daemon@bartok.Eng.Sun.COM (02/03/90)
Music-Research Digest Fri, 2 Feb 90 Volume 5 : Issue 7
Today's Topics:
cognitive musicology
SISEA Call for Papers & Participation
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Date: Thu, 25 Jan 90 20:49:54 PST
From: Stephen Smoliar <smoliar@edu.isi.vaxa>
Subject: cognitive musicology
To: Music-Research@uk.ac.oxford.prg
Otto Laske has invited comment on his remarks on the subject of cognitive
musicology, Since I have read the version of his article which appeared
in the JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGICAL RESEARCH and since I have recently revived
my personal interest in mind and music (and the ways in which computers may
assist our understanding both of them), I feel I am in a position to respond.
As is often the case with Laske's articles, the polemic content is high,
mitigated only by circumlocution and frequent digression into footnotes.
However, I have come to feel that polemic is a good thing. We are too willing
to be lulled into the false security of platitudes offered by writers to go
through those motions which are known to please referees and/or contract
monitors. Laske never fails to offer a refreshing change from this drivel.
Unfortunately, just as his provocative philosophy seems to build up a good
head of steam, he seems to run afoul of his technical details.
In this case, his problems arise in his attempts to deal with issues of
knowledge representation. He begins with the assumption "that musical
competence can be formulated in terms of some propositional representation
encodable in a programming language such as Prolog." Anyone who remembers
Tony Hoare's almost classic monograph on data structures will realize that
this is a very poor way to begin an undertaking. For those who need some
reminding, Hoare advocated the following three stages when one is concerned
with building computer models:
1. Abstraction: identifying those objects you are interested
in and the particular properties you wish to examine
and ultimately make predication about
2. Representation: identifying those primitive symbols and
rules of structuring which you will use to correspond
to those objects and their properties
3. Manipulation: identifying the operators by which you can
create new symbol structures from existing ones
Beginning one's argument by choosing a programming language (ANY programming
language) is to make a commitment to matters of manipulation before you have
established that you have a representation which is consistent with your
abstraction. Ultimately, the objects you select will have more to do with
your choice of programming language than with your appreciation of the
knowledge you wish to model.
The consequence of Laske's premature commitment to Prolog is a set of examples
of near trivial (and possibly incorrect) Prolog code which gives no indication
of satisfying those critical needs of cognitive musicology which Laske raises
in his polemic. At this point, he just gets too vague to hold the attention.
He talks about "pursuing a task involving" a musical motive but totally evades
the question of how one might characterize such a task, i.e. what are the
objects in one's abstraction which delimit a task and what are their
implications with regard to symbolic representation?
Ultimately, Laske may be in danger of chasing after the wrong technology. His
admiration for Prolog is apparently related to that of rule-based systems.
Towards the end of the paper, he makes the following observation:
As the existence of fields such as music theory,
counterpoint, and theory of harmony shows, the awareness
that musicians formulated and use rules is an old one.
Rules are pieces of explicit knowledge. What has been
lacking is a medium for representing the subject matter
to which rules apply in a formal and explicit way, and
a control structure linking the medium to bodies of rules.
Knowledge-based systems, providing both a medium and a
control structure for heuristic theory formation, revolutionize
the modeling of music.
This is all very well and good if one buys the bill of goods sold by most
purveyors of expert systems. However, there are other points of view. In
THE SOCIETY OF MIND, Marvin Minsky has observed that symbolic logic is much
more valuable for POST HOC summary and explanation of reasoning than it is
for guiding the reasoning process itself. One might view rules the same way,
in which case rules are not so much "pieces of explicit knowledge" as they
are attempts to summarize observations of knowledge being manifest. Perhaps,
like Minsky, we should try to give more thought to what we can say about
STATES OF MIND which are associated with musical behavior, particularly
with an eye to how those mental states dispose agents to behave musically.
