The Ear Phonautograph

Crazy story. For a long time, people like da Vinci, Keppler and others tried to figure out a way to capture sound - something which had been ephemeral for millennia. Problem was, they spent a long time looking at this the wrong way and trying to model recording ideas on the basis on sound *transmission*, that is, via the horn, from the violin, the mouth etc. The 'penny dropped' when finally someone thought about this in terms of *reception*, then everything changed quickly. (For a wonderful exploration of this and other histories about sound, see Jonathan Sterne's book, 'The Audible Past').

In any case, the ear did it. And the first recorders were these cyborg-like devices which actually used the human ear (from cadavers, I assume) attached to needle and horn contraptions to do primitive recordings. Called the Ear Phonoautograph it looked like this:

Bell, Blake and Edison had been messing about with these things in the 1870s, but after a few years, some sanity prevailed, and the US phonograph (with wax cylinder) then the UK phonograph (with record turntable) were developed a few years later. Of course the rest is history, and 'Thomas A. Edison Incorporated' massified the phonograph/record combination across the US, with corporate spin promoting authenticity and fidelity as the essential values for consumers. Edison’s 1916 premier of the phonograph ‘performing’ a duet with a live singer to a 2,500-strong audience in Carnegie Hall prompted the New York Tribune to gush,

Mme. Rappold stepped forward, and leaning one arm affectionately on the phonograph began to sing an air from “Tosca”. The phonograph also began to sing . . at the top of its mechanical lungs, with exactly the same accent and intonation, even stopping to take a breath in unison with the prima donna. Occasionally the singer would stop and the phonograph carried on in the air alone. When the mechanical voice ended Mme. Rappold sang. The fascination for the audience lay in guessing whether Mme. Rappold or the phonograph was at work, or whether they were singing together.

For over a decade, similar events were staged across the USA, apparently convincing millions of people that it was actually impossible to distinguish the singer’s living voice from its re-creation in the instrument.

Anyway, back to the Ear Phonoautograph story - while it seemed that this abberation only occured for a few short years prior to the phonograph, on 27 march The New York Times did its own gushing in “Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison". Scientists at the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory in the US converted a recording (a 'phonautogram') of a woman singing the folk song Au Clair de la Lune, well before Edison’s supposedly first-ever recording of the spoken Mary Had a Little Lamb. The much older work was made on another one of these damn cyborg things - two decades before, but in France. The ear boggles . . .

Finally, on the BCC's Radio 4 service, news reader Charlotte Green just couldn't take this kafuffle in the US about the old recording from France too seriously:

For much more detail about this and related sound recording matters, see this great blog piece over at musikwissenbloggenschaft.blogspot.com

Upcoming research events in 2008

I'm looking forward to an interesting calendar this year, with a number of events that should provide terrific opportunities to present and engage with colleagues from around the world, in disciplines as diverse as law, cultural theory, education, creativity, sound engineering and music-making of all kinds. I aim to keep a live blog going here throughout, and will paste texts, links & media but  for now, here's some information about the various events. I hope to see some of you there!

• Research-based Learning and Public Scholarship seminar. 9–12.30, 23 May, Brisbane, hosted by the Griffith Institute for Higher Education at the Eco Centre at Griffith University Nathan campus.

Research-based learning (RBL) has been shown to engage students and motivate staff as it brings together the key strands of learning, teaching and research. This workshop will discuss techniques for linking teaching and research and the connection between RBL and public scholarship in addressing research problems in community settings. I'll be presenting on a panel of academic staff to share experiences and strategies for engaging in RBL and public scholarship at Griffith. For more information, see www.griffith.edu.au/gihe/

• Building an Australasian Commons conference. 9-5, 24 June, Creative Industries Precinct, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane. 
  

