT CONNOTATIONS AND chology and social sciences). The only exchange between RESEARCH DIRECTIONS the number-crunching engines and the physical world was through the input/output channels necessary for in- A relevant connoting potential, today, lays in computing structing the machine to execute the requested tasks and devices known as "microcontrollers", representing in- for observing the end results of the execution. The transi- creasingly important components of everyday objects and tion from mainframe computers to "minicomputers" sites, allowing for computation units to get packed in (1960s) and "personal computers" (late 1970s) preserved small to smallest circuit boards, with i/o channels con- the connotation of advanced research and science, but necting to the physical world (sensors, actuators and was not without a gradual but substantial shift partly re- other transducers reaching into the environment). Some- flecting an ideology of non-academic research - or at times we hear talks of "pervasive computing" or (more least, research freed from investements in mainstream interestingly) "physical computing" - usually meaning science. With "home computing" (early 1980s), a shift that aspects of the environment are sensed by computer from "calculation" to "communication" became increas- interfaces and drive ongoing computations which in turn ingly predominant, due to the ease in the production of actuate changes in the environment. The dissemination of documents and in other office-related work activities, such computing units across artefacts and throughout the beside entertainment tasks (computer games). The shift environment creates a network - or should we say a was complete (1990s) with the coming of age of massive meshwork?2 - of mutually affecting processes and agen- telematic networks and the popularisation of the internet cies. We are used to hear about "tangible interfaces", or through the world-wide-web built on top of it. By way of "physical interfaces", described as retaining and manipu- its hidden number-crunching, the computer became for lating "referents" to real objects and spaces (Papadimatos, most of us a device for homework and personal commu- 2005), thus offering a sensory richness and a human sig- nication, and eventually a terminal connecting to "social nificance higher than screen-based elements can have (digital) networks". In other words, it became the "com- (Greenworld, 2003). Addressing the dynamics of "inter- munication terminal" that we have been familar with for action" in contemporary digital music, Bown-Eldridge- the last two decades, and that today gets even more in its McCormack (2009) speak of "behavioural objects". way with "cloud computing" and "big data". Such developments are part of an ongoing trend that New connotations came with more recent develop- can be seen as positively disruptive of previously en- ments, though. One is a shift in which devices still called coded limits of computing. The CEOs of large corpora- "computers" are less "communication terminals" and tions are imposing the catchwork the internet of things, more "media management centers" or "media processors" which confirms that the trend will be (is being) foraged to (Manovich, 2001). What is so peculiar in the latter idea is become a potentially massive market3. Not surprisingly, the notion
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