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Date: 27 January 1990 4:21:14 pm
From: Stephen Travis Pope <stp@com.parcplace>
Subject: SISEA Call for Papers & Participation
To: Music-Research@uk.ac.oxford.prg
CALL FOR PAPERS & PARTICIPATION
SECOND INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ELECTRONIC ART (SISEA)
GRONINGEN, THE NETHERLANDS, NOVEMBER 12-17, 1990
Organized by:
Rijkshogeschool Groningen (Groningen State Polytechnic)
Academie Minerva (Department of Visual Arts, Music &
Architecture)
SCAN, National Institute for Computer Animation
Steering Committee:
C.L.H.B. Verstegen (Chairman of the Board, Groningen State
Polytechnic)
A. van Hijum (Director, Department of Visual Arts, Music &
Architecture, Groningen State Polytechnic)
P.G.J. Leijdekkers (Director, School of Visual Arts &
Architecture)
J.H.J.M. van de Vijver (Director, Post Graduate Studies, Academie
Minerva)
Organizing Committee:
Wim van der Plas (Director SCAN)
Eric Kluitenberg
Ben Warner (advisor)
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE (proposed)
Jurgen Claus (BRD, MIT)
Roger Malina (USA, ISAST)
Raymond Lauzzana (USA, ASTN)
Charles Csuri (USA, OSU)
Tom Linehan (USA, Texas A&M)
Stephen Pope (USA, CMJ)
Donna Cox (USA, SIGGRAPH)
Yoichiro Kawaguchi (Japan)
Michael Girard (NL, SCAN)
Felix Hess (NL,RUG)
Theo Hesper (NL, SCCA)
Paul Berg (NL, CMA)
Cees van Overveld (NL, TUE)
John Lansdown (UK, Middlesex Poly/CAS)
Christine Schopf (Austria, Ars Electronica)
Paul Brown (Australie, ANAT)
Francois Bayle (France)
>From 12-17 November 1990 the Second International Symposium on
Electronic Art (SISEA) will be held in the historical city of
Groningen, Holland. Organizers are the Groningen State
Polytechnic, the Department of Visual Arts, Music & Architecture
"Academie Minerva" of the Groningen State Polytechnic and SCAN,
the National Institute for Computer Animation.
The Symposium will be the heart of a week of electronic art
events. During this week, a large number of artistic applications
of electronic technology will be brought together. The
manifestation consists of:
-a scientific symposium
-workshops/tutorials on computer graphics and computer music
-performances, concerts, film & video shows
-an exhibition
-events for the general public
During the symposium the Inter-Society for the Electronic Arts
will be founded. The Inter-Society aims at connecting all
existing Electronic Art organizations and institutions.
Target Groups
The manifestation aims at several groups, ranging from
specialists to the general public. The symposium aims at both
scientific and artistic experts in the field. The
workshops/tutorials aim at students, teachers and practicing
artists. The performances and exhibition aim at the general
cultural public. The special manifestations are meant for the
general public at large.
SYMPOSIUM
For the purpose of the symposium, Electronic Art is defined as
all art forms that use electronic technology as an essential
prerequisite for their production.
This symposium is a continuation of the successful FISEA of 1988,
where many of the top experts of the Electronic Art world were
present. The aim of the ISEA's is to systematically investigate
the problems and potentials of Electronic Art.
The ISEA's bring together all relevant organizations and many
important individuals in the different fields and disciplines in
Electronic Art.
The symposium will be held on Wednesday, November 14, Thursday,
November 15 and Friday November 16. It will take place in the
cultural center De Oosterpoort, a perfect location, right in the
middle of the city, close to the main hotels.
The topics are:
Computer Graphics, Computer Animation & Image Processing
Electronic Music and Computer Music
Video Art & Interactive Electronic Art
Computer Poetry
Computer-assisted Dance
Robotics and Art
Research & Development of New Electronic Mediums
Systems Integration
Special User Interfaces for Artists
Artistic Productions in Realtime
Synchronization of Electronic Images and Sound
Encoding Standards for Electronic Music
Databanks for Artists/a World-wide Art Network for E-mail
A Permanent Electronic Art TV-channel
Integration of different Electronic Art Forms
Aesthetics of Electronic Art
The Application of A.I. to Art
Relationship between Modern Communication Media & Electronic Art
SISEA is inviting PAPERS
to be given during the symposium. The papers and proposals must
be directly related to the above mentioned topics.
A selection of papers presented at the symposium will be
published in a supplementary issue of LEONARDO, the Journal ofthe
International Association for the Arts, Sciences and Technology,
that will appear on the occasion of SISEA.
Since the ISEA's aim at connecting the existing organizations and
institutions in the field of Electronic Art, these institutions
and organizations are invited to propose a short PRESENTATION
about their work and future plans to be given during some special
sessions at SISEA.
The proposals for both papers and presentations should focus on
the currently most innovative (and preferably interdisciplinary)
developments within the field. For further information see:
Instructions to Authors.
WORKSHOPS/TUTORIALS
The workshops/tutorials will take place on Monday, November 12 and
Tuesday, November 13. The following tutorials/workshops are
planned:
-Computer Graphics (using the Aesthedes design system)
-Computer Animation (beginning) using Amiga's
-Computer Animation and Simulation (advanced) using Apollo's
-Computer Music, using Atari's, Mac II's and synthesizers
PROPOSALS for computer music workshops are welcomed as well as
proposals that aim at connecting the results of both computer
music and computer animation workshops. For further info see:
Instructions to Authors.
The tutorials/workshops will be held in the Electronic Music
Department of the School of Music of the Groningen State
Polytechnic and in SCAN, the National Institute for Computer
Animation. SCAN is an independent educational institute, founded
by the Groningen State Polytechnic. Equipment includes a network
of Apollo workstations (including several DN 590's and a DN
10.000).
