In an earlier work, the present author has studied methods on time series oriented pattern recognition, applied to musical melodic line (Tiits 2002). Time series in this context will refer to a melody-derived sequence sometimes called melodic surface in the literature (e.g. Cambouropoulos 2001). Within the work mentioned, there was a need to chart some pattern distance or similarity measures. My paper first presents some common ways to measure distances between different patterns, and then goes on to formulate a new information-sensitive way to make such measurements. The technical idea of the method is to use self-organizing map (SOM) (Kohonen 2001), a rather widely studied unsupervised learning machine, as an adaptive element. The map will build its knowledge from the input sequence during the run of the program. The SOM architecture is taken as a starting point to some extra development, making use of a phenomenon cross-referencing the response maxima, which various stimuli propel the SOM to develop. Such phenomenon I have named afterimage. The strength of afterimage phenomenon is introduced as a measure of pattern distance. The proposed distance measure is contrasted to a number of pattern measures currently in use. References Cambouropoulos, Emilios (2001). The Local Boundary Detection Model (LBDM) and its Application in the study of Expressive Timing. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2001. La Habana, Cuba and San Francisco, California: The International Computer Music Association. Kohonen, Teuvo (2001). Self-Organizing Maps. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Tiits, Kalev (2002). On Quantitative Aspects of Musical Meaning. A model of emergent signification in time-ordered data sequence. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Internet: http://ethesis.helsinki.fi/julkaisut/hum/taite/vk/tiits
This paper deals with how generative computer-based
musical systems can re-direct our awareness to the notion of Space. Musicians
and sound-artists find themselves in the relational and situational space in
which they have to respond accordingly with their audio work. The locational
poetics strengths the idea that a musical – sound work can be placed and
played in any non pre-established musical space. There are spaces with the
potential to be treated musically and computers with their adaptability play an
important role in this. The notion of Space can be argued through
different perspectives, but for this paper the Leibnizian
concept seems more
appropriate and helpful as the locus of relational space can be found in the
intersection between the internal (perceptual) and the external (physical)
space. Sound defines the form and the atmosphere of a spatial environment which
means that not only constructs and articulates Time, but also Space as well.
Through examples of my own practise and others I would argue the emergence of
an awareness between Space and Sound. The locational space as part of the
audio work itself.
The production of self
awareness, in the form of life skills lectures, has received very
negative reviews. The production has to take place on an annual basis with the
first year drama students, as weekly lectures, in the greater system of Tshwane University of Technology, in
Barry Moon and Chrissie Harrington, Bath Spa University College, UK The work to be discuss in this paper is an extension of Chrissie's research into 'Architecting the Body' (Harrington, 2004), and Barry's work in the development of motion-sensing applications for dance performance in his 'Souvenir' (Moon, 2003). Through the application of Laban's choreutics in works for dance and video, imaginary lines are thrown between the live space and the film. Incorporating motion-sensing and other technologies to manipulate sonic and visual spaces, the experience of planes of movement can be extended beyond the eyes. These performance 'environments' can have highly developed architecture, allowing for a departure from connections with real-world experience, or shifts in the frame of experience from the micro to macro.
Most existing voice-controlled systems are actually
speech-controlled. They exploit the linguistic more than the paralinguistic
(i.e. non-speech) potential of voice as an input mechanism. The purpose of this
paper is to suggest ways in which paralanguage can be usefully exploited in
interactive media, and to explore some characteristics of voice that can be
employed in controlling interactive applications. The paper discusses existing
voice-controlled systems and suggests new forms of artwork aimed at the use of
paralinguistic vocalisations for expressive interaction. It presents an
interactive game, Sing Pong, which is based on paralinguistic input as a means
of generating and interacting with the visual output. It also provides an
empirical evaluation based on the observation of players' interactions and an
informal analysis of audience feedback about Sing Pong during an exhibition in
London (2004). It is suggested that the use of vocalizations as input might
create what could be called vocal disinhibition or vocally-induced catharsis.
