Programme > Conference abstracts - Day 3

Session 8: Ecology

Sonic Heritage Analysis: Psychoacoustic and Spectro-morphological Perspectives on Sidi Bou Saïd's Soundscapes Mohamed

Amin Hammami, University of Dammam - Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University

Christophe Claramunt, Institut de Recherche de l'Ecole Navale, Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO)

Contemporary urban soundscapes exist at the intersection of technological advancement, ecological imperatives, and cultural heritage preservation. This research focuses on Sidi Bou Saïd, a UNESCO-recognized heritage site in northern Tunisia, where the need to understand and manage these acoustic environments becomes increasingly critical, particularly in heritage-rich contexts where sound plays a vital role in cultural identity and place-making. Drawing from Pierre Schaeffer's sound object theory and contemporary spectro-morphological frameworks, this research examines how heritage soundscapes function both as cultural artifacts and as complex sonic ecosystems, revealing inherent musical qualities that parallel the structural principles of acousmatic music.

Our methodology employs a multi-layered approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative component utilizes state-of-the-art acoustic and psychoacoustic measurements across 16 strategic locations within Sidi Bou Saïd's historical center, including ISOstandardized metrics for loudness (ISO 532-1:2017) and sharpness, The analysis employs Denis Smalley's spectro-morphological framework alongside traditional acoustic measurements, enabling a deeper understanding of sound objects and their relationships within the urban context. The qualitative dimension encompasses extensive socio-acoustic surveys (n=172) conducted across three distinct demographic groups: technical experts, local residents, and visitors. This data is analyzed through both traditional acoustic metrics and contemporary sound object classification approaches, revealing how different sonic elements function as both heritage markers and components of a naturally occurring acousmatic composition.

The findings reveal three key dimensions of urban heritage soundscapes in the selected:

1. Temporal Dynamics: Analysis demonstrates distinct temporal signatures in the soundscape, where morning periods are characterized by the dominance of natural sound elements, creating a more contemplative acoustic environment. Evening periods demonstrate a marked transition to human-centered soundscapes, with increased social activities and cultural expressions. These temporal patterns reveal complex sonic architectures that parallel the structural principles of acousmatic music, where the interplay between environmental and anthropogenic sounds creates naturally occurring compositional forms.

2. Spatial Perception: Our research identifies strong correlations between psychoacoustic metrics and cultural valuations of sound. The analysis reveals how architectural spaces function as acoustic vessels, creating natural sound transformations that mirror techniques found in acousmatic composition, where spatial articulation becomes an integral part of the sonic narrative. Areas with higher biophonic diversity consistently receive more positive perceptual ratings from all participant groups.

3. Cultural Valence: The research demonstrates how specific sounds function as heritage markers, with significant percentages of respondents identifying certain acoustic elements as integral to cultural identity. These findings are analyzed through the lens of musique concrète's reduced listening approach, revealing how everyday sounds acquire both cultural significance and musical qualities within their urban context.

The significance of this research extends beyond theoretical contributions to sound studies. It demonstrates how analytical frameworks from electroacoustic music can enhance our understanding of urban soundscapes, while suggesting new approaches for heritage preservation that consider both the cultural and compositional aspects of environmental sound. The study's innovative methodology offers new approaches for evaluating and preserving sonic heritage in rapidly changing urban environments.

This research also contributes to pedagogical innovation in sound studies, providing case studies and methodological tools for teaching urban soundscape analysis. The integration of acousmatic music analytical frameworks with traditional acoustic measurements creates new possibilities for understanding how heritage sounds function both as cultural markers and as elements of naturally occurring musical structures. Furthermore, our findings demonstrate the value of cross-cultural approaches in understanding and preserving urban acoustic heritage.

Ecoacoustic and Soundscape Compositions as Interdisciplinary Practice. Graphical Analysis as a Means of Understanding Virtual Soundscapes

Małgorzata Heinrich, Glissando Contemporary Music Magazine; University of Warsaw

Soundscape compositions stem from interdisciplinary knowledge and practices; they combine aesthetic elements with ethical/activist ones; they build musical and extra-musical narratives, ideally aiming to motivate actions to protect the environment and society. This paper seeks to analyse how the interdisciplinary approach to environmental sound, symbolism, and associations is used to create an activist message (ecological, gender- and sexuality-related, social, etc.). It addresses how these might be musically conveyed through sound processing and compositional techniques. The concept of graphical analysis of soundscape composition and its role in understanding structure, methods, and meaning is discussed. The paper also investigates how the analysis enhances listening and sound identification, and the significance of this in the context of acoustic ecology. It addresses how the chosen analytical approach aligns with soundscape philosophy and its educational premises. The findings are presented in the examples of graphical analyses prepared by the author (including, for example, Hildegard Westerkamp’s Kits Beach Soundwalk and Beneath the Forest Floor, Barry Truax’s Chalice Well and Song of Songs).

Listening Beyond Human Perception with Jez riley French and Pheobe riley Law

Sabine Feisst, Arizona State University

We are surrounded by countless sounds that lie outside the range of human hearing. Although not directly perceptible by the human ear, such sounds impact our planet’s ecosystems and hold value for human and more-than-human lives. In this paper, I will first address the limitations of our hearing and reflect on how we can deepen our awareness of the sounds outside our hearing range: infra- and ultrasounds and quiet sounds. I will also consider how human listeners have come to terms with sound worlds inaccessible to the human ear through whole-body, multi-sensory, micro and durational listening, and a variety of hearing assistive technologies. Then I will focus on British sound artists and field recordists Jez riley French and Pheobe riley Law who have extensively listened to airborne ultrasound including the vocalization of bats, subaquatic and subterranean sounds. French and Law recorded these sounds with self-built and adapted microphones to translate their listening experiences into music and media art. I will specifically discuss three of their works: “ultrasons | Edogawa” from elusive fields, “a glacier heated by the sea,” and “Cherry Birch from the ink botanic series". I argue that through the work of French, Law, and other artists, we may gain a better understanding of acoustic ecology’s hidden dimensions which are a register for our environments’ health. We may rethink our own sonic perception and footprint and ideally be motivated to help sustain the planet’s sonic futures.

