The Choreography of Sound

With the middle of the last century, the development of the spatial in music gained a tremendous momentum through compositional and technological advances. Since then, a vast amount of artistic experience and knowledge has been gained in this domain. The conceptual and technological means to create and project sound have been advanced dramatically through artistic practice, arts-based and academic research, especially in the fields of computer music, acoustics, signal processing and information technology. Embedded in this rich tradition, the proposed project aims at furthering the conceptual and practical means for (1) an integrative treatment of the spatial properties of musical sound in composition and (2) its interpretation embodied by dance performers - thus rendering sound susceptible to a choreographic treatment in both respects. In addition to these two main objectives, the project aims at (3) establishing an international network of artists and academics working on related topics and (4) exposing its methodology to the forming arts-based research community in Austria as well as on an international level. Based on the Aesthetic Lab, an arts-based research approach developed in the FWF-funded project Embodied Generative Music, the methodology of the proposed project revolves around the notion of the artistic case study. The project will produce a number of such case studies, each of them focusing on a few, clearly specified and researchable questions. A triad of methods (conceptualization, modelling, and experimentation) will articulate the main project activities, which are artistic creation, aesthetic experience, scholarly reflection, and technological development. Two distinguished international institutions have been won to participate in this project (IRCAM in Paris and CIRMMT in Montreal) ensuring the highest possible level of exchange and forming a strong networking backbone. An experienced project team, comprising young and senior artists and researchers will strive for the challenging project goals employing professional project management tools and will disseminate the project results in the academic and artistic world through scholarly publications, moderated concerts, an international workshop for young composer and performers and an international symposium on arts-based research organized as part of the project.

The spatial reproduction of sound scenes by means of audio transducers is possible since more than a century now. Already at the International Electricity Exhibition 1881 in Paris performances from the Paris Opera have been transmitted stereophonically to the exhibition site. Since the middle of the last century, loudspeakers are used in various arrangements for the performance of electroacoustic music and in sound installations. The rapid development of the possibilities of sound projection has been driven primarily by the requirements of the entertainment industry. Research in the domain of spatial sound has mainly been scientific research, especially in the last decades.Complementary to this development, the artistic research project The Choreography of Sound offers new approaches towards spatial sound projection based on an artistic practice integrating perspectives of electroacoustic music composition and sound installation art. In a concert hall transformed into an aesthetic laboratory especially for the project (the György Ligeti Hall at MUMUTH in Graz) and based on a radically site-specific composition practice, concepts, case studies, works and software tool have been developed, offering artistically motivated alternatives to prevailing ideas about sonic space. Contrary to the concept of sound spatialisation, the choreography of sound understands sound synthesis and projection as an inseparable unit. Choreographing sound means to design the complex interrelation of sound processes, loudspeaker configurations, room acoustics, and an audience, which may move in the listening space. Choreography refers both to the composition of the spatial dynamics of sound as well as to a situation, in which the sound modulates the dynamics of the moving audience.In the context of the project, young artists have been familiarized with the project results at international master classes. The findings were also presented at conferences and symposia in the areas of both scientific and artistic research. The general music public could gain an insight into the approaches followed and the new perspectives gained by the project through numerous concerts, installations, and project presentations. The project results have been presented all over Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK) and are documented in international publications. The open source software developed in the project is freely available and is developed further and maintained past the end of the project.