For some players vocal control was an opportunity to express themselves more
openly and to use their voices in ways that would normally feel forbidden in a
public context.
A glorification of the spirit and energy of the machine/avant-garde period became the backbone for the Futurist movement that would reinvent visual art in the 20th century. The dynamics of movement in space and the relationship between written and graphic media became significant derivatives to how architecture was projected during this era. From assiduous research of this paradigm and the architectural forms of the modern world, emerged the proposal of an urban-situated music and dance hall. The characteristics of Futurist Architecture, proposed by Antonio Sant’Elia in his “Manifesto of Futurist Architecture” and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s “Manifesto of Futurist Dance,” encompass ideas of theater, visual art, and dance in conjunction with architectural design to help form this music hall. The reaction of the audience, on either a micro or macro level, is a causation to the movement of the human body in Futurist dance. Thus, a mapping of the body at various points (i.e. point of contact to the floor, eye, gaze, wrist, hips, spine, centriod, knees) generated a blueprint for the movement of the music hall. Complete voyeurism of the entire space and interspatiality of its surroundings resulted in a type of Futurist “performance art” in an urban setting.
Music and choreography have a unique bond with visual
form, and by incorporating this into architecture creates an interactive
structure. Including prior Theremin technologies as an interface to the reality
of the dancers invokes a proxemic empathy from the patrons of this dance
theater. Creating this interactivity allows users to preview what they will
observe in the upcoming performance and after the show is over, mimic what has
been seen on the stage inside and to adapt the technology to become one of the
performers. This Theremin interface creates a bond between the users and
the professionals. To enhance the experience, the structure is clad in lighted
panels which respond to the orchestral tones and volumes produced. A higher
pitch creates a stronger pronunciation of light; a louder tone creates a larger
geometry, etcetera. Inside, the theater is canopied by arrays of lights creating
a sea-like collection of amorphous shapes produced by ambient noises. During
performances, dancers maneuver between sets of glass panes which are illuminated
by exciting molecules, making the transparent walls translucent. These movable
sheets contain Theremin equipment to produce the audio/visual show. The exterior
skin reveals hints of the occurrences inside, uniting the internal and external.
The Tango, known for its sensuality, originated in Argentina as an exchange of body language between pimps and their prostitutes. From this rather interesting beginning, Tango became an interplay of male-female emotion, power, energy and form. Representing the dominant/submissive, give/take nature of human relationships, this explosive art form rose from humble beginnings in the streets to expansive ballrooms in high society. When looking at dance as an art form, many images rush to the foreground of the mind. From flowing patterns of an enchanting lady’s gown as she glides across the floor, to rapid trained movements of the dancer’s body; these sculptural forms relate to art and architecture in a very human way. Clearly we create in our own image. A dance hall and performance center must reflect the nature of the dance as well as the energy and excitement created by the dance itself. When designing a structure for the Tango, every part of the dance must be communicated. Selecting the Tango as the main purpose of this facility, a building form is almost instantaneously realized. The structure flows and undulates freely yet has a rigid trained quality. The buildings form mirrors each step, dip and spin two dancers could craft with agile dexterity. A Tango dance hall is free form sculpture battling the constraints of building technology, offering a beautiful interplay, and an exchange of expression.
This
paper will investigate the relationship between Systems (entities that maintain
their existence through the mutual interaction of their parts) and
Architecture: To know the nature of
things in order to act upon reality--thus begins architecture, suggested
Vicente Guallart.
The interrelationship between these issues impacts how
educators address current teaching methodologies and aspire to invoke critical
thought. Can systems in nature be analogous to architecture? Can biomimicry (Jenin Benus) inspire investigations not yet explored? Our
arguments will validate the proposition that only through investigation and
assimilation of abstract and concrete avenues can discoveries be unfolded and
lead either to literally translated or to abstract
contemplative models.
