OPEN CALL: Organised Sound

Call for submissions
Volume 14, Number 1
Issue thematic title: Sound Art
Date of Publication: April 2009
Publishers: Cambridge University Press
Issue co-ordinator: Jøran Rudi (joranru@notam.uio.no).

This issue of “Organised Sound” will focus on sound art, a genre of acoustic expression that has a long history in both music and the visual arts. Currently, sound art is becoming a highly dynamic focus for new cross-disciplinary activity. Partially this has to do with young composers' eagerness to search out for new forms of public performance as well as new arenas. This has also led to a new way of looking at the relationship work/audience/performer/ composer.

These conceptually new approaches to music and art can be traced to developments in technology and society in general. It is interesting to note the extent to which this interest has developed outside the established networks and hierarchies of, for example, electroacoustic music.

Themes of interest include:
- conceptually oriented investigations of sound as material
- site- and context-specific art
– the use of soundscape within sound artworks
- process-oriented rather than entity-oriented definition of artworks
- use of audio and music technology whilst departing from the approaches to listening and analysis that are predominant in traditional forms of electroacoustic music.
- new technological means allow artists to pursue new arenas
- convergence in tools -> dissolving lines of distinction

Some questions that are related to the challenges posed by sound art:
How do these changes affect the relationship between concept and craft; what are the implications in terms of critical listening and our ideas of emergent qualities?
What are the implications of the use of different artistic spaces?
Is this a new way of tying art again into society, and if so, which groups in society will benefit? In other words does this represent a renaissance of social art?
Or is this yet another village in society, possessing more or less transparent demarcation lines?
With regard to the established field of electroacoustics: how do we describe the changes in aesthetics?
How can sound art and process-music (for lack of a better term) benefit us in reassessing our field, aesthetically and functionally?

We invite submissions from composers, performers, artists and researchers working in the realm of digital media and sound. Submissions related to the theme are encouraged; however, those that fall outside the scope of this theme are always welcome.

Deadline for submissions is 15 July 2008. Submissions may consist of papers, with optional supporting short compositions or excerpts, audio-visual documentation of performances and/or other aspects related to your submission that can be placed onto a DVD and the CUP website for “Organised Sound”. Supporting audio and audio-visual material will be presented as part of the journal's annual DVD-ROM which will appear with issue 14/3. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 July 2008.

Notes for Contributors and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or from: http://www.journals.cambridge.org/oso