Spheroid (Electroacoustic composition supplied on USB and contextual information)
- Submitting institution
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City, University of London
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 1392
- Type
- J - Composition
- Month
- February
- Year
- 2017
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
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-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Spheroid is a live multichannel computer music work which takes distinct aspects of acousmatic studio composition, such as detailed attention to space, sound design and form, into the context of performance and generative music (see contextual supplement 1). The work uses a programme written in SuperCollider, which allows for the gradual montage of a spatial texture from improvised performance with controllers. The system is designed so that performance interaction on a detailed level of sound morphology is harnessed by the algorithm to build larger-scale structures over time. While a certain structural topology is written into the algorithm, the exact temporal proportions, pacing and textural patterning are articulated uniquely in each performance. Thus, a coherence of form akin to fixed-media work is merged with the spontaneity and technological agency of generative live performance. Aesthetically, the work aims to create a ‘speculative synthesis’ where an artificial texture suggests an unknown, but life-like, nature. In contrast with Schaefferian acousmatic theory, which aims for technology to be transparent, technology and performance are here foregrounded as origins of sound. The spatial sound distribution employs topographic synthesis (see contextual supplement 2), a novel method for processing parameter values and distributing them to multiple similar sound generators localised in discrete loudspeaker channels. This model allows for spatial texture to be indirectly controlled by performance via algorithms. It also enables site-specific spatialisation, where synthesis processes can be allocated to specific parts of a multichannel loudspeaker system of any size, and is distinct from more common models, where sounds are positioned in space through panning or diffusion. Two live performance recordings are submitted for assessment in order to demonstrate variability in realisations from the same generative model. The binaural mix demonstrates the multichannel spatial texture in headphone format, while the video shows how the work is performed.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -