This description is based on the project proposal authored by the Gerhard Eckel and Ramón González-Arroyo. It reflects the state of the project by September 2009 when the proposal was submitted.

Summary

With the middle of the last century, the development of the spatial in music gained a tremendous momentum through compositional and technological advances. Since then, a vast amount of artistic experience and knowledge has been gained in this domain. The conceptual and technological means to create and project sound have been advanced dramatically through artistic practice, arts-based and academic research, especially in the fields of computer music, acoustics, signal processing and information technology.

Embedded in this rich tradition, the proposed project aims at furthering the conceptual and practical means for (1) an integrative treatment of the spatial properties of musical sound in composition and (2) its interpretation embodied by dance performers – thus rendering sound susceptible to a choreographic treatment in both respects. In addition to these two main objectives, the project aims at (3) establishing an international network of artists and academics working on related topics and (4) exposing its methodology to the forming arts-based research community in Austria as well as on an international level.

Based on the Aesthetic Lab, an arts-based research approach developed in the FWF-funded project Embodied Generative Music, the methodology of the proposed project revolves around the notion of the artistic case study. The project will produce a number of such case studies, each of them focusing on a few, clearly specified and researchable questions. A triad of methods (conceptualization, modelling, and experimentation) will articulate the main project activities, which are artistic creation, aesthetic experience, scholarly reflection, and technological development.

Two distinguished international institutions have been won to participate in this project (IRCAM in Paris and CIRMMT in Montreal) ensuring the highest possible level of exchange and forming a strong networking backbone. An experienced project team, comprising young and senior artists and researchers strive for the challenging project goals employing professional project management tools and will disseminate the project results in the academic and artistic world through scholarly publications, moderated concerts, an international workshop for young composer and performers and an international symposium on arts-based research organized as part of the project.