SOUNDTRACKING PATHS

Master Thesis submitted by Fernanda Sa Dias in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Science (MSc) in Digital Media in 11.2013.

To the Inter-University Master Program in Digital Media: University of Applied Sciences Bremerhaven; University of Applied Sciences Bremen; University of Bremen; University of the Arts Bremen.

Supervised by: Prof. Dr. Frieder Nake (Universität Bremen) Hannes Hoelzl (Universität der Künste Berlin). 

STUDY SECTIONS

Publications

Dias, F. S. (2014) Album apps: a new musical album format and the influence of “Open Works”. Leonardo Music Journal 24: pp. 25–27. MIT Press

ABSTRACT

Since 2011, the term “album app” has been used more frequently by journalists in the music and technology fields. It refers to a new album format that at first seemed an invitation to improvisation; one could re-create a musical piece while listening to it. The result is that the roles of composing, performing and listening become nearly indiscernible in the album app context. The author also discusses the album app’s relationship to “open works,” a term that was coined and investigated by Eco in 1959, a period that disposed of different technologies to apply very similar statements.

Dias, F. S. (2014) Step and Play! Space as Interface in the Context of Location-Based Musical Album Apps. Contributions to Proceedings of the 2014 Conference Audio Mostly (AM ’14). Aalborg, Denmark. October 01–03 2014. ACM

ABSTRACT

In this article, I intend to raise a debate on a very recent phenomenon of the music industry: the location-based musical album app. In this context, I discuss in which manners the physical public space can be interpreted as interface. The space mediates, reshapes and adds meaning to a site-specific musical album. The walking activity becomes the input that one needs to perform in order to encounter the output (music). The album listening is relative to the extension covered of these pre-designed territories.  

I see space as an intriguing interface, in this case delivering the main content (the musical album) as well as guiding people further on their experiences, influencing their personal narrative and perception of that work of art. My argumentation follows recent theories on mobile music listening, locative and pervasive media, entangling different perspectives in order to analyse this new musical album format, which had its first appearances in the year of 2011.

The presentation in Audio Mostly 2014 (Aalborg, Denmark) was a great opportunity to debate the article  "Step and Play! Space as Interface in the Context of Location-Based Musical Album Apps”. The multidisciplinary background of the presenters provided a very enriching discussion based in bold and diverse researches. As the article pertains to a research in development, this feedback contributed with interesting insights to be investigated in the future.  

To present in AM14’ felt as a big achievement for being part of a minority in that context. I was 1 of the 3 women (the only from south america) to present among 45 researches. A brief debate occurred in the closing of the conference regarding female voices within the sound studies practices. I felt responsible to raise the discussion in order to understand how the female front is encouraged today to bring their works in the sound studies realm. It definitely meant at lot to me as it was my first official presentation of a literature review paper in an international conference. 

My presentation slides at AM'14 - 1st October 2014.