PERFORMANCES/CONCERTS/SHOWS
On all evenings from Monday, November 12 to Thursday, November 15,
Electronic Art Performances will be presented, meant for both the
symposium participants and the interested public. Planned are an
evening with Computer Music Concerts, a film and video show
(Computer Animation/Image Processing/Video Art) and an evening
consisting of Electronic Multi Media Performances. Most of the
program is planned in the same location as the symposium.
PROPOSALS for PERFORMANCES and CONCERTS from institutions,
organizations or individuals are welcome. A selection will be
made on the following criteria:
-aesthetic quality
-originality (favourably premieres)
-(especially for the Performances:) interdisciplinarity (f.e.
combining music and graphics)
FILMS and VIDEO TAPES: Electronic Art organizations and
institutions, but individuals as well, are invited to submit the
best and most recent examples of their work in the fields of
COMPUTER ANIMATION, IMAGE PROCESSING and VIDEO ART. A selection
of the materials will be made for inclusion in the Film and Video
Show. A broad selection of all entered (video)materials will be
shown continuously at the symposium location on monitors. Some of
the materials will be included in the Exhibition. All
participants whose work is accepted for the Film and Video Show
will receive a letter of acknowledgement including a possible
request to use materials for SISEA publicity. Entered materials
will be returned shortly after SISEA. All participants will be
credited properly for their work and the best of the entries will
be shown to the international press during a press conference.
EXHIBITION
During the symposium an exhibition will
be held. The Exhibition will consist of PRINTS,
VIDEOTAPES, SLIDES and INTERACTIVE INSTALLATIONS. Again, SISEA is
inviting Electronic Art organizations and institutions, but
individuals too, to submit PROPOSALS. The best of the entered
works will be presented to the international press during a press
conference. All materials will be returned after SISEA.
GENERAL EVENTS
Entries are invited for Electronic Art EVENTS that reach the
public at large. These can be open air events, events involving
the local cable television or even national television.
INSTRUCTIONS TO AUTHORS
All proposals, papers or other entries should be accompanied by a
first page stating full name, address and position of the
author(s), the title and a short abstract of the contents.
Please note that only an abstract of maximum 200 words is
required before the first deadline: February 1, 1990. After a
pre-selection, authors will be requested to send their full
materials, including illustrations.
PAPERS
Papers must be original, unpublished and in English. An abstract
of the paper (maximum 200 words) must be received by the
secretariat before February 1, 1990.
PRESENTATIONS OF INSTITUTES AND ORGANIZATIONS
Proposals should describe the work done by the institute or
organization, the way the presentation is to be given and by
whom. Documentation material concerning the organization or
institute should be included.
WORKSHOPS
The proposal should describe the content of the proposed
workshop, the aim, the target group and the intended result. It
must include a clear statement of the necessary equipment,
preparation time and other prerequisites.
CONCERTS/PERFORMANCES
The proposal should give a clear indication of content and
duration of the piece. Visual or audio material (preferably
audio cassettes and U-matic video tapes) should be included. The
proposals must be accompanied by a complete list of the necessary
prerequisites (hard and software, peripherals, preparation time,
assistance etc.).
FILM & VIDEO SHOW
Entries must be accompanied by a letter, stating the copyright
owners, the names and adresses of the makers, the format, the
duration, information concerning hard and software used, other
technical information (if relevant) and information concerning
the artistic aim (if relevant). Since SISEA does want to show the
most recent material, films and video's send later than April 1st
(but before October 1st) will be accepted too, as long as a
letter, stating date of entry, duration, format and the content
(including names of authors)is received by April 1st. Film must
be either 16 or 32 mm. Video must be 3/4 Inch Umatic (NTSC, Secam
or PAL).
EXHIBITION
Proposals should clearly describe the content of the materials to
be submitted, the necessary prerequisites (including hard and
software, audio-visual equipment, necessary assistance etc) and
include audio and/or visual material (pictures, tapes etc) to
give an impression of the work.
GENERAL EVENTS
Proposals should clearly indicate the content and meaning of the
piece as well as a complete list of the necessary prerequisites.
REPLY CARD
NAME
INSTITUTE/ORGANIZATION
ADDRESS
CITY/STATE/POSTAL CODE
COUNTRY
PHONE/FAX/E-MAIL ADDRESS
O I intend to submit a paper entitled:
O The paper is enclosed (see instructions)
O I have a proposal for:
O Presentation of institute/organization, named...........
O Workshop
O Concert
O Performance
O Exhibition
O General Events
(Please note: only an abstract is required before the first
deadline)
O I plan to submit
O Video Tape
O Film
(please describe)
O I am interested in an advertisement (industry only)
O Please send preliminary program
SISEA
Westerhavenstraat 13
9718 AJ Groningen
The Netherlands
phone: 31-50-138160
31-50-138343
fax: 31-50-138242
E-mail:SCAN@HGRRUG5 (Bitnet)
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End of Music-Research Digest