A showcase of what is going on in Australia and where to from here. With key note addresses form music industry, educators and professional musicians, the event will also feature workshops and panels about case studies, jurisdiction reports and new models for artistic practice. I'll be working on a panel with CCi's Phil Graham, Julian Knowles and others from industry. For more information, see creativecommons.org.au/australasiancommon

• Creating Value: Between Commerce and Commons. International conference of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation. 25 - 27 June, Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre.
  

This conference showcases research projects, and features papers from academic, business, creative or public policy specialists on many aspects of value-creation in the context of creative industries and innovation. Keynote speakers will include Henry Jenkins (MIT), Mark Deuze (Indiana, US) and Norman Jackson (Surrey SCEPTrE). I'll be presenting a paper in the Law stream on the lock down of IP in sound recordings within a university teaching and research context, called 'who's doing the stealing?'. I'll also be presenting and participating in two panels, one on 'Creative Capital and Workforce Futures', the other on 'Legal Issues for Social Networks and Creating Public Value'. For more information, see www.cci.edu.au/events/creating-value-between-commerce-and-commons

• The World Conference of the International Society of Music Education (ISME 2008). 20-25 July, Bologna Italy.
  

A swag of us from the Queensland Conservatorium will be heading off to Italy to present research papers on music-making and education, but also to network and catch-up with with other musicians form around the world, including the UK, the USA, Finland, Sweden and of course Italy. I'm presenting a paper I wrote with Matt Hitchock about 'the hidden curriculum' of social networking which is working so well for us in music tech at the Con. I'll also be working on a panel with colleages Göran Folkestad (Malmö Academy of Music) and Miika Salavuo (Sibelius Academy) & Don Lebler (Griffith Popular Music) called 'Music Education 2.0', and sharing much of what we have learned about creativity, music and the web 2 environment. For more information, see www.isme.org/2008

• The 4th International Art of Record Production Conference. 14-16 November 2008, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA
  

The conference will be hosted by Prof William Moylan (author of 'Understanding and Crafting the Mix: The Art of Recording') at the University of Massachusetts Lowell's music department and in its state-of-the-art music technology facilities. The four streams of papers and panels are on The Studio As Musical Instrument, Recording Practice And Performance, Production And The Listener and The Empowered Artist (this last topic, where I'll be presenting a paper about technology). The keynote speaker will be music industry legend, Phil Ramone, & UMass Lowell’s exceptional recording studios, control rooms and critical listening room will also be featured in an on-going “Unraveling the Mix” mixing / production session where an active multitrack mix (stereo or surround) sits in the control room for evaluation, hosted by the mix engineer. Advanced recording and processing strategies are discussed and demonstrated in isolation and in the context of the mix on a API Vision console capable of simultaneous surround and two channel mixing. For more information, see www.artofrecordproduction.com/content/view/75/109/

And finally in December, we look forward to hosting the Apple University Consortium CreateWorld 2008 again at Griffith's South Bank campus. Featuring presentations and works from digital artists from all over Australia and the US. More information and web site and this comes to hand.

Music licencing locks down innovation

Originally intended to protect the intellectual property rights of creators, music copyright laws have been enforced across the Australian university sector - all pay substantial licensing fees to collection societies on a per-institution basis. These licenses only allow for on-demand streaming of commercial music while restricting any copying or sharing of databases across the sector.

Music copyright laws are imposed on learning, teaching and research under the same restrictions that apply to radio stations, night-clubs and bars.

As noted recently in The Australian by Brian Fitzgerald, in developing innovation policy for the 21st century “we need to think closely about the shape and role of copyright law and policy”. Consider the effect of current music licensing laws in developing creativity, innovation and future Australian musicians through the following examples of what is now occurring in university faculties:

Only licensed works can be utilised and individual academics must undertake detailed compliance checks to ensure that any material they wish to present to students is legal. The catalogue has proved to be highly limited, the core of which is centred around popular culture and even in this domain, the use of music from the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Queen or ACDC is prohibited. Further, recent statistics indicate that up to 80% of essential learning and research material is unavailable through these licenses. This includes works from classical, jazz, world, experimental and other culturally diverse traditions.

