Scientists claim to have come up with a formulation for “white smells” that is parallel to the saturation of the color white and of white noise. The findings are summarized at Ars Technica. The scientific paper is called Perceptual convergence of multi-component mixtures in olfaction implies an olfactory white.
Peter Ablinger is deeply engaged with the subject of noise. A good starting point is his Weiss/Weisslich series. Scores, documentation, explanations, and images from the pieces in the series are linked from that page. Two of Ablinger’s own pieces of writing, Weiss, and Rauschen, are especially relevant. Two extremely helpful secondary sources are Christian Scheib’s Static’s Music – Noise Inquiries and Evan Johnson’s Like the Clear Blue Sky: Peter Ablinger’s 33-127. (I’ve written about Ablinger’s work before, too—probably most relevantly here.)
Tomorrow at hcmf, Julie Mittens premieres Ablinger’s Black Series (for rock band) with clarinetist Gareth Davis. Score and sound samples are available at the link.
Just announced today, there is an call for submissions for a book and symposium, Noise/in/Music. Ablinger will be the keynote speaker. The text is below, and the pdf is linked here.
Following the overwhelming response to Qubit New Music’s call for participation in the March 2012
Noise Non-ference in New York City, the Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) will
host a symposium on noise and music, 4-6 October 2013, at the University of Huddersfield, UK.
We plan an event as diverse as noise itself, including talks, concerts, installations, discussions,
presentations, and provocations. Participation is especially encouraged from practices outside of a
traditional academic framework, embracing the broadest definitions of performance, sound art,
musicology, composition, sociology, philosophy, and beyond. We are delighted to welcome Peter
Ablinger, Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of Huddersfield, as keynote speaker.
In conjunction, a book of essays, articles, texts, and interviews, edited by Aaron Einbond
(Research Fellow, University of Huddersfield) and Aaron Cassidy (Reader in Composition,
University of Huddersfield), will be published with a release date to coincide with the symposium.
Both symposium and book are geared toward filling gaps in existing literatures, with possible topics
including:
– psychology, perception, and reception of noise
– models/methods of analysis of noise/noise music
– performance practice of noise, especially involving improvisation
– cross-genre methodologies and approaches
– sociological and cross-cultural perspectives
– noise, digital culture, and acoustic ecology
– noise as compositional material
– vocabularies and syntax of noise
SUBMISSIONS: Please send a proposal of ca. 250 words for consideration by 21 January 2013
to noiseinmusic@gmail.com. Proposals should be for presentations, performances, and demonstrations of no more than 25 minutes and/or articles/texts of no more than 30,000 characters (ca. 5,000 words). Please indicate whether you would like to be considered for a symposium presentation, inclusion in the book publication, or both. Proposals including hyperlinks to representative sound or video materials are encouraged. Proposals for performance or sound works should include information about performers (whose participation must be organized by the presenter making the proposal) and, where necessary, a tech rider indicating all technical requirements. Notification of selected proposals will be in February 2013. If selected for publication, final drafts of articles will be due by 15 May 2013.
