ISSTA 2018 – Who’s Listening? Sound and Public Space

DEADLINE EXTENDED to MAY 29th

Irish Sound, Science and Technology Association International Conference on Sound in the Arts, Science and Technology

Ulster University, Magee campus
Derry, Northern Ireland

November 9th and 10th 2018


Keynotes:

Dr Salomé Voegelin (Listening Across Disciplines group, author of Listening to Noise and Silence: Towards a Philosophy of Sound Art, Reader in Sound Art at the University of the Arts, London)

Prof. Anna Barney (Listening Across disciplines group, Professor of Biomedical Acoustic Engineering at Southampton University)


Contemporary urban society is a contested space. Commerce generates a flurry of signage and advertising jingles. Industry excavates and accumulates, building uniform structures of concrete and steel, and throughout all is the traffic of daily ritual, the friction of tires on tarmacadam. Commercial interests and planners often distill this heterogeneous field down to simplified brands, cultural signifiers designed to encourage investors. What room is left in this complex of power and policy for community? Where is public space and what role can it play in contemporary life? How can sound, in particular, interrogate the urban matrix?

In 2018, ISSTA returns to Derry to explore these issues, relationships and tensions. With the spatial definition provided by its historic walled city and cross–border hinterland, the resonances of its civil rights movement (of which 2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary), its historic conflicts and diverse musical and sonic cultures, from traditional music sessions to marches, we hope that Derry will provide a thought–provoking setting which will support fruitful discussion, debate and listening!

We would particularly welcome contributions relating to sound and urban studies, auditory architecture and design, sonic archaeology and sonic heritage, psychogeography, place-making, activism, soundscape studies, and sound’s relationships with anthropology and human geography, alongside more general topics relating to music technologies, sound art, electronic and experimental music performance and composition.

Who's listening? We are.

http://issta.ie/call-2018/


Submission Guidelines
The ISSTA 2018 International Conference on Sound in the Arts, Science and Technology welcomes submissions in the categories of PAPERS and MUSIC & SOUND ART. Submission to the ISSTA conference is open to practitioners and researchers regardless of nationality.

We welcome PAPERS which engage with the conference themes, or which relate to ISSTA subject matter, including:

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

We require abstracts (up to 500 words) for all paper proposals.

Paper proposals are reviewed double–blind. ISSTA’s working language is English.



MUSIC & SOUND ART

Submissions in this category may include a diversity of approaches, including the following:

Soundscape practices
Circuit Bending
Electronic Music and Computer Music
DJ/Scratch Music
Electroacoustic Composition – fixed-medium or real-time
Laptop Performance
Sound installations (headphone-based or video–with–headphones)
Technical requirements: we anticipate being able to facilitate stereo or multichannel (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.

On this occasion, we are only able to accommodate headphone-based sound installation pieces (though these may include video).

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.



Submission deadline is extended to May 29th; (midnight Irish and UK time).

Submission is via the Easychair system.

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=isstasoundconf2018

Full call details available here: http://issta.ie/call-2018/


Registration information

Early-bird Full fee (professional): €40 (until 14th September 2018)
Early-bird Independent artist/student/unwaged/irregular income: €20 (until 14th September 2018)

Full fee (professional): €50
Independent artist/student/unwaged/irregular income: €25


Chairs and Organising Committee, ISSTA 2018

Conference Chair: Dr Brian Bridges, Ulster University and President of ISSTA
Co-chairs: Dr Adam Melvin, Dr Rob Casey and John Harding, Ulster University
Chairs of Music track: Dr Adam Melvin (Ulster) and Dr Jenn Kirby (UWTSD and ISSTA)
Chairs of Paper track: Dr Rob Casey (Ulster), Dr Stephen Roddy (TCD and ISSTA), Dr Adrian Smith (DIT and Sounding Out the Space)

ISSTA Board:
Dr Brian Bridges, President
Dr Jenn Kirby, Vice–President
Robin Parmar, Treasurer
Dr Stephen Roddy, Web and PR
Dr Alan Dormer, Secretary