Subject: Call for submissions – Organised Sound issue 22/2 –
Alternative Histories of Electroacoustic Music
From: Martin Supper
Call for submissions – Organised Sound issue 22/2 – Altern
Organised Sound: An International Journal of Music and Technology
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/Call for submissions/
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Volume 22, Number 2
Issue thematic title – Alternative Histories of Electroacoustic Music
Date of publication: August 2017
Submission deadline: 15 September 2016
Issue co-ordinators: James Mooney (j.r.mooney(at)leeds(dot)ac(dot)uk
and Dorien Schampaert
(d.schampaert(at)leeds(dot)ac(dot)uk
The story of the genesis and development of electroacoustic music is
often told in the same familiar way. Experiments in/musique concrète/ in
Paris and/elektronische Musik/ in Cologne played a central role in
European developments, while activities in New York such as those of the
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, John Cage and his Music for
Tape-Recorders group, and Louis and Bebe Barron are frequently proffered
as the most prominent American contributions. These activities were
significant, of course; but they were not the only progenitors of
modern-day electronic music. There are many, many other ways in which
the story of electronic music’s history and development could be told.
(For the purposes of this call, the term ‚electroacoustic music‘ is to
all intents and purposes synonymous with ‚electronic music‘, referring
broadly to music in which electronic apparatus is used to produce and/or
transform sound.)
There are many ways in which an ‚alternative‘ history could be framed.
For example the English musician and musicologist Hugh Davies, in the
late 1960s, produced a comprehensive inventory of electronic music
compositions, entitled/International Electronic Music Catalog/ (1968),
in which he documented the output of 560 studios in 39 countries. This
challenged the hegemony of the Paris, Cologne, and New York schools,
whose activities dominated the literature of the 1950s and 60s, and as
such provided what was arguably the first/alternative history/ of
electronic music.
There are many other possibilities for alternative histories, and the
purpose of this thematic issue of/Organised Sound/ is to present some of
them. For example: what does electronic music look like if we focus on
the contributions of individuals whose work is less widely known; less
widely recognised? What happens if we step away from the Western
European and North American institutions that are normally figured as
central to the genesis and development of electroacoustic music? Or,
what happens if we question, or explore the mechanisms of, their
authority? What happens if we change our object(s) of study; if we look
at artefacts and objects rather than composers and works, for instance?
Are there tools, techniques, instruments that played an important role
in shaping electroacoustic music that remain under-recognised or
misunderstood? What about when we listen to the marginalised voices;
what versions of electroacoustic music’s history do they tell? Or, what
happens if we change our/methods/ of study, so as to highlight aspects
that hitherto went unnoticed, such as underlying social, political, or
economic dimensions? How does current music draw on the origins of the form?
Possible areas of interest include:
Pathways from electroacoustic music’s past to electroacoustic
music’s present that are ‚a little bit different‘ from what one might
expect.
Individuals, institutions, inventions, or perspectives that have been
neglected or under-represented up to now.
Alternative methodological and/or theoretical perspectives;
studies that encourage us to look at the history of electronic music in
a different way.
Ethnographic, anthropological, and/or interdisciplinary
approaches; implementation of methods native to science and technology
studies (STS); other methodological approaches that are apt to reveal
‚alternative histories‘.
Alternative narratives; studies that compel us to attend to, or
listen to, different things as we navigate electronic music’s history.
Marginalised voices; stories of electronic music’s history and
development that have been side-lined, for whatever reasons.
Non-Western European, Non-North American developments, and/or
activities that happened outside those typically considered in
electronic music histories.
Unconventional or DIY approaches; work that has flouted the
norms and expectations of its epoch.
Developments that have shaped or changed the direction of
electronic music, but which remain as yet under- or un-recognised.
Notions of genre/style/idiom as a lens for alternative histories.
Studies that might be thought of as continuing the work that
Hugh Davies started with his/International Electronic Music Catalog/,
for example by focusing on the electronic music of under-represented
nations, and/or the use of electronic sound techniques in disciplines
outside the immediate sphere of avant-garde art music.
Tools, techniques, instruments (etc.) that played an important
role in shaping electronic music, but which remain under-recognised or
misunderstood.
Interrogating the (perhaps invisible) driving forces behind
institutions of cultural production, so as to reveal why certain models
of electronic music dominate, or appear to dominate.
Historic perspectives on relationships between electronic music
and other musical/cultural practices.
Submissions are welcomed from all disciplines, but particularly from
electroacoustic music studies, science and technology studies,
history/philosophy of science/technology, and sound studies.
Prospective authors may be interested to know that an international
conference with the same theme-Alternative Histories of Electronic
Music-will be held at The Science Museum, London, on 15-16 April 2016.
Further information, including a call for conference papers, can be
found at: http://ahem2016.wordpress.com.
As always, submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however,
those that fall/outside/ the scope of this theme are/always/ welcome.
SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 September 2016
SUBMISSION FORMAT:
Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the
inside back cover of published issues of/Organised Sound/ or at the
following url:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayMoreInfo?jid=OSO&type=ifc
(and download the pdf)
Properly formatted email submissions and general queries should be sent
to: os(at)dmu(dot)ac(dot)uk, not to the guest editors.
Hard copy of articles and images (only when requested) and other
material (e.g., sound and audio-visual files, etc. – normally max. 15′
sound files or 8′ movie files) should be submitted to:
Prof. Leigh Landy
Organised Sound
Clephan Building
De Montfort University
Leicester LE1 9BH,_UK_.
Editor: Leigh Landy
Associate Editors: Ross Kirk and Richard OrtonÝ
Regional Editors: Ricardo Dal Farra, Jøran Rudi, Margaret Schedel, Barry
Truax, Ian Whalley, David Worrall, Lonce Wyse
International Editorial Board: Marc Battier, Manuella Blackburn, Joel
Chadabe, Alessandro Cipriani, Simon Emmerson, Kenneth Fields, Rajmil
Fischman, Eduardo Miranda, Rosemary Mountain, Tony Myatt, Jean-Claude
Risset, Mary Simoni, Martin Supper, Daniel Teruggi