Call for Papers
The 8th Art of Record Production Conference
July 12th – 14th 2013
Université Laval, Québec
Rewriting The Rules Of Production
The conference panel invites proposals for papers on the following themes:
Creative Practice In The Recording Studio
This stream is concerned with all aspects of creative practice in the studio: performance (e.g. the differences between the concert hall and the studio, new forms of performance activity), engineering and production (e.g. the creative abuse of technology, editing as creative practice), composing (e.g. issues of multiple authorship, the studio as a composing tool), improvising (e.g. the constraints and opportunities associated with improvisation in a controlled environment, improvising and overdubbing), and also more hybrid forms of creative practice such as what we might call comprovisation, the way that improvisation becomes part of the compositional practice.
The Development of Recording Technology
How much have the 'rules' of production in the recording studio been written by the product manufacturers and software developers? The classic model of technological 'progress' as a logical and chronological progression has been enhanced with more nuanced discourses (such as Paul Théberge's Any Sound You can Imagine) in the past twenty years, but do recent changes require further revisions to be made? How has the notion of audio quality, both in the manufacturing sector and with the broader listening publics, changed over the years? And what of the ways that terms such as 'vintage', 'analogue' and the 'future of audio' have become embedded in the language of technology? With the waters of supply and demand models muddied by issues of gatekeeping, experts and rookies, the role of education and power of large suppliers to distort the economic system, this stream welcomes contributions that help us to navigate these complicated waterways.
Alternative Cultures of Production
The mainstream of the academic narratives of study in our field focus on the United States and the United Kingdom in the late twentieth century and the activities of a predominantly white, male, rock music community working in large scale recording studios for the larger record companies. This stream seeks to highlight academic work that focuses on the 'other' in its many and varied forms. These alternatives may be based on geography, nationality, chronology, race, gender, sexuality, musical style, production techniques, economic model or some other basis. They may be the mainstream itself in circles outside this anglo-centric narrative or they may be based on smaller niche communities. The aim of the stream is to incorporate and integrate the widest possible range of approaches and subject matter to create a more richly varied and nuanced academic field of study that doesn't fall into the mono-culture traps of traditional musicology.
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The conference panel would like to invite delegates to submit ideas for presentations exploring aspects of music production, performances and practical demonstrations on any topic relating to the Art of Record Production.
We welcome work from any relevant academic perspective, including but not limited to popular music studies, ethnomusicology, the study of performance practice, communication and media studies, cultural studies, historical musicology, the history of technology, ergonomics, acoustics and psychoacoustics, music theory, music cognition, music and music technology education, and the philosophies of music, mediation and technology. Please include a note on methodology where appropriate, and an indication of the theme your work is intending to address.
Papers or demonstrations that require recording / studio / 5.1 playback facilities are also encouraged but selection will be subject to a feasibility study by the conference panel at Université Laval, Québec.
Proposals for individual papers and poster presentations should not exceed 500 words and should be in Word Document, Rich Text File or Text file formats (doc, docx, rtf or txt files).
Submissions by email to kji@artofrecordproduction.com
The deadline for proposals is September 24th 2012
Katia Isakoff
Director of the Art of Record Production Conference
Gérald Côté
Host of the 8th Art of Record Production Conference
Serge Lacasse
Host of the 8th Art of Record Production Conference
Sophie Stévance
Host of the 8th Art of Record Production Conference
Simon Zagorski-Thomas
Director of the Art of Record Production Conference