Our exploration will address how a hybrid approach to architectural curricula
can serve as a framework for critical thinking and creativity. The methodology
is formulated by an experimental approach between systems theory and situationist drift, which serves as a liberating mechanism
from preconception and misconception, thus enabling multiple probabilities of
perception and sensory subjectivity to propagate a complex system of
interrelation and interdependencies.
This
paper describes a structured, reflective model to assist with the process of analysing and comparing the creative practices and
processes adopted by sound based artists (this research was
carried out as part fulfilment of MA Sonic
Arts). The model comprises the five aspects of ‘project triggers’,
‘influences’, sound realisation’, ‘approach’, and
‘outcome type’. Each aspect is broken down into components and sub-components,
enabling the user of the model to identify the components, and sub-component
values that relate specifically to a work or range of works.
The
model is useful for individual artists (reflection and analysis of their own
creative process), and for researchers and commentators - it provides a
coherent framework for comparative analysis and exploration of relationships
between model components.
This
paper describes the proposed model, places the work into the context of
previous published research, and opens it up for discussion, evaluation, and
evolvement at the symposium. Detailed examples of its use will
be presented, as will ideas of how it could be adjusted/extended to
become useful in other art fields (e.g. visual arts).
For almost four decades the German-born composer Herbert Brün (1918-2000) employed a unique approach to compositional praxis and pedagogy that was deeply indebted to the Frankfort School, especially the thought and writings of Theodor Adorno. Brün argued for the purposeful recognition of the social and political significance of composition, and the tendencies of language to preempt thought. Extending Adorno’s rigorous arguments in favor of subjective, politicized composition, Brün developed the notion of anticommunication, “a relation between persons and things which emerges and is maintained through messages requiring and permitting not yet available encoding and decoding systems or mechanisms.”1 This radical approach to understanding musical meaning is grounded in information theory and cybernetics. But its primary function is to provisionally oppose the commodification of culture inherent in acts of appropriation and recognition. This paper demonstrates how Brün employed anticommunication in his compositions and texts. The sense of bewilderment or alienation in his work, however temporary, served to extend his ideas about freedom, before the inevitable acts of commodification and reification turned them into their opposites.
Critically reflecting on the theme of the cultural production of modernism
presents many prospects for reconsidering design thinking and research
regarding gender issues that affected the cultural changes of early modernity.
The deliberate new spaces presented in magazine imagery may have conflicted with economic, psychological and social meaning in relation to female identity. Qualitative research in relation to the construction of modernity will be examined through considering that the mainstream narrative of Modernism with a capital “M” as an academised version of avant-garde practice was generated by certain powerful groups in society in order to perpetuate their own agenda. The paper wishes to examine the pictorial narrative as it intersects with changing female identity in relation to the concept of interior design.
Archival sources such as House Beautiful, The Ladies’ Home Journal and other magazine images of modernism will be examined in order to analyse whether women were used this visual modernist doctrine as active or passive agents of such cultural values. The production of modernism itself as cultural value will be examined in relation to the changing roles of females in the professional context.
Attitudes that clarify the historical significance of modernism’s pictorial narrative will be re-assessed through a closer look at the cultural and economic values attached to the images of interior design. Specific attention has been given to the experiences of women by noting their inclusiveness of circumstances.
Labanotation is a system of notation for dance movement that employs symbols to dynamically record the points and direction of a body in motion. Created by Rudolf con Labon, “Labanotation is specific enough to record the flutter of an eyelid” and systematically maps out natural corporeal movements by means of graphic documentation depending on the type of action, from dancing to blinking. It is not subject to any specific domain as each set of mapping is independent, yet can be combined together to systematically generate useable spatial models for creative endeavors. The content of this paper presents a morphogenetic design process to create a form for an urban performing arts theatre, which contextually evokes the realization of social movement and interaction. Analogously, architecture spatially maps movement and promotes kinesthetic built form becoming shared spatially and structurally. Mapping out the dance through a serious of diagrammatic steps, forms begin to emerge, and are applied in plan and elevation. The diagrammatic system that maps bodily movement, translates into elevational properties and the kinesthetic space. The steps systematically amalgamate into plan configurations. Labanotation, as a systematic approach to mapping spaces results in a more profound and direct form generation in relationship to content.
