The final issue of Organised Sound Volume 5 represents the first step in what one hopes will become a fruitful long-term collaboration with the International Computer Music Association (ICMA). Selected papers from workshops and panels that formed part of the 2000 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC2000, Berlin, 27 August – 1 September) form the theme for this issue. Of the ten workshops and four panels, papers are being published representing two from each category. Obviously not all of these categories could be represented in this issue. Furthermore, it was clear that many of these workshops and panels would be difficult to translate into the form of an article.

The notion of interactivity is likely to be a major aspect in the future ofdiscussion of music technology. In a world of realtime computing, howcomposers, performers and other artists communicate with technology andtheir audiences will be an issue which could fundamentally change ourapproach to music making.

The definition of genres within electroacoustic music, electronic music orcomputer music is extremely difficult. In recent times it seems that, forsome, the term electroacoustic music has become a euphemism for acousmaticcomposition; computer music has so many different categories that it hasbecome a generic term hardly used at all but replaced by interactive,algorithmic and the many other sub-genres which now predominate. This isprobably a natural and expected evolution through the development andglobalisation of technologies and the dissemination of aesthetics, butwhen Organised Sound issued a call for articles relating to the use andapplication of computers and technology in ‘popular music’, wemay have, inadvertently, guaranteed that no one would understand what wemeant. We had imagined that there were many people using what to date hadbeen seen as largely academic research tools and applications and applyingthem in exciting ways to new forms of commercial experimental music andelectronica. We had imagined that the potential of ‘glitch’,‘électroacoustique’ or ‘microsound’ and themany other genres of contemporary electronica would yield articlesabout the desires, methods and techniques of young composers andlaptop performers.

This paper describes a software package developed in MAX for using the gestures of a performer as control factors for music, via Buchla's ‘Lightning’. The software not only tracks the x and y coordinates of each transmitter, but also calculates the direction, speed and acceleration of their movements in the whole space and relative to each other. The program is very configurable, allowing calibration of the data evaluation and adjustment of the sampling rate of the values sent by the Lightning. These features have been applied to composition in two different areas: an interactive choreographic environment, and a performing interface for musicians.

Contrary to the hi-tech reputation of pop, the most innovative popmusicians often use traditional, old-fashioned equipment, ignoring thelatest technological developments. Musical innovation tends to precedetechnological innovation rather than the other way round. This articlepresents a birds eye view of pop experimentalism, grouping a number ofinfluential or otherwise interesting examples into four main categoriesbased on the type of equipment that is subject to experimentation:(i) abusing musical instruments, (ii) abusing amplification, (iii) abusingeffects and mixing equipment, and (iv) ‘pop concrète’, or experimentsinvolving tape montage techniques. The examples suggest that technologicalinnovation may be relatively unimportant to the most innovative andmusically adventurous pop musicians. Rather, they appear to need tohave established some kind of relationship with their equipment beforethey find radically new ways of using it. Pop experiments involve thecritical use of well-established typical pop machinery. This places themin an old tradition of artistic innovation.

In some informal remarks I made at a conference in 1979, I expressed a reluctance to deal with the subject of aesthetics, which historically is a product of European philosophy and which remains a troublesome concept for contemporary music where an aesthetic term such as ‘beauty’ seems to be studiously ignored (Truax 1980). In a recent, also informal article (Truax 1999) addressed as a ‘letter to a twenty-five-year old electroacoustic composer’, I predicted that the term ‘computer music’ would probably disappear since in an age where the computer is involved in nearly all electroacoustic music production, this term, which once distinguished a type of music from that made with analogue, electronic equipment, seemed today to be impossible to define rigorously. Therefore, the concept of the ‘aesthetics of computer music’, proposed as a panel discussion topic, initially seemed to me to be doubly suspect as to its meaning.

In German, the word Holzwege means ‘paths that lead nowhere but that are not inconsequential’. They are paths which, without a goal, facilitate the transforming experience of a journey that can gently, yet profoundly, touch our physical, emotional and intellectual self. In this paper, Holzwege is metaphor for a reflection on aesthetics and computer/electroacoustic music, a reflection that does not seek to demonstrate but to suggest. Thus, rather than considering and refining the abundance of concepts and definitions which seek to circumscribe the aesthetic characteristics of these musical idioms, this reflection goes beyond definitions to outline a path of no-aesthetics which highlights their creative potential.

