Residency A: Spatial Sound Synthesis

Ambisonics loudspeaker setup (Foto: ICST 2018)

ICST’s composition studio is a space and instrument for artistic research and creation. It is specifically equipped to work with Ambisonics technology, the development of which the ICST has been actively involved in since its founding. While the use of Ambisonics at ICST originally focused on concert performances of spatialized electroacoustic music, this practice has since expanded to include interactive installations as well as musical production. Accordingly, the ICST studio offers wide-ranging possibilities for musical, sound and media art projects; for the composition of acousmatic works as well as for the development of sound installations; for acoustic experiments as well as for multimedia settings.

This year’s call for proposals for the ICST Studio Residency is aimed at projects that explore the intersection of sound synthesis and sound spatialization. Links between these techniques could be established at different levels: Interconnections at an algorithmic level are just as conceivable as a topic as perceptual approaches, a focus on the spatial dimension of timbre or approaches exposing space as form that can be synthesized with sonic means. Thus the spatiality of sound is not only thought of as a fundamental and general feature of its sounding and perception, but as a constitutive quantity for its conception and composition.

The ICST Studio Residency is aimed at composers and artists working in the field of sound art. Projects can have as their goal the creation of an artistic work, but can also be of a more experimental nature and more open-ended.

Application
Candidates will submit a conceptual idea or a composition sketch. Their artistic profiles will be documented in a selective portfolio. Basic knowledge of audio studio technologies are required for this residency.

ICST composition studio (Foto: Regula Bearth, ZHdK 2019)

Course of the residency
The residency’s maximum duration is three weeks. An introduction to the studio and support in the definition of work processes and the use of specific technologies will be provided.

Performance
If there is mutual interest, efforts will be undertaken to present and discuss the results of the residency within a public performance or a talk at the ICST.

Support
Artists in residence will be supported by Johannes Schütt, ICST studio supervisor.