Federica Bressan

Pavarotti Sings Again: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Active Preservation of the Audio Collection at the Arena di Verona

Abstract This article presents the results of the research project REVIVAL (2009–2012), aimed at the development of a hardware/software platform to support the preservation of the audio collection of the Fondazione Arena di Verona, with a special attention on protocols and tools for quality control. The most significant achievements of the project are (i) the set up of a working environment inside the archive; (ii) the knowledge transfer to the archival personnel; (iii) the realization of chemical analyses on magnetic tapes; (iv) the development of software tools. On the cultural side: the recovery of unique copies of unpublished live recordings of artists the caliber of Domingo and Pavarotti.

Gamified music improvisation with BilliArT: a multimodal installation with balls

This paper presents the concept and the realisation of an interactive multimedia installation, called BilliArT, together with an explorative user study conducted on the data gathered during a public exhibition of the installation. The study concerns functional properties of the installation (e.g. usability, design quality) and subjective qualities of the sonic and visual feedback of the installation. The installation consists in a collaborative environment based on the carambole billiards game, which allows the users to engage in a user-driven machine-based jazz-inspired music improvisation, augmented with visual feedback. The installation is designed to promote the interaction among the users and the billiard game, stimulating the motivation to engage in the game by balancing predictable and unpredictable output, and reinforcing the feeling of reward, irrespective of their level of musical training. BilliArT introduces a new framework for expressive interaction related to the concepts of motivation and reward. The exploratory study proved the ability of the installation to activate the users’ sense of aesthetic reward, leading to a more active and satisfactory engagement in the game. Future studies may exploit these results to the advantage of the world of the arts, as well as of studies in human-computer interaction, interface design, and cultural heritage preservation.

Tape music archives: from preservation to access

This article presents a methodology for the active preservation of, and the access to, magnetic tapes of audio archives. The methodology has been defined and implemented by a multidisciplinary team involving engineers as well as musicians, composers and archivists. The strong point of the methodology is the philological awareness that influenced the development of digital tools, which consider the critical questions in the historian and musicologist’s approach: the secondary information and the history of transmission of an audio document.

PLXTRM: Prediction-Led eXtended-guitar Tool for Real-time Music applications and live performance

This article presents PLXTRM, a system tracking picking-hand micro-gestures for real-time music applications and live performance. PLXTRM taps into the existing gesture vocabulary of the guitar player. On the first level, PLXTRM provides a continuous controller that doesn’t require the musician to learn and integrate extrinsic gestures, avoiding additional cognitive load. Beyond the possible musical applications using this continuous control, the second aim is to harness PLXTRM’s predictive power. Using a reservoir network, string onsets are predicted within a certain time frame, based on the spatial trajectory of the guitar pick. In this time frame, manipulations to the audio signal can be introduced, prior to the string actually sounding, ’prefacing’ note onsets. Thirdly, PLXTRM facilitates the distinction of playing features such as up-strokes vs. down-strokes, string selections and the continuous velocity of gestures, and thereby explores new expressive possibilities.

Hermeneutic implications of cultural encoding : a reflection on audio recordings and interactive installation art

This article proposes a reflection on what the emerging discipline of digital philology means to the encoding, preservation and access of multimedia cultural material. In particular, it focuses on audio recordings and interactive multimedia installations. It describes a general setup required for the re-mediation of audio recordings that supports a philologically informed methodology for long-term preservation, and it points out some of the major challenges posed by interactive art in long-term preservation. This article extends the discussion started at the IRCDL in 2013, in the light of the authors’ activity during this time.

Digital philology in audio long-term preservation: A multidisciplinary project on experimental music

Abstract This paper presents the methodology of a multidisciplinary project aimed at the preservation of the audio collection of the Centro Studi Luciano Berio , coordinated by and carried out at the laboratory for audio preservation and restoration of the Centro di Sonologia Computazionale (CSC) in Padua. The expected output of the project is a digital audio collection of preservation copies that meet the requirements of accuracy, reliability and authenticity necessary to serve as a valid documentary source for scholarly studies. The paper addresses the problem of digital philology applied to audio documents, and provides salient information about the implementation of the digitization process.

The challenge of preserving interactive sound art: a multi-level approach

Installation art flourished in the XX century and its impact on the contemporary artistic production today is acknowledged worldwide. However installations are threatened by a life expectancy that is significantly shorter than that of other cultural materials, including audio-visual media. This article addresses the topic of preserving interactive multimedia installations, showing why they are refractory to preservation, and why the current practices for preservation do not have ready solutions for these problems. The authors introduce a functional categorisation of documents, in the form of an original multi-level approach to preservation.

Embodied, Participatory Sense-Making in Digitally-Augmented Music Practices: Theoretical Principles and the Artistic Case “SoundBikes”

ABSTRACT Electronic and digital technologies open immense opportunities for music composition, listening, interaction, and participation. However, at the same time, they critically challenge some of the most basic principles that drive human engagement and interaction with music. This article first presents a theoretical discussion of two of these principles, namely sensorimotor control and participatory sense-making. Thereafter, it presents SoundBikes, a music installation that implements these theoretical considerations. SoundBikes is rooted in the idea that collective music-making is a form of participatory sense-making that emerges from embodied, dynamical and collaborative interactions between co-performers. The core components of SoundBikes include an EMS Synthi 100 and two stationary bikes equipped with sensors. To stimulate social interaction and collaboration between cyclist-performers, we designed SoundBikes in a way that performers could exert control over expressive features in the playback of music compositions, by coordinating their (cycling) movements with one another. This functionality is integrated in a gameplay—to further stimulate social collaboration and competition—and a visually attractive environment—to provide visual feedback and to create ambiance.

Applications of Duplicate Detection in Music Archives: From Metadata Comparison to Storage Optimisation

This work focuses on applications of duplicate detection for managing digital music archives. It aims to make this mature music information retrieval (MIR) technology better known to archivists and provide clear suggestions on how this technology can be used in practice. More specifically applications are discussed to complement meta-data, to link or merge digital music archives, to improve listening experiences and to re-use segmentation data. To illustrate the effectiveness of the technology a case study is explored. The case study identifies duplicates in the archive of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, which mainly contains field recordings of Central Africa. Duplicate detection is done with an existing Open Source acoustic fingerprinter system. In the set, 2.5\% of the recordings are duplicates. It is found that meta-data differs dramatically between original and duplicate showing that merging meta-data could improve the quality of descriptions. The case study also shows that duplicates can be identified even if recording speed is not the same for original and duplicate.

Between Artistic Creativity and Documentation: An Experiment on Interaction with an Installation for Music-Making

This article presents the preliminary results of an exploratory experiment with BilliArT, an interactive installation for music-making. The aim is to extract useful information from the combination of different ways to approach to the art work, namely that of conservation, of the aesthetic experience, and of the artistic creativity. The long-term goal is to achieve a better understanding of how people engage with interactive installations, and ultimately derive an ontology for interactive art.