Gerriet K. Sharma
& Angela McArthur
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biography
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Gerriet K. Sharma is a composer and sound artist. Within the last 15 years he was deeply involved in spatialization of electroacoustic compositions in Ambisonics and Wave-Field Synthesis and transformation into 3D-sound sculptures. From 2009 to 2015 he was curator of “signale-graz” concert series for electroacoustic music, algorithmic composition, radio art and performance at the MUMUTH Graz. His works have been presented at various venues and events worldwide, including Compositions for the icosahedral loudspeaker (IKO) and loudspeaker hemisphere where presented at Darmstädter Summer Courses 2014, Music Biennale Zagreb 2015, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2009/16, and Sound and Music Conference (SMC) Hamburg 2016. He has received numerous awards and grants including Scholarships by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in 2007 and 2009. In 2008 he was awarded with the German Sound Art Award. In spring 2014 he was composer in residence at ZKM Karlsruhe/Germany. He was senior researcher and composer within the three year artistic research project “Orchestrating Space by Icosahedral Loudspeaker” (OSIL) funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) with 40 publications, over 20 lectures and 12 internationally premiered compositions. He had been appointed as DAAD Edgar Varèse guest-professor at Electronic Music Studio, Audio communication (AK), TU Berlin for WS 2017/18. Since 2019 he is working on a book on "spatial practices“ and new compositions, exhibitions and a lecture series.
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Angela McArthur is artist-in-residence at the Institut für Elektronische Musik (IEM) in Graz. She has had recent exhibits at Ars Electronica (in collaboration with the BBC), Tate Modern (in collaboration with Nathaniel Mann) and Sheffield DocFest.
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abstract
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Angela and Gerriet will present on the subject of "Fluid Architectures and Aural Sculpturality - Towards an Aesthetic of Sonic Spatiotemporal Environments" with a performance of works composed for the IKO at the end of the symposium:
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Daily life experiences are already augmented, and will be increasingly informed by ‘artificial' spaces such as the inside of cars, working spaces, laboratories, concert halls and even ‘intelligent homes’.
The central conceit of 'immersive audio’ is predicated on the use of auditory cues and their plausible spatial reproduction from an ‘objective’ or ‘real’ world, that is highly idealised, and questionably real.
The development of advanced sonic (loudspeaker) environments - whether virtual or real - is most frequently directed by technological concerns, a focus upon physical modelling of signals and realistically simulated reproduction - less often towards aesthetic or perceptual characteristics, and the creative potentials inherent to theses systems. One should concentrate on both: the reproduction of highly idealised ‘natural‘ everyday life sound fields and at the same time developing strategies for arts, design and architecture to create alternative spaces in the environments yet to come.
What might it mean to design environments with sound as a design parameter, using loudspeakers? Why should we care? How could sound practices aid us here? This presentation addresses such questions, and highlights examples from the speakers' practices over 10 years working in the field, with the IKO icosahedral and other loudspeaker arrays, as well as with virtual loudspeakers in artificial environments. They will discuss the impact of working with the IKO in different spaces, and how this informed their relationship to space, virtual or ‘real’.
A concert of works composed specifically for the IKO will follow in the evening.