This paper builds on my collaborative research with audiologists and field recordists at ASU’s Acoustic Ecology Lab, work by scholars and artists such as Karen Bakker, Jez riley French, Steve Goodman, Stefan Helmreich, Toby Heys, and Pheobe riley Law. The paper seeks to advance discussions about small and inaudible environmental sounds and to introduce French and Law’s work into the scholarly discourse.

Session 9: Semiotics

Acousmatic, invisible, ontology 2

Jean-Louis Di Santo, SCRIME

This paper aims at studying the relationship between the invisibility of acousmatic music and the heideggerian theory of being-in-the-world. In a previous EMS, we were talking about “Understanding” and “State-of-mind”. We now examine the two last items of the structural whole of care: falling and discourse.

Falling means that we onto-logically have choice: this generally implies that things which are not chosen become invisible. Among all the possible choices, one is particularly important: the choice between “being-in-fault” and “ownmost-potentiality-for-being”. Acousmatic music exposes this choice by its very being. But “being-in-fault” and “ownmost-potentiality-for-being” depend on discourse.

Does acousmatic music onto-logically belong to discourse, and how, as art, does it show the invisible in discourse? To answer these questions, we must compare art and language regarding to the expression of invisible and regarding to the specificity of acousmatic music among all arts. Then we will examine if acousmatic music belongs to discourse following its characteristics according to Heidegger: what the discourse is about (what is talked about); what is said-in-the-talk, as such; the communication; and the making-known.

Ethical-Aesthetic Convergences in Ecologically Oriented Electroacoustic Practices

Clemente Manfredi, Conservatorio Antonio Vivaldi di Alessandria

This paper investigates the interdependence of ethical and aesthetic frameworks within electroacoustic practices informed by ecological consciousness. It observes that the semiotic potential of recorded sound—its capacity to signify, reference, and mediate external realities—has historically deepened the genre’s engagement with the extra-musical world. From Luc Ferrari’s musique anecdotique to the referential elements of François Bayle and Bernard Parmegiani, and through the British acousmatic tradition, electroacoustic music has evolved into a site for renewed semiotic and phenomenological inquiry. Within this evolution, practices of field recording and environmentally attentive listening have become central compositional strategies, enabling an outward-facing, ecologically situated form of creative engagement. Mediated by recording technologies—from the World Soundscape Project to contemporary sound art and installation—such approaches reconceptualise listening as both epistemic and ethical activity. The paper contends that this technologically mediated openness to the world articulates a phenomenological stance wherein perception constitutes the primary locus of composition. Through this lens, sensitivity to alterity—understood as the non-human or more-than-human dimensions of sonic experience—emerges as a defining aesthetic principle. Artists such as Toshiya Tsunoda, Diane Barbé, and Anne F. Jacques exemplify this orientation, privileging relational presence over material novelty. Ultimately, these practices contest the modern conceptions of aesthetic autonomy, emphasizing the inseparability of perceptual, environmental, and ethical dimensions in artistic experience. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty and Jakob von Uexküll, the paper repositions aesthetics—understood as aisthesis, the practice of perception—as inherently ethical. Composition thus appears not merely as artistic expression but as an attentive, responsive, and accountable mode of being-in-the-world.

Keynote 2

A subversive approach to computer music : the emergence of (cyber)feminist paradigms

Patricia Alessandrini, HEMU

In this keynote presentation, a (cyber)feminist approach is deployed with the aim of discovering new paradigms for sound production technologies, drawing on concepts such as the cyborg, affective computing, and embodiment. In the process, soft robotics, combined with biosensing, is proposed as a feminist paradigm.

This perspective is illustrated through the Vospora project, an installation and music video featuring a robotic "pet", presented in autumn 2025 as part of the Panorama 27 exhibition at Le Fresnoy, Studio National des Arts Contemporains. In this work, the robotic creature exhibits empathetic breathing in synchrony with members of the public, while soft robotics enable it to “sing” through synthetic vocal cords and vocal tracts modelled after the human voice production system. The music video, in which soprano Marisol Montalvo performs an aria in dialogue with the creature, forms the opening scene of a large-scale stage work: a futuristic, interplanetary chamber opera conceived for Marisol Montalvo, Donatienne Michel-Dansac, and Schallfeld Ensemble.

This presentation will also touch on other feminist-informed intermedial projects, such as the monodrama Parlour Sounds and Ada's Song, a chamber work in which machine learning processes are made visible through the interactive use of the “Piano Machine”, a robotic system that mechanically excites the strings of the piano. These works are grounded in a co-design methodology aimed at subverting traditional hierarchies in computer music by questioning how technologies — such as robotics, artificial intelligence, and biosensing — may be deployed to serve the social sphere on a human scale, by cultivating empathy, intimacy, and well-being in a symbiotic relationship with living beings, thus breaking away from logics of replacement, surveillance, and exploitation. The central point of this presentation is to highlight the urgency of a radical reorientation of music technologies so that they may contribute to a deeper understanding and affirmation of human phenomena and phenomenological experiences. This can only be achieved through a fundamental transformation of the structures and practices at the heart of music technology, in order to meet the increasingly pressing challenges concerning the ethics of the digital.