In contemporary music theory and analysis, studying musical works has been nearly synonymous with studying musical scores. Since the 1990s, however, studies of musical performance have started to challenge established conceptions about the nature of musical works. Researchers are increasingly turning to performances in exploring the structural, psychological, and cultural meanings listeners attribute to pieces of music. In this paper, I discuss the nature of existing discourses on musical performance with the aim of exploring the connections between the activity of music making and the activity of talking about music making. First, I present a historical survey of the different kinds of texts written in relation to performance. After reviewing the theoretical models and the languages used in contemporary performance studies, I focus on a particular kind of discourse, namely journalistic performance criticism, which has so far not been scrutinized by musicologists due to its subjective and impressionistic nature. After examining the nature of this discourse, I concentrate on one specific metaphor often used by critics to describe musical performances, namely ‘poetic’ music making. I analyse this metaphor by reference to the actual sounds of the recorded performances under review. After exploring the affective content of metaphorical language in reference to performances, I conclude by arguing that discourses used in talking about scores are largely inappropriate for discussing musical performances, the nature of which is better captured by the kind of critical discourse we find, for example, in reviews of recordings.
Symbolically powerful, the Wave motif transcends cultural,
geographic, and interdisciplinary boundaries.
Its fluidity reflects adaptations and evolution in both material science
and cultural identity. The Wave motif
ebbs and flows throughout history, making it a universal constant recognized
and valued by all cultures.
Three-dimensional
formats of the contemporary Wave motif incorporate serpentine curves,
undulating surfaces, and translucency or transparency. Its’ profiles predict
complex forms and expressions of organic vitality and metamorphosis,
which may
tell a story about our society's rising visual literacy and the compelling need
we all have for familiar anthropomorphic and emotional connections with the
spaces that define our lives. The Wave may represent a visual metaphor or
perceptual confirmation of the harmony and integration that people seek in
response to the exhausting intricacies of daily living. Perhaps the Wave motif satisfies the increasing
need in Interior Design and Architecture for a seamless and enveloping
interface of systems.
Wave forms represent an age-old design motif whose appeal continues to transcend
culture, geography, and time. This paper will explore the contemporary potency
of this archetypal form, its origins, its appearance in Interior Design and
Architecture, and its cultural significance to the creation of Wave-bowered
spaces.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of multigenerational genograms in the choreographing of a teaching context that is conducive for learning. Teaching a complex topic, such as developmental psychology, demands creative ways for bringing constructs and context closer to the everyday life experiences of those who have to use them. From an ecosystemic point of view, the family is the micro-system into which the individual is born and where the first co-constructed realities emerge as the biological, legal, cultural and emotional history of different generations coalesce. The three generation genogram provides a useful tool for gaining access to the kinship network and to balance the teaching enterprise.
Understanding newer forms of
music that do not consistently employ melody and harmony such as electronic
space music (which uses sound spaces as one parameter) can be a challenge for
college students. In my last study, I explored the use of original specially-designed 3-D animations (with surround sound) as a
tool to help these prospective consumers cognitively understand this music,
leading to an increased affective response. The students who recognized the
purpose of the animation in my first study (presented in Baden-Baden in 2001) scored significantly higher in some
movements than those who did not recognize their purpose, leading to the
motivation to conduct a follow-up study. In the current study, unlike the
first, the students were told that the animations
represented musical parameters and were not left wondering why they were
watching a seemingly random video while listening to new music.
The primary research questions in the current study are: (1)
Is there a statistically significant difference on cognitive scores between
participants in the current study (who were all told that the animations
purpose was to guide listening) with those in the previous study (who were not
told the purpose of the animation) who both experienced an audio with 3-D
animation presentation of contemporary electronic spacemusic?
