ISSTA 2019 Call for Proposals

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October 31st and November 1st, 2019 the Irish Sound, Science and Technology Association annual conference and festival will be held in Cork, Ireland at CIT Cork School of Music. Keynotes include a performance and lecture from Robert Henke (Ableton Live, Monolake) and a performance and workshop from Ellen King (ELLLL / Gash Collective).

I starting going to ISSTA in 2017 and have had incredible experiences while attending and performing. It’s usually a fairly small gathering of like-minded artists, educators, performers, and scientists all of whom are experimenting with sound in fascinating ways. I’ve participated in many events, festivals and conferences, but nothing aligns better with my interests and practice than ISSTA does. If you appreciate the music and sound experiments I share here on ACB, then please review the call below for details about this wonderful gathering.

ISSTA 2019: Perform!

Irish Sound, Science and Technology Association annual conference and festival
CIT Cork School of Music, Union Quay, Cork, Ireland
October 31st and November 1st, 2019
Keynote Lecture and Performance: Robert Henke
Keynote Workshop/Performance by Ellen King (Gash Collective)
Performance haunts our electronic music and sonic arts.

The technologies which facilitate our sonic creations transmit, but also sometimes obscure, the gestures of our sound production. Speakers, microphones and interfaces could be said to displace as they transmit or transduce. How much of the electronic music we hear is actually performed? How have our technologies changed our ideas of performance?

In the post-digital age, we often see an intermingling of technologies, terminologies and approaches, encompassing electroacoustic/computer/electronic music and sound-art. The terminology and descriptors are now becoming irrevocably entangled as a surge of new performers rise amidst the deluge of new hardware and software tools. As this cross–pollination occurs, the so-called cultural underground that originally supported this music appears to be very much ‘overground’ and alive, peddling its wares (equipment as well as music) with increasing prolificacy and achieving ever–increasing globalised acceptance. Should a new language be invented to define and discuss this music, or should the existing one be augmented? Or should we simply stop, listen, and enjoy the performance?

In 2019, ISSTA returns to Cork, to be hosted by the CIT Cork School of Music in association with Cork Sound Fair. The small city centre is teeming with live music performances, from gigs in small venues and pubs to regular festivals that welcome thousands of visitors to the city. Its musical history is rich in diversity. The Arcadia Ballroom, the Cork Orchestral Society, the Jazz Festival, the Opera House among others all brought national and international performers to audiences in the city. In the 21st century the City has experienced a musical Renaissance and today Cork has a wide array of active promoters and venues. We look forward to welcoming artists, technologists, theorists and other researchers to discuss the issues above at ISSTA 2019 in Cork.

Submission deadline is June 7, 2019; (midnight Irish and UK time).
Submission is via the Easychair system. Submitters should set up an Easychair account.
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=isstasoundconf2019

There are instructions for authors here:
https://easychair.org/smart-program/NICFD2016/instructions.pdf

Further details are available on the Cork School of Music website.
The call is open to all practitioners and researchers regardless of nationality. Participants are responsible for their own travel and accommodation.
Registration for ISSTA 2019 is required for participation
We aim to provide review notification by August 6th.

CATEGORIES
1) PAPERS which engage with the conference theme, or relate to ISSTA subject matter, including those on the following topics:

Interfaces for Music or Sound | Laptop Music and Live Electronics
Electroacoustic Music
Music/Audio software
Sound Art and Media Art with a Sonic Focus
Soundscape Art/Studies
Sound, Science and Technology Education/Pedagogy
Acoustic Ecology
Circuit Bending
Digital Audio, Digital Signal Processing, Sound Diffusion and Sound Synthesis
History of Sound, Science and Technology

Submission is by abstract (up to 500 words).
Paper proposals are reviewed double–blind. ISSTA’s working language is English.
Presented papers at ISSTA are expected to be 20 minutes in duration.

2) MUSIC AND SOUND ART should primarily be presented as real-time live performances. We can accommodate some headphone-based installation pieces (though these may include video).

Technical requirements: we anticipate being able to facilitate stereo or multichannel (max 8-channel spatial audio) performances or fixed-media compositions but are not able to facilitate setups requiring a large numbers of performers or full bands.

Electronic Music and Computer Music
Electroacoustic Composition –real-time/performed
DJ/Scratch Music
Laptop performance
Soundscape practices
Circuit bending/hardware hacking
Sound installations (headphone-based or video–with–headphones)

We aim to review music submissions using double-blind methods as far as is practicable, but we appreciate that some support materials or weblinks will often reveal identifying information.

Registration information
Early-bird Full fee (professional): €40 (until 16th September 2019)
Early-bird Independent artist/student/unwaged/irregular income: €20 (until 16th September 2019)
Full fee (professional): €50
Independent artist/student/unwaged/irregular income: €25

ISSTA is a subscriber–funded organisation and is not in receipt of state funding; we regret that we are not currently in a position to pay artists’ fees or make contributions to travel expenses.

Chairs and Organising Committee, ISSTA 2019
Conference Chair: Mr Hugh McCarthy, Senior Lecturer, CIT Cork School of Music (CITCSM)

Co-chairs: Mr Simon MacHale (CITCSM), Mr Roddy O’Keefe (CITCSM)

Chairs of Music track: Roddy O’Keeffe (CITCSM), Dr Jenn Kirby (UWTSD and ISSTA) and Dr Rob Casey (Ulster University, ISSTA)

Chairs of Paper track: Mr Simon McHale (CITCSM) and Dr Stephen Roddy (TCD and ISSTA)

ISSTA Board:
Dr Brian Bridges, President
Dr Jenn Kirby, Vice-president
Mr Robin Parmar, Treasurer
Dr Stephen Roddy, Web and PR
Dr Rob Casey, Secretary

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About John CS Keston

John CS Keston is an award winning transdisciplinary artist reimagining how music, video art, and computer science intersect. His work both questions and embraces his backgrounds in music technology, software development, and improvisation leading him toward unconventional compositions that convey a spirit of discovery and exploration through the use of graphic scores, chance and generative techniques, analog and digital synthesis, experimental sound design, signal processing, and acoustic piano. Performers are empowered to use their phonomnesis, or sonic imaginations, while contributing to his collaborative work. Originally from the United Kingdom, John currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he is a professor of Digital Media Arts at the University of St Thomas. He founded the sound design resource, AudioCookbook.org, where you will find articles and documentation about his projects and research. John has spoken, performed, or exhibited original work at New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 2022), the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC 2022), the International Digital Media Arts Conference (iDMAa 2022), International Sound in Science Technology and the Arts (ISSTA 2017-2019), Northern Spark (2011-2017), the Weisman Art Museum, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Walker Art Center, the Minnesota Institute of Art, the Eyeo Festival, INST-INT, Echofluxx (Prague), and Moogfest. He produced and performed in the piece Instant Cinema: Teleportation Platform X, a featured project at Northern Spark 2013. He composed and performed the music for In Habit: Life in Patterns (2012) and Words to Dead Lips (2011) in collaboration with the dance company Aniccha Arts. In 2017 he was commissioned by the Walker Art Center to compose music for former Merce Cunningham dancers during the Common Time performance series. His music appears in The Jeffrey Dahmer Files (2012) and he composed the music for the short Familiar Pavement (2015). He has appeared on more than a dozen albums including two solo albums on UnearthedMusic.com.

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