Call for proposals

Electroacoustic Music as interdisciplinary Practices

Gustave Eiffel University
Sorbonne University
Evry Paris-Saclay University

Wed. 19 – Fri. 21 November 2025

The conference will be held at Sorbonne University, French National Library (BnF), and Gustave Eiffel University.

EMS 2025 will be held in a hybrid format.

Deadline for paper submission: 2 June 2025

Submission period will open soon

Over its nearly 70 years of existence, electroacoustic music has evolved into a sophisticated, complex, and diverse field characterised by intricate interrelations with emerging technologies, urban sustainability, ecological considerations, intercultural practices, and innovative research methodologies. For example, recent investigations in artificial intelligence or quantum computing have revealed new paradigms for composition, analysis, and performance of electroacoustic music, while studies on urban dynamics and ecological impacts are reshaping our understanding of the sonic environment. Moreover, contemporary research in intercultural studies and creative inquiry has opened novel avenues for rethinking both music analysis and creation.

In this context, EMS 2025 invites contributions that critically examine the numerous interstitial spaces where technology, urban studies, ecology, and cultural studies converge in the practice and critique of electroacoustic music. Key questions include: How are emerging computing methodologies (AI, QC…) redefining compositional practices, performance strategies, and sonic design? In what ways do urban sustainability and ecological imperatives inform (or not) both the practice and critique of electroacoustic music? What insights do diverse cultural perspectives provide in the evolution of electroacoustic aesthetics? How can novel analytical tools and collaborative practices bridge disciplinary divides to stimulate innovative musical experiments?

We encourage submissions that employ rigorous theoretical analyses, empirical research, and/or case studies to cast light on these complex interactions. We therefore invite contributions from musicologists, composers, urban and environmental specialists, cultural theorists, and practitioners whose research traverses the boundaries between art, technology, cultural and urban studies. In addressing these issues, our aim is to advance scholarly debate and provide innovative conceptual tools that reflect the multidimensional nature of contemporary electroacoustic practice.

About EMS 2025

Co-organised by Evry Paris-Saclay University, Gustave Eiffel University and Sorbonne University, EMS 2025 aims to foster scholarly dialogues on the numerous intersections between electroacoustic music and larger interdisciplinary research. This conference seeks to explore how advances in technology, urban studies, ecology, (inter)cultural theory, and creative methodologies are reshaping the field.

Additional EMS25 Themes

The conference is also open to other topics relevant to the history and/or contemporary practice of electroacoustic music. We encourage the submission of papers relating to any aspect of the field, including but not limited to analysis, perception, listening, terminology, composition, performance, cultural issues and education.

Analysis:

• What types of discourse are relevant to electroacoustic works?
• Which analytical methods are currently being developed?
• Can one adapt existent analytical methods of music to electroacoustic works, many of which involve no prescriptive notation?
• How can we further develop the field of study of electroacoustic musics?

Transcription and representation of sound, new audio-visual tools:

• How are analytical tools being produced and disseminated in the community?
• Which means are available for communicating this sonic art form through symbolic and graphic representations?
• Does the study of electroacoustic musics require specifically designed tools or can it take advantage of methods conceived for other musics?

Taxonomy, terminology - 'meaningful' units of music description:

• Which systems of classification are in use or should be developed?
• How can we become more consistent in our use of terminology in a field as dynamic as electroacoustic music?

Real-time music making:

• How can live performance/composition strategies be analysed
• What is 'live' electronic music?

Performance, presentation, dissemination:

• What is the 'work'?
• New presentation spaces, technologies.
• Aesthetical and musical issues raised by Internet communities, group compositions, telematics and performances.

Listening, Intention-Reception:

• Issues of perception and interpretation.
• How do the composer's intentions relate to what is perceived?

Semiotics/semiology, 'meaning':

• What (and how) do different electroacoustic music genres express?

Soundscape, sound ecology:

• Analytical tools for the understanding of soundscapes.
• New approaches to sound ecology, sonification, sound environment.

Genres/styles, 'languages':

• Questions of unity, diversity, plurality, multicultural resources, polystyle, hybridisation, 'local music'.

Gender issues:

• Have gender balances shifted since the early days?
• The relationship between technology/electroacoustic music and gender.
• Unrecognised contributions: revising history.

Research on history of electroacoustic music:

• Research on historical documentation.
• Studies on the genesis, development and activities of private and public studios.
• How can and should we revise history?

Socio-cultural issues:

• What are the socio-cultural ramifications of electroacoustic music?

Pedagogy:

• Curriculum design.
• Balance between theory and practice, general and specific approaches.
• Real-time and interaction versus fixed medium and studio techniques.
• Teaching material: how to select it, and language issues.

Caution: Participants are discouraged from submitting proposals focusing on their own compositions as well as those discussing the development of new technological resources for musical application that have a better home at events such as ICMC.

Submission, selection, and participation guidelines

Deadline for submissions: 2 June 2025

Submission period will open soon

All approved/presented papers will be published on a Zenodo site that has an ISSN number.