(2) Is there a statistically significant difference on cognitive response
scores toward contemporary electronic spacemusic
between subjects who experience an audio-only presentation of contemporary
electronic spacemusic and those who experience an
audio with 3-D animation presentation of contemporary electronic spacemusic? (3) Is there a correlation between cognitive
and affective scores in either the audio-only group or the audio with 3-D
animation presentation group?
This presentation proposes to query the identification of a narrow term Klangkunst in relation to the diversity of current practices with sound. I will be arguing for a liberation and recognition of Sound Art beyond the strict confines of this terminology. Maybe paradoxically proposing that the further development of Sound Art lies not in a categorising off of its practice in a particular description, but by throwing itself into the fray of activity; doing stuff with sound. In contrast to this I position a German preoccupation with the term Klangkunst to define a very local and particular practice, and consequently aim to present how sound, rather than fitting into these narrow confines, necessarily implodes the description and works in various contexts. In other words I am proposing Sound Art as a strategy, as a sensibility rather than an actual and essentialist material production. I will be presenting my own works and practical strategies, to illustrate and debate this point. I realise that the identification of Klangkunst, vis-à-vis Sound Art throws up very particular geographical as well as generational issues, which might become part of the discussion.
This presentation is a follow-up to a paper given at this symposium in 2003, which introduced my inter-media project UNCAGED during its research and development phase. The current paper will commence with the revelation of the project’s final outcome, based on a commentated video documentation featuring UNCAGED at the V&A – National Museum of Childhood in London. UNCAGED (now) comprises of six ‘telesymbiotic’ installations, exploring interrelationships and transitions between screen-based digital environments and their physical surroundings. The exhibits incorporate different electromechanical devices and automated sculptures, which interact, visually and acoustically, with computer generated animations and video images. Participants can playfully engage with the installations via touch screens and tangible custom-made interfaces. With particular reference to this session’s theme, I will argue, that despite my reservations to define UNCAGED as a piece of Sonic Art, sound certainly plays a central role in the work. For instance, I will demonstrate, that the ubiquitous character of sound is of vital importance to create a perceptual fusion between the virtual and the physical world, which is apparent in UNCAGED.
I
will conclude with a discussion of my current research, which has directly
evolved from a critical engagement with UNCAGED. This new research is
particularly informed by the notion, that contrary to the project’s initial
motivation - to ‘uncage’ computer based realities
from the confines of their digital existence and to bring the remote computer
world closer to our human experience - UNCAGED ultimately seems to highlight
the distance between the two domains.
Sonic Art works created through lines of computer
code have become common-place amongst the practitioners in the field. Because of
this shift of focus from the physical to the virtual domain, the nature of
Sonic Arts and its related phenomena has evolved and changed to a degree.
This paper, therefore, aims to investigate the nature
of contemporary Sonic Arts in the context of computer codes and digital sounds.
For instance, computer codes as compositional mediums have inevitably
transformed the field into a multi-disciplinary practice, which allows a diverse
range of practitioners to be engaged in Sonic Arts. Furthermore, coding as
composition has also brought new perspectives to the practice. It is not
uncommon that artists become increasingly concerned with the elegance and the
underlying logics of compositional systems, rather than the physical sounds -
the compression and decompression of air. Also, armed with fast Internet
connections and portable computers, collective projects can emerge overnight,
which harness the creative power of practitioners all over the world. In other
words, the tools for Sonic Arts have become virtual and so has the community
which creates and develops these compositional tools.
This paper will also aim to outline and evaluate the current modes of practice and will hopefully point out the potential possibilities and directions.
Sonic Art, by contrast with music, has few theoreticians. As a result, the practice and writings of composers are frequently cited as examples of the discourses which Sonic Art might appropriate. Thus, Pierre Schaeffer (the founder of musique concrète) concentrated on deriving theoretical notions after practice whereas Karlheinz Stockhausen, in keeping with the theory-driven systems of post-war European music, appeared to be less concerned with the perceptual verification of his music as opposed to its abstract schemes. In reality, neither approach is exclusive; most composers can be situated (albeit uneasily at times) somewhere in between these extremes.
