I thought this post to the Australasian Computer Music list (ACMA) would be of interest to ADAers due to recurring discussion here of conference-structures in the age of digital networks.
Andrew ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Austin" Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 5:12 AM Subject: Re: [Acma-l] [EMAIL PROTECTED] well, hey - here ya go Hmmm ... I began to question the real continuing value of conferences a couple of decades ago before there was an alternative. Technology has made the conference, in my view, an anachronism that will go the way of the symphony concert. But maybe it has a different community function than the 'exchange of information'. Kind of like the annual office party. Have many people read the 1995 Proceedings from ICMA (ICMC) lately? Bourges has an archive of materials which one needs to go to read / hear them. But that's in the tradition of the european monastery, where knowledge is power. The "third option" appeared about 15 years ago in the concept of creating an international association that existed only in the virtual world. There would be some kind of large 'sonic archive', supported by a relational database connected to some form of web-publication. Articles would remain available indefinitely (depending upon technology), and there would be two or three other layers of information flow. The other layers would include an on-line conferencing system for announcements and day-to-day discussions, perhaps an email list. At a (temporal) level below would be some kind of slower moving source of information, ideas, resources, references, dictionary ... Once again, the technology was not available 20 years ago, but today the Wiki is filling that gap. There was the possibility of the development of this 'third stream' (the others being CIME / ICEM and ICMA), and now a new "third player" is emerging, the EMS network that appears to be working on the 'softer edge' of the ea community ... annual conferences with topics drawn from the philosophical / sociological side of ea, but not really into the 'global aesthetic' found in the visual arts and communication studies. The EMS association has its journal (OS) and a secondary source dictionary, and (if I read correctly) will announce a membership policy in December 2007, so that ea practitioners around the (english-speaking) world will have the option of ICMA - Computer Music Journal, and EMS - Organized Sound, while the (non-anglophone) 'individual member' is still in a quandary of working through national associations that may or may not have broken with CIME. My limited experience with a younger generation is that this model of activity, promotion and ... even community, is a dead end. Elizabeth has pointed out that the 'academic motor' of the university is failing (or has failed) with the younger generation. I get emails asking "what can I do with my degree in ea" on a regular basis. My replies are drawn from the information I get from my students ... Academia is not where "it" (whatever that is) is 'happening', but how to make a living doing 'sound'. The answers come to me in the general sense of "the media" (idiot!!). Sound design for video, film, web, commercials, games ... etc etc are where the paying jobs are going to be, and it's growing. ... Well, I didn't get a performance of my laptop dancing piece at the conference, but I got a 9 month contract to do sound design ... $45,000 ... The long term viability of existing national / international organizations ... from here, not very good. They are on academic life support. How many people who went to ICMC or SEAMUS or EMS paid with their own money? If the registration budget was (say 100 people at $150 per head) $15,000, of which 75% was academic funding, $11,000 was "university to university" transfer. But it cost the academic institution much more, because while registration was $150, three days plus transportation comes in at around $1000. Is this a good use of limited academic resources? But wisdom is not genetic. A sad day here: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-70-398/disasters_tragedies/montreal_massacre/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/École_Polytechnique_Massacre Best Kevin _______________________________________________ Ada_list mailing list [email protected] http://aotearoadigitalarts.org.nz/
