This paper describes the formation, creations and performances of a digital arts performing ensemble. It considers issues of collaboration across media, especially in the context of composed audio-visual improvisation (comprovisation). By contextualising our creative work within the wider discourse of both the practice and aesthetics of contemporary intermedia, we seek to enhance the potential relevancy of the article's main focus to readers.

The story of the Lucid Dream Ensemble is one of contemporary creative activity in the realm of digital arts. It exists in a university setting, and its purpose is educational as well as artistic. Founded at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois in 2002, the ensemble seeks to foster collaboration across auditory and visual boundaries. The group is made up of audio-visual performers who control laptop computers in real-time by various interactive means. Its canvas is a surround-sound set-up, as well as three projectors. The ensemble seeks a true integration of video and audio, as expressed in the creation of audio-visual artefacts aimed at providing an immersive experience. The group has progressed from presenting unrelated audio and video, to integrating the process of creation of sound and image, to collecting audio and video as a group and processing them collaboratively.

Group multi-disciplinary projects face difficult challenges in social collaboration, diverse technologies and aesthetic grounds. Combining sound, image and space into a sufficiently malleable set of materials for creation is a complex task. As such projects lack a common ground from which to start, an experimental, practical approach is suggested, with a non-hierarchical, informal group structure. The Meta-Orchestra project, tackling these problems since 2000, re-engaged with the issues in a fourth meeting in Maastricht in 2004. This paper lays out the context of multi-disciplinary work, influenced by developments in computer technologies, by outlining the changed roles of the orchestra, the score and audio-visual theories. The Meta-Orchestra is described against a theoretical frame of social, technical and aesthetic considerations. Although the project will not be forced into this framework, descriptions of the palette, the strategies to create common grounds, the areas opened up by wireless network technologies, aesthetic issues of layering sounds and images, and the development of a central score system, illustrate the layered complexities of the Meta-Orchestra.

Projects are emerging that reflect the growing concern with preservation and access to our electroacoustic heritage. In today's context it is difficult to find the huge financial means needed to facilitate a durable and efficient response to this problem. Some accessible objectives and projects are presented here which could be developed by the electroacoustic community. For a long time people have been concerned about the importance of the electroacoustic domain; the concern should now include the urgency of preservation.

Various algorithmic techniques are available for generating music, many of which come from the field of artificial intelligence, which is rich with potential in this regard. However, the musical appropriateness of these techniques is less clearly understood. In this paper, I will report on a study that aimed to describe the characteristics of two of these techniques, rule-based and genetic algorithms, as they apply to melody generation. The appropriateness of these characteristics in contributing to well-formed melodies was judged by aesthetic criteria. The results indicate that most combinations of rules, mutations and evolutionary selection result in poor or average melodies, but that careful combination of these techniques can generate melodies that are not simply well-formed but in many cases display some elegance and novelty.

The field of electroacoustic improvisation in the Netherlands is largely male dominated. Flutist, improviser and composer Anne La Berge signalled this and other problems related to gender in ‘Kraakgeluiden’, a Dutch venue for improvisation in electroacoustic music. Four possible factors contributing to gender discrimination are proposed: the stereotypical gendered concept of an improviser, differences in communicative styles, the dominance of male networks, and music technology itself. This is followed by a consideration of gendered differences in music improvisation. It is posited that male improvisers often seek to establish a hierarchy among themselves, while women performers tend to project themselves less to the forefront. Women improvisers may traditionally have a different sense of autonomy, in adherence to gender norms. While music education might offer a means to change behaviour patterns, it appears that these gender norms are internalised at a surprisingly young age. While concentrating on electroacoustic improvisation, this essay also includes relevant experiences of other improvisers. Gender discrimination in electroacoustic music improvisation is a complex issue deserving more research.

The applications of digital technologies in the world of art continue to explode, and various artistic disciplines begin to converge as a result. More artists are working in a wide variety of media while, at the same time, increasing specialisation results in a greater number of collaborative, interdisciplinary activities. The ability to collaborate effectively with other artists is a skill set that must be addressed from a curricular standpoint, and music faculty must engage with colleagues in the other arts to provide students with the appropriate learning opportunities. While many institutions have developed successful models for doing this, information about those models has not been widely disseminated. Institutions that have found this change difficult may face a variety of obstacles, including highly compartmentalised departments, a crowded curriculum, and shortages in staffing and funds. One model for change is presented that focuses on building curriculum and shared facilities, using technology as a means to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration.

This paper illustrates the early period of electroacoustic music in Japan through an intensive examination of the source materials for historiography and analytical study, trying to illuminate the reception of Western techniques by Japanese composers, examining the rudiments of their original creative ideas. An extensive list of Japanese works with information about their accessible manuscripts, literature and available recordings is provided. All quotations from the articles or interviews in Japanese have also been translated into English by the author of this paper, unless otherwise stated. The graphic transcriptions presented in this paper have been produced by the author employing computerised spectrum analysis. The aim of this paper is to provide resources for further investigation into this topic, particularly for concerned researchers in other language regions than Japanese.

This paper introduces the ElectroAcoustic Resource Site project (EARS), taking a tripartite approach: first outlining the project's philosophy, then reporting on work-to-date and finishing with a discussion of the project's ambitions and aims.