My talk will examine the kinds of discourse used by composers in explaining
their practice to others. Frequently, reference is made to scientific (or
pseudo-scientific) terminology. By contrast, philosophical or literary allusions
are employed by some musicians. Both types of language are symptomatic of the
artist’s attempt to use certain metaphors by which to describe their work or to
locate it in a cultural context. In addition, I will attempt to identify those
areas of particular interest to Sonic Art properly speaking, in order to examine
how the ‘musical’ might be transformed into the ‘sonic’.
My research is concerned with
identifying processes that can contribute to the artistic tradition of American
modern dance pioneer Doris Humphrey in order that it remains a living and
creatively vibrant tradition. I have
worked within this tradition throughout my career, as performer, director,
teacher and scholar, working closely with Ernestine Stodelle,
the foremost Humphrey exponent in the USA. I have been pursing this research from a
wider imperative relating to interpretation and style, and the consequential
impact that directorial intervention can have on a work. In relation to modern dance, this is still an
emerging activity as performance practice within the genre, broadly speaking,
is to reconstruct.
In
acknowledging past and current practice within modern dance, including that of
fellow Humphrey exponents Stodelle, Ray Cook, and
Lucy Venable amongst others, my research has reached beyond the immediate
parameters of dance to consider performance practice in music and theatre.
Alongside this, ideas have been adopted relating to
the interpretation of history, as my practice is concerned with performance
production, which is underpinned by the clearly defined movement philosophy, or
style, of its originator. Encompassed within the link to the study of history
is the aspect of viewing evidence. The
notions of the ‘historical imagination’ and the ‘living past’, as identified by
R.G. Collingwood ([1946] 1993) and more recently by Hayden White (1987) and
John Tosh (1993), has been a crucial aspect in
developing a viewing perspective that incorporates creative thought. This, in turn, has allowed the consideration
of evidence to become a process of ‘discovery’ where new thoughts and ideas have been generated by existing facts and documentation.
These debates, and others, provided a theoretical underpinning for my practical
research processes.
This
paper seeks to present a brief overview of the fundamental principles that
emerged from a directorial exploration of With
My Red Fires, choreographed by Humphrey in 1936 and one of her best-known
works with an extended history of revival that continues today, predominantly
in North
America. The paper would address those processes identified by Collingwood which can contribute to the act of
interpretation, including the search for a ‘living past’ and the
identification, viewing and interpretation of evidence. Alongside Collingwood's
position, two models of interpretive categorisation
from theatre practice, by Robert Benedetti and Bill Alexander, will be introduced, to illustrate strategies that can be
usefully adapted for dance production.
The
paper will be illustrated by video extracts from two
productions, a performance from 1978 by the American Dance Festival and a new
interpretation staged for students at Middlesex University in 2004. Whilst the Labanotation
score of the work was used within this directorial
process, the resulting production could not be defined as a ‘reconstruction’ in
the traditional sense because of the significant shifts away from Humphrey’s
original narrative and characterisation. A key
question is the examination of the consequences of re-interpreting the
narrative and characters to make these less explicit, in order to create a contemporised interpretation. By presenting this work in
this way, the Humphrey tradition is being explored and
extended, and because of this, remains a living, creative tradition.
The
types of knowledge being developed relate to interpretation; the extent of
creative intervention within the directorial role; the viewing of evidence; the
significance and relevance of tradition; the treatment of text. These areas are
potentially located within dance, theatre, music, literary criticism, and
history. For example, an early assumption on my part was that theatre directors
had far more latitude when it came to the interpretation of a play text than
dance directors/reconstructors had with a Labanotation score. Subsequent research, which encompassed
case studies of Shakespeare and Beckett production made clear that the work of
certain playwrights is far more restricted, and, arguably, restrictive, than
the experiences I have had with the Dance Notation Bureau, holders of the
Humphrey copyright.