This paper offers a critique of what are seen as key issues which areproblematised within the field of interactive dance, centring on the role ofthe various artists and technologies involved in the development ofinteractive dance systems, the notion of interactivity versusnon-interactivity, and the influence of traditional single art-formpractices. The paper proposes that it is only through identifying theparticular motifs promoted by the technology itself that a way forward canbe found, and an interactive dance aesthetic can begin to emerge inearnest. The arguments presented in this paper are framed within thecontext of the authors' long-term work and collaboration within the area ofinteractive dance, and provides a detailed case study of the piece Lifting Bodies (1999).

This article discusses the compositional strategies of turntablist DJsworking within the hip-hop genre, focusing on processes developed by thesemusicians such as mixing, scratching and beat juggling, all of which arecarried out on turntables. Since the development of the gramophone at theturn of the century, the turntable has become an instrument of creation aswell as reproduction, resulting in the ground-breaking compositionalstrategies of hip-hop music. Hip-hop DJs create original music from a rangeof existing musical texts and in doing so, raise questions concerningoriginality and authorship as well as questioning the division betweencomposer and performer. Hip-hop music is regarded by authors such asPoschardt (1998) as one of the final avant-gardes of the twentiethcentury; this article will explore and discuss the ground-breaking natureof the genre with reference to new compositional strategies and theturntable technology with which they are carried out.

The applications of technology in instrument design contribute to the resulting sound on many levels, particularly in the context of new evolutions representing the traditional instruments of our culture. Materials technology is seldom given consideration in the description of Western string instruments, but our choices of woods, metals and synthetics can dramatically alter the sound without altering the substance of instrumental performance. In the design of modified string instruments which mimic features of natural acoustic predecessors, new technology is applied on many levels. A taxonomy is proposed for the past, present and future of instrument design. Due consideration is given to the music which results from the new sound world, especially that involving interactive electronic processing. The advantages and disadvantages of directions in instrument design for the future are evaluated within the proposed schema. Some extended techniques on the cello are proposed to be further extended with electronics, and audio examples and descriptions are provided. A model for future collaborations between composer, performer and engineer is proposed.

In his work Contropasso (1998–9) Michelangelo Luponecollaborates with Massimo Moricone in the dance showcase piegapiagaachieving direct interaction between dancers and live electronicsperformance. The choreography takes advantage of acoustic events asgenerated by three dancers and further elaborated on via computer by thecomposer through use of granular algorithms and digital filtering, allowingthe construction of the musical events to occur in real time. The liveelectronics performer changes sound parameters in relation to the dancers'movements by use of the program SDP – Sonorous Drawing Plane(S. Lanzalone) – created specifically for the control of differentsynthesis algorithms allowing them to be processed on systems such asFly30 (CRM) and Mars (IRIS). SDP reads and converts computer mouse data asthe operator creates lines corresponding to performance gestures, thuscreating both visible and audible output. This software allows a singlegesture to control more than one parameter, thus creating complex changesin the audio programme output. The article deals with differentcompositions, performances and didactic situations the author hasexperienced using SDP.

Starting from a distinction between music creation and sound orpre-established methods of form and sound manipulation, this paper discussesthe use of some typical procedures in computer-aided composition. Acritique of common-sense procedures sets out to show that musical creativitymay be threatened and put at risk in the name of a community's immediateacceptance of what is considered to be of musical value.

This article considers the notion of the invention as an instrumentalconcept in designing an interactive music system. The derivation of theidea is traced from Dreyfus' Bach and the Patterns of Invention. Issues ofthe nature of the interactive musical context are problematised on the basisof ideas from Adorno and Lyotard. The invention is presented as a mechanismfor implementing the concepts of the embodiment and distribution of musicalactivity, which are shown to be generalisable. The relationship of composerand computer is considered in the light of a ‘prosthetic culture’. Itis suggested that a crucial property of the invention is that ofself-simulation.

Through a discussion of the installation piece, The Trade / Oro porBaratijas, we address the theoretical issues behind the development ofecologically based compositional work. We discuss whether ecologically basedmusic can be studied using linguistic tools. The concepts of potentialityand actuality are situated within the perspective of individual–environmentinteractions. A process that describes the relationship between anindividual and his specific social context is proposed: the personalenvironment. Consistency is discussed in relation to environmental soundlistening processes and ecological modelling work. The first part of thepaper concludes by suggesting that form-creation is dynamically determinedby a process of mutual adaptation between listener and environment. Thesecond part focuses on compositional methods and contextual elements asthey are used in The Trade. This work has been developed through amultilevel approach where visual and sonic materials stem from social andhistorical issues. The organisational processes of the sound piece are basedon the micro-temporal and spectral properties suggested by the visualelements in the installation. The meso-temporal dynamic is organisedthrough ecologically constrained events. The macro-structural shape and thesources used in the piece make reference to a specific historical context,i.e. the conquest of the American continent by the European armies duringthe first half of the sixteenth century.

