Throughout history, it seems that whenever we’ve developed a new technology, one of the first things we use it for is music. Software, or as I prefer to call it, hardware with cognitive fluidity, is no exception.
That was one of the themes of my keynote for the 2015 International Computer Music Conference when I also asked the audience: why is it that nearly all our metaphors for thinking about the future or reflecting on the past are visual; why are there visionaries but no auditionaries — because experimental composers predict the future of music by composing it!
One of the people in the audience that afternoon was Douglas Keislar, editor of Computer Music Journal. Doug asked me for a transcript of the talk for CMJ 40:1, an issue he sub-titled Listening Back, Listening Forward, and to celebrate the CMJ’s 40th year of publication, he invited readers to send in their own computer music stories for possible publication as letters to the editor in volume 40 (citing recent research that engaging in constructive nostalgia can result in increased creativity)!
See Looking Back, Looking Forward for the Editor’s note on how and where to send your stories (it’s on the first page, right column, second-to-last paragraph).
Faces video from ICMC 1995 (referenced in the talk)
Listening forward for your stories!