Rethinking the History of Technology-based Music

Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM), University of Huddersfield 

University of Huddersfield 9-11 June 2022

As Modernist thinking, evident in concrete, electronic and computer music from their inception, has been challenged by the post-acousmatic, neo-modern situation today, conceptual approaches and the use of sound to points to situations and events outside of itself have become more the rule than the exception in new musical practices, providing context, identity and often intent. These factors, alongside pluralistic, ecological, feminist and de-colonization agendas that question who determined the canon, who has been listening, to what and to whom make it timely for us to question, re-evaluate and rethink the history of technology-based music.

The continued expansion of digital technologies including machine learning and AI has radically changed the production, engagement, and dissemination of sound and music for composers, musicians, listeners, media content creators and casual music users. The constant everyday exposure to electronic or processed sounds has influenced listening skills and listening intentionality broadly, and ideas of what constitutes valuable sound experiences have expanded radically. Improvisation and participation have found ways into this new socio-acoustic space where the formal hierarchies of Kultur, virtuosity, and on preserving institutionalised accepted aesthetics have become less dominant. Much of this engaged art can arguably be seen as artistic responses to the increasingly noticeable consequences of the Anthropocene situation of rapid digitisation, technical development of communication, services, commerce, and organisational structures.

This stronger focus and inclusive awareness on the cultural and social aspects of music has also begun to find expression in new research and scholarship. In light of these developments, this conference seeks to revisit the development of technology-dependent music and investigate whether there have been practices, tendencies and elements that have previously been overlooked. It aims to question whether the biases embedded in the canon of technology-based music be revisited, can we expect to uncover hidden gems, can we hope to arrive at a more comprehensive understanding of music's development and new role in this post-acousmatic period?

Collected abstracts

Conference videos

Keynote Speakers

Linda O'Keefe

University of Edinburgh

Simon Waters

Queen's University Belfast


Invited Speakers

Leila Adu-Gilmore

New York University

Philipp Ahner

Trossingen University of Music

Manuella Blackburn & Paul Harkins

The Open University
Edinburgh Napier University

Arild Boman

University of Oslo

Dylan Burchett

Louisiana State University

Jaehoon Choi

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Simon Crab

Independent Researcher

Ulf A. S. Holbrook & Jøran Rudi

University of Oslo
University of Huddersfield

Joseph Hyde

Bath Spa University

Annie Jamieson

National Science and Media Museum

Andrew Knight-Hill

University of Greenwich

Hans Kretz

Stanford University

PerMagnus Lindborg

City University of Hong Kong

Tomoya Matsuura, Kazuhiro Jo & Akihiro Kubota

Tokyo University of the Arts
Kyushu University
Tama Art University

McArthur, Martin, Margetson & Sheth

University of Greenwich
University of Greenwich
University of Greenwich
University of Greenwich

Manoli Moriaty

Liverpool Hope University

Treya Nash

Louisiana State University

Giovanni Onorato & Riccardo Ancona

Royal College of Music, Stockholm
The Institute of Sonology

Amit D. Patel

University of Greenwich

Radivojević, Keller & Lazzarini

University of Bern
Federal University of Acre / Federal University of Paraíba
Maynooth University

Irine Røsnes

University of Huddersfield / University of Wolverhampton

Marcel Zaes Sagesser

Southern University of Science and Technology Shenzhen

Fulya Uçanok

Istanbul Technical University / Istanbul Bilgi University

Notto J. W. Thelle & Bernt Isak Wærstad

Norwegian Academy of Music
Norwegian University of Science and Technology / Norwegian Academy of Music / University of Oslo

Organizing Committee:

Prof. Monty Adkins
Leverhulme Professor Jøran Rudi

Abstracts were peer reviewed by Dr Manuella Blackburn (Open University), Dr Adam Stanovic (London College of Communication), Dr Ulf Holbrook (University of Oslo), Dr Rose Dodd (Utrecht University) and from the University of Huddersfield Dr Eddie Dobson, Prof Monty Adkins & Prof Jøran Rudi.