Contemporary Music Review :: Volume 29, Issue 1 :: Special Issue: Virtual Scores and Real-Time Playing :: Arthur Clay and Jason Freeman, editors ::

Abstract:
Over the last decade, a growing number of composers have begun to use what is known as real-time notation in their work, and many have developed systems to facilitate its use in all types of performative situations. Although a community of practice around real-time notation is slowly emerging, there are few readily available tools for its creation, and little has been previously published about the technical, musical and design issues associated with its use.

We consider real-time music notation to be any notation, either traditional or graphic, which is created or transformed during an actual musical performance. However, the term has not been standardized, and various articles in this issue refer to real-time music notation using other terms, such as dynamic music notation, live scoring, virtual scoring, and reactive notation. Continue reading

Art(ists) On the Verge at Spark Festival :: Arlene Birt, Kyle Phillips, Tyler Stefanich , and tectonic industries are presenting their Northern Lights supported projects for Art(ists) On the Verge at the 8th Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, which opened today, September 30, 2010 :: Spark Reception: Thursday, September 30, 2010 from 4:30pm – 6:30pm ::

For one week each year, the Spark Festival gathers creators and performers of new media arts from around the world to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, USA, to showcase their work to the public. Artistic Director Ali Momeni writes, “The West Bank’s Love Power Church is open at last: Join us for the 2010 Spark Festival at this venue as well as the Regis Center for Art at the U of M, 405 21st St.Avenue South, Minneapolis. The festival features over 70 programmed national and international performances and installations through Saturday late evening.” The opening reception is 4.30 pm – 6.30 pm on Thursday. Continue reading

A full weekend of music hacking :: Software + hardware + art + the web. Build the future of music :: October 16, 17, 2010 at the Microsoft NERD, One memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA :: Saturday, October 16, 2010 from 9:00 a.m. to Sunday, October 17, 2010 at 6:00 p.m. (ET) Registration for Music Hack Day Boston is now open ::

Music Hack Day from Your Neighbours on Vimeo.

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Call: Second International Sound-Art Contest: Broadcasting Art :: Rne, Radio 3 and the Párraga Centre in Murcia (Spain), in a joint effort to promote international sound-art, are organising a new edition of the International Sound-Art Contest “Broadcasting Art”, which includes 13.500 euros in prizes :: deadline for the contestants is October 30th 2010 ::

Three Sound-Art Projects will be awarded a prize by BROADCASTING ART. The works will have to include
reference to all the aesthetic, narrative and technical aspects involving the use of the new technologies, both digital and analogical, from a contemporary point of view and with an avant-garde approach. Continue reading

A tribute to pioneering sound artist Maryanne Amacher :: A tribute to pioneering sound artist Maryanne Amacher will be held on the first anniversary of her death, October 22, 2010 :: initiated and organized by the MIT Program in Art, Culture and Technology :: at MIT’s Bartos Theater, located on the Lower Level of the Wiesner Building (E15) at 20 Ames Street, Cambridge, in close proximity to Kendall Square ::

The event will kickoff in the afternoon with a lecture by Anne Hilde Neset (Norway). Neset is deputy director and editor of The Wire magazine. Micah Silver and Robert The will present the Amacher Archive. A roundtable with electronic music composers and sound artists Kevin Drumm (US), Florian Hecker (Germany), and Jessica Rylan Piper (US) will discuss the influence of Amacher on current research in the field. A reception and evening of sonic works dedicated to Maryanne Amacher follows the presentations. Continue reading

Lighting the Future – An Optical Media Art Exhibition :: The White Box Museum of Art, 798 Art Dist, No 2., Jiuxianqiao Road, Beijing :: Through October 3, 2010 ::

Works by Art Clay (CHE), Harro Schmidt (DEU), David Cheung (CAN) and others in the second floor gallery. Looking at the building at night, public roaming the streets of the 798 area can enjoy the playful works by Christiane Oppermann (DEU) and Claudia Wissmann (DEU).

image: „For Cookie Cutters and Stern“ by Swiss artist, Art Clay

The works make use of a variety of lighting techniques, but are also divided into artwork for public and private spaces in a unique way making use of the different qualities and ambience found in day and night light. Continue reading

EarZoom – sonic arts festival :: IRZU institute for sonic arts research announces the second edition of EarZoom – sonic arts festival :: October 2nd, 2010 at 3:00 p.m. to October 7, 2010 at 11:30 p.m. :: at different locations in Ljubljana, Slovenia ::

IRZU – the Institute for sonic Arts Research was founded in 2008 in Ljubljana with the aim of filling a local content gap in the interdisciplinary field of contemporary sonic arts. Its activities cover the following three main areas: audio technology research (digital signal processing, sonic interaction design, music information retrieval, non-linear acoustics, etc.), artistic productions (performances, exhibitions, installations, films) and educational projects (lectures, workshops), which are mostly aimed at transmitting basic knowledge on the use of digital technologies and conceptual approaches in sonic arts, to local composers and inter-media artists. Continue reading

[Photo credit: M.I.T. Media Laboratory] When I die, what remains? What will I leave behind? What can I control? What can I perpetuate?

These are the eternal human questions facing Simon Powers, the protagonist of visionary composer Tod Machover’s new opera Death and the Powers, a full-evening work which premiered September 24, 2010 at l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo. In the opera, Powers, a rich, powerful businessman and inventor, wishes to perpetuate his existence beyond the decay of his physical being.

Reaching the end of his life, Powers uses his vast resources to devise a way to ‘download’ himself into his environment. This transformation turns every object in his surroundings — his books, furniture and walls — into a collective, living version of himself, called The System. Continue reading

Christian Marclay: Festival at the Whitney :: Friday, September 24, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. – open rehearsal; 7:00 p.m. – Through The Looking Glass :: Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 4:00 p.m. – Through The Looking Glass :: at the Whitney Museum, 945 Madison Ave (corner of 75th St), New York City ::

image: Christian Marclay, Screen Play, 2005

Artist/composer Christian Marclay (b. 1955) is known for his distinctive fusion of image and sound. Celebrated as a pioneer of turntablism, Marclay transforms sound and music into visual and physical forms through performance, collage, sculpture, large-scale installations, photography, and video. This groundbreaking Whitney exhibition—activated by daily concerts and continually evolving—explores Marclay’s approach to the world around him with a particular focus on his “graphic scores” for performance by musicians and vocalists. Continue reading

The FutureEverything Award – Call For Entries Open :: Call for Entries Open :: Public Recommendations until October 3, 2010 :: Submissions period until October 31, 2010 ::

“The FutureEverything Award celebrates the creative imagination that will shape our future.“ The FutureEverything Award recognises outstanding achievement for innovation in art, society & technology. It celebrates creative projects in any medium that offer a new and unique way to experience or see the world and help to bring the future into the present.

The winner receives a £10,000 cash prize and the FutureEverything Trophy. Continue reading