Therefore music students lack significant opportunities to analyse recordings in order to develop their craft, to develop wider cultural and historical understanding and to innovate by ‘building on the shoulders of giants’. Where self-directed creativity and craft comes into play, this too is limited by complex legal arrangements. Seemingly out-of-copyright classical works are often restricted by laws around the use of music scores for performance and recording. In the case of jazz and rhythm and blues, while excellence requires interpretation and improvisation, the performance and adoption of these forms is locked down by the copyright terms of ‘seventy years plus the life of the author’.

The only space that remans is for 100% original work, composed, performed or recorded by university staff and students. While often providing admirable examples of creativity and tenacity, many endeavours can suffer from insufficient contextual development given the restrictions.

Music licensing in universities reflects a catalogue that is dominated by The Big Four international labels – EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner. Many local productions may comprise derivative works and mimic what is marketed as ‘quality’ in (often American) popular culture, the net effect prophetically outlined in Australia’s first and only national cultural policy document, Creative Nation (1994). Its thrust was much in tune with the then rising wave of the dot-com boom:

Many Australians say that just now Australian culture is under unprecedented threat. The revolution in information technology and the wave of global mass culture potentially threatens that which is distinctly our own. In doing so it threatens our identity and the opportunities this and future generations will have for intellectual and artistic growth and self-expression . . [we must] ensure that what used to be called a cultural desert does not become a sea of globalised and homogenised mediocrity.

The Federal Government has a significant opportunity to revisit these ideals in its reviews of the National Innovation System, the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy roadmap, and in its forthcoming Australia 2020 Summit (the latter puzzlingly lacking any reference to the music industry, an oversight which presumably will be addressed by the Minister for the Arts).

Australia’s innovation system already possesses significant broadband infrastructure across its universities which is crippled less by lack of speed (for the moment), but more so through lack of judgement in response to the extra-national domination of copyright law. It is simply a matter of legislation.

. . . Miikka Salavuo has more thoughts about 'copyright in online music education' and the current situation in Finland at the Sibelius Academy.

Trent Reznor - Nine Inch Nails Ghosts Film Festival

Trent Razor is another major artist who's dropped out of recording company control. Similar to Radiohead, he released Ghosts I-IV in editions ranging from free downloads to a $300 box-set. Now Reznor has asked the web at large to create music videos for the album at YouTube. Here's Trent explaining the ideas in a YouTube video:

We'll be gathering the entries we feel are particularly exceptional and highlighting them. There are no rules to this - be as creative as you like. Create a music video, or a short film, or something completely abstract. Use only one track from the album, or use multiple tracks. Join this group and add your video to submit it to the film festival. Some tips and guidelines for video submissions:

• Prepare your content in the highest resolution you can, and hang on to the original files, in case we want to use your video for something beyond the scope of YouTube.

• This project will be going on for quite a while (in 2008), so take your time. Please don't just submit simple image slideshows.

• This isn't a place to submit your musical remixes or vocal performances that don't include any video content - if you have audio-only creations using Ghosts music, please contribute those to http://remix.nin.com

Winners chosen by the band will be featured in a special YouTube section in the coming months.

Herbie Hancock, on technology

In this interview over at WIRED Listening Post, Herbie Hancock talks about serving on the board of a synthesizer company with Steve Wozniak (ex. Apple). He also presents insights into music, making videos and technology: The RedOne video camera, Mac OSX, the iPhone and other cutting edge devices. Yet, with such an engagement and with such a track record, he still offers:

My advice is, don't depend on the technology. The music has nothing to do with the technology. If you're doing music, the music has to come first. And the technology is a tool for being able to produce the things that you feel. Not the other way around.

He also talks about how he keeps his music fresh, what it was like to have released the biggest breakdancing hit ever, and his use of mental imagery techniques to record his latest album, River: The Joni Letters (2008 Grammy Winner, Album of the year – Best Contemporary Jazz Album).