Based on a composer's psycho-acoustic imagination or response to music, system dynamics modelling and simulation tools can be used as a scoring device to map the structural dynamic shape of interest of computer music compositions. The tools can also be used as a generator of compositional ideas reflecting thematic juxtaposition and emotional flux in musical narratives. These techniques allow the modelling of everyday narratives to provide a structural/metaphorical means of music composition based on archetypes that are shared with wider audiences. The methods are outlined using two examples.

Chaosynth is a cellular automata-based granular synthesis system whosecapabilities for producing unusual complex dynamic sounds arelimitless. However, due to its newness and flexibility, potential usershave found it very hard to explore its possibilities as there is no clearreferential framework to hold on to when designing sounds. Standard softwaresynthesis systems take this framework for granted by adopting a taxonomy forsynthesis instruments that has been inherited from the acoustic musicalinstruments tradition, i.e. woodwind, brass, string, percussion, etc. Sadly,the most interesting synthesised sounds that these systems can produce aresimply referred to as effects. This scheme clearly does not meet the demandsof more innovative software synthesizers. In order to alleviate thisproblem, we propose an alternative taxonomy for Chaosynth timbres. The paperbegins with a brief introduction to the basic functioning of Chaosynth. Itthen presents our proposed taxonomy and ends with concluding comments. Anumber of examples are provided on this volume's Organised Sound CD.

In this paper the ingredients of computing auditory perception are reviewed. On the basic level there is neurophysiology, which is abstracted to artificial neural nets (ANNs) and enhanced by statistics to machine learning. There are high-level cognitive models derived from psychoacoustics (especially Gestalt principles). The gap between neuroscience and psychoacoustics has to be filled by numerics, statistics and heuristics. Computerised auditory models have a broad and diverse range of applications: hearing aids and implants, compression in audio codices, automated music analysis, music composition, interactive music installations, and information retrieval from large databases of music samples.

The SndObj Sound Object Library is a C++ object-oriented audio processingframework and toolkit. This article initially examines some of the currentlyavailable sound processing packages, including sound compilers, programminglibraries and toolkits. It reviews the processes involved in the use ofthese systems and their strengths and weaknesses. Some application examplesare also provided. In this context, the SndObj library is presented and itscomponents are discussed in detail. The article shows the library ascomposed of a set of classes that encapsulate all processes involved insynthesis, processing and IO operations. Programming examples are includedto show some uses of the system. These, together with library binaries,source code and complete documentation, are included in the downloadablepackage, available on the Internet. Possible future developments andapplications are considered. The library is demonstrated to provide auseful base for research and development of audio processing software.

In this review of Jonathan Harvey's In Quest of Spirit: Thoughts on Music,special attention is given to the question of how the musical domain may berelated to the spiritual one, e.g. by representation (‘giving apicture’, ‘portrayal’), symbolism, parallelism, mediationand ‘overlap’. Harvey's sources and personal experiences arediscussed, and the relationships between the different parts the authorplays in his book assessed: the spiritual seeker, the thinker about music,and the composer. A possible conflict between spiritual search andprofessional music composition is pointed out, given an implicit tendencyin the former to surrender, and in the latter to mastery and control. One ofthe questions looked into is how music, especially by articulating contrasts,may convey insight into ‘unity’. Other issues discussed are thepossible addiction to music as a spiritual means at the expense of thespiritual quest itself; the alleged special role of electronics andspectrality in the composition of spiritual music; the possibility ofdeveloping spiritual listening; and possible modernist overtones in thenotion of making progress as a composer while mediating spiritual insightsand experiences.

We compared six sound analysis/synthesis systems used for computer music. Each system analysed the same collection of twenty-seven varied input sounds, and output the results in Sound Description Interchange Format (SDIF). We describe each system individually then compare the systems in terms of availability, the sound model(s) they use, interpolation models, noise modelling, the mutability of various sound models, the parameters that must be set to perform analysis, and characteristic artefacts. Although we have not directly compared the analysis results among the different systems, our work has made such a comparison possible.