Jeff Morris

My paper, “Ontological Substance and Meaning in Live Electroacoustic Music,” has been released in the select proceedings of the Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval conference with the theme Genesis of Meaning in Sound and Music published by Springer.

Philosopher Stephen Davies has used the terms “ontologically thin” and “ontologically thick” to describe compositions with varying amounts of flexibility under interpretation. Placing these two poles on a continuum of ontological substance, I extend Davies’s ideas to shed light on issues concerning meaning in live electroacoustic music. I demonstrate that algorithmic and interactive elements lend an extra dimension to the existence of the musical work and that the apparent obsolescence of live performance caused by new technology is really an opportunity to develop meaning in a new parameter of musical structure.

Twenty-one papers were specially selected for this volume. The purpose is to establish connections between computer and engineering sciences (information retrieval, programming, acoustics, signal processing) and areas within the humanities (in particular perception, cognition, musicology, philosophy), as well as to globally address the notion of sound meaning and its implications in music, modeling and retrieval.

Special thanks to the performers who have helped me develop these concepts in live concerts (in alphabetical order): Gracie Arenas, Eric km Clark, Ulrich Maiß, Andy McWain, and Chapman Welch.

Link to the book