Symposium Session 3

Lia Mice – Chaos Bells: Instrument size and entangled music performance – Recent and radical positions in human-computer interaction (HCI) challenge the independent existence of a body and an interface arguing the body is always more-than-human. The idea that humans and technologies are ontologically inseparable forms the basis of so-called entanglement theories of HCI. However in the context of entangled musicking, these perspectives have not adequately addressed the role of physical instrument design, such as size and tonal layout. We introduce Chaos Bells, a very large (2 metres wide and tall) digital musical instrument designed with both artistic and analytical goals in mind: it is a probe into the exploration of instrument size on performance, while also being a vehicle for the first author’s performance practice. Drawing on embodied cognition, effort and entanglement theories of HCI we examine 10 new performances created with Chaos Bells. Through a mixed-methodologies approach of thematic, interaction and motivic analysis, we present research that sheds new light on the influences of physical instrument design on embodied music performance and the role of the instrument in entangled musical interaction.

Stephan Moore and Scott Smallwood – Bringing Unpopular Music to the Desert – Unpopular Music is a portable 8-channel listening environment designed to bring ambient compositions, field recordings, and multi-channel electro-acoustic music to new, receptive audiences. Built for durability and the harsh conditions of Nevada’s Black Rock Desert (the annual site of Burning Man), Unpopular Music is an experimental attempt to address the “crisis of venue” faced by composers of multi-channel electronic music, and discover the minimum means necessary to present this work outside the cloister to which it is typically confined. The presenters will present their findings from this experiment in 2018 and 2019.

Hardi Kurda – Listening to the found scores – How speculative listening through the found score of everyday materials reflects the meaning of Illegality and the construction of legality? Something I experienced in a time of crisis when I immigrated illegally to Europe. Listening navigated the attention to another world behind the rules and the systems from the social and political order; listening was urgent, imaginary and a performative act. Within mind, speculative listening through the found score as a new communication medium questions how listening can travel far beyond an audio-visual world that surrounds us and shapes our everyday life.