Starting with some conceptual parallels between early sound recording technology and nineteenth century photography, this paper seeks to explore some of the attitudes that composers have on sound recording, its technology, process and industry, and the potentially altered relationship they may have to their own work through the recording process. I compare reflections on my own recorded compositional work to those of some of the earliest recorded composers, particularly Elgar, and discuss questions that include the effects of recording technology and the notion of presumed author authority when the composer is directly involved in the recording process.
In the paper, I further consider wider issues such as: how have changes in recording through the last century affected composers and their work? To what extent is the dramatic change in performance practice related to a century of recording? Associated aesthetic and reception questions, i.e. whether the composer hears differently to a performer, an audience, a record producer; whether we should re-appraise the sound engineer’s role - is there unexplored artistry in their work too? – are also explored. I conclude by discussing the aesthetic status of a recording, which can be regarded as either a ‘mirror’ that reflects the reality of musical performance, or a ‘lamp’ that shows us an artistic version/interpretation of that reality.
Questions about the preservation of the time-based arts are common, and continuing currency in disciplinary debate. In dance, particularly, where there is generally no recourse to score or script, issues of ‘authenticity’, ‘originality’ and the process and status of the reconstructed work have been extensively explored (Jordan, 2000, Thomas 2004). The position taken in this paper, however, is not that of the reconstructor or of those who retrieve or record performance in performance mode. The perspective taken here is that of the performing arts historian, for whom commentary on performance might be a key component of the historiographic project.
In order to illustrate the problems encountered and strategies adopted by the dance historian, a case study is offered of ballet in the music halls in London at the end of the nineteenth century. This is a pertinent example, for no dances from the period are extant, photography was in its infancy and there were no critics with the specialist expertise or language to leave detailed or accurate records of the event. In these circumstances, how does the historian deal with what Manning (1993) calls the ‘traces’ of the dance? The traces of the music hall ballet, left not in performance itself but in written and visual primary sources, reveal the problems for the historian who is trying to capture the event. Artistic convention distorts the visual image; written accounts are personal and often conflicting; vested interests colour the record. Nevertheless, it is claimed that the historiographic project is very different from that of reconstructing or even simply recording the work in written form. It is the historian’s role, I argue, not to describe but to interpret; to make sense of the past. It is, therefore, the very instability of the dance event which the sources produce which is of prime interest to the historian. For her, the ‘performance’ resides not in actuality, not in an attempt to construct an accurate, coherent account, but in the many versions of ‘the’ dance. The preservation of performance is, therefore, about the preservation of perception and it is this which keeps the history of dance always ‘on the move’.
Processing of sound streams in the recording of electroacoustic music results in threads of identity which can be interpreted exclusively either as single voices (carriers), or voices being affected by a distinct, 'ghost' source (carrier + modulator). What separates and unifies identities of carrier and modulator for the listener and why?
Via Jacques Lacan's philosophies by which systems of perception are based on linguistic models, I propose that music analysts can turn to frameworks such as Peter Mark Roget's 'Plan for the Classification of Ideas' (1852) to clarify what have heretofore been described as 'unconscious value systems' (Emmerson 1986). Examples will be given from electroacoustic music for film and the concert-hall to highlight the potential of an accessible musical parameter which sound engineers and composers may have dealt with passively in the past. In this connection, I also discuss the ontological status and the ‘reality’ of the sonic phenomena that are preserved on recording by these means.
A musical context can be defined as a set of ontologies and from this context, some kind of semantics can be defined. Then, creativity arises from changes in the semantics. In the musical domain, we cannot base such an approach on tools like MIDI but need to rely on transcription methodologies that do not fully exist yet. We present a formalism based upon ontologies, inspired by transcription requirements. A basic ontology for human, musical perception has been defined and a data structure to implement the ontology has been identified. A second feature is that we did define a concept of distance on ontologies based upon entropy. We apply this concept of distance to the sonata part of a piano concerto of Mozart. We measure the distance, very small, between the original musical phrase and one of its variation and then the distance, this time very large, between this phrase and the Turkish dance in the same sonata. Although for practical purposes, we start from a score this method ought to be extended to the problem of musical transcription.