The project's aim is the development of a dynamic, multi-lingual, international, publicly available Internet-based bibliographical resource designed to enhance the scholarly infrastructure of electroacoustic music studies, in particular, the musicology of electroacoustic music. Through the use of hypertext structures and linking systems the site will help to contextualise specific research within the broad field of electroacoustic music studies, as well as making helpful links between related areas/items of scholarship. The project aspires to assist access to current, past and evolving areas of scholarship and will attempt to redress certain imbalances in the ease of access to areas of research within the field. The project will strive to conceive of electroacoustic music in its widest possible sense, acknowledge the interdisciplinary nature of the field, and aspire to the greatest possible breadth and inclusiveness. The EARS project is coordinated by an international consortium, is directed by the authors and can be found at http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/EARS

Microsound is an emerging approach to music composition and analysis which places emphasis on extremely brief time-scales, usually a tenth of a second or less, as well as an integration of this micro-time level with the time-levels of sound gestures, sections, movements and whole pieces. This paper summarises some of the technical issues involved in microsonic analysis/composition, traces a history of microsonic techniques in contemporary music, and examines some of its aesthetic implications in a social context.

The audience for contemporary classical music is small – the audience for computer music is even smaller. Traditional concert halls are failing to generate interest in new instrumental music, much less computer music, while museums are having much more success with new art, including art with a technological component. By marketing our music to art galleries and museums, we can reach an audience predisposed to accept the new and unusual in artistic expression. Presenting the works of music outside a traditional proscenium setting also helps shatter any a priori definitions of ‘music’ audiences may hold. Using the term ‘Sound Art’ instead of ‘music’ may also help to free people struggling to appreciate unfamiliar sounds.

The Museum of Music in Paris possesses a collection of 280 instruments from the twentieth century. Most of them belong to the general families of electric and electronic musical instruments, which we will call ‘electrophones’, in deference to the name chosen by Curt Sachs (1940). The instruments are gathered in families so that the whole collection illustrates the milestones of the twentieth century; for instance, the museum has a large set of diverse Ondes Martenot. However, due to its scarcity, the Trautonium is represented by one of Oscar Sala's Mixtur-Trautonia.

Like any museum, we have to encourage the conservation of this heritage. To maintain a large collection of electrophones like the one we have, a specific knowledge base has to be developed. We have been working on this aspect of the project for the past two years. From the onset, it was decided to start the collection with the Ondes Martenot. Our aim was to define a model approach that could also be applied to other electric and electronic instruments. This work involves organising the instruments, studying them in order to outline conditions of appropriate conservation, and determining which kind(s) of restoration should be undertaken.

A first step has been to gather all information necessary to understanding the instrument and its mode of performance. With this goal in mind, we have taken a complete inventory of our collection with the aim of coming up with a first assessment of the state of the instruments and determining whether to allow performers to play them. Thanks to this work, we were able to start taking precautionary measures against degradation; we are now also able to answer many questions relevant to the restoration and conservation of this collection.

This article explores possible strategies for appraising electroacoustic and computer music to enhance ‘marketability’. It is proposed that the specific aesthetics, characteristics and function of a work may be more salient features than those of the medium of composition (e.g. computer) to many listeners. It is suggested that the common practice of focusing on chronology, geography and specific schools is becoming less relevant due to a proliferation of home studios, the internet, and an increasing saturation of electronic sounds in new media contexts. On the other hand, aspects of form, mood, timbral palette, rhythmic complexity, etc., may become very useful bases for choosing works for a compilation CD or concert programme. The inadequacies of musicians' discourse for describing such attributes leads to the incorporation of analogies from visual and performing arts as well as a discussion of other possible approaches to ‘labelling’ and the inherent dangers in such a task. In conclusion, it is proposed that the time is ripe for shuffling the categories and regrouping composers' works according to aesthetic preferences, regardless of the percentage of electronic/computer content.

The term ‘computer music’, for those of us who lived through the beginnings, became meaningful during the pioneering period from the late 1950s through the 1970s. It was a positive term. It identified a specific genre of music, a major effort in musical experiment, research and exploration, a wealth of new sound-generating techniques, and a large palette of new sounds. Jean-Claude Risset, in Inharmonique, for example, used additive synthesis to extend principles of tonality into the microworld of spectral progression. John Chowning, in Stria, used the Golden Mean to define FM frequency ratios. For many of us, these were interesting ideas and beautiful sounds.

Initially a result of talking heads, followed by the arrival of telephony and the gramophone, the use of artificial vocality within musical composition is becoming more and more common as different laboratories acquire devices enabling the manipulation of sound. Following Pierre Schaeffer's first experiments in Paris, many composers became interested in the expressive resources of the mechanical voice, the results of which are now present in a large corpus of electroacoustic works. By its very nature, artificial vocality establishes a new link between the vocal quality of a sound event (its vocality) and technology (its artificiality) within this type of music.

How then, can the musicologist study artificial vocality and the works in which it is used? Which tools should be used? What makes the analysis of artificial vocality so specific? Is it possible to create new tools for the analysis of artificial vocality within electroacoustic music?

In the search for answers to these questions, many difficulties present themselves. The first concerns the modes of representation and the methods used to analyse artificial vocality. On top of this, real reflection is needed concerning the disparity of technological tools used in analysis and the need for the application of a certain methodology in order to classify them. The starting point will be the establishment of a typology. Finally, the idea of being able to compare different representations of the same work using sophisticated tools will open the way to the discovery of new analytical approaches. Seeking freedom from the relative blindness caused by the over-specialisation and rigidity of technological tools is now an urgent necessity, particularly when considering artificial vocality.

‘Signed Listening’ is a project that was initiated by Ircam in the spring of 2003. Its goal is to develop computer tools that permit an expanded listening – whether it be for musical analysis, for composition or simply for its own sake with no specific goal in mind (via stereo or computer). This article will briefly present some hypotheses and objectives of the project, and how it touches issues relating, in particular, to electroacoustic music, as well as presenting examples taken from the early stages of our research.