'Organised Sound' - call for submissions issue 33/2 Afrocentric Electroacoustic Practices ...
Leigh Landy
ORGANISED SOUND
Call for Submissions – Volume 33, Number 2
Thematic Issue Title: Afrocentric Electroacoustic Practices – ‘Before, in Dogon lands, there were things like this’
Date of Publication: August 2028
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Issue co-ordinators: Theo Herbst (theo....@uct.ac.za, corresponding), William Fourie (w.fo...@ru.ac.za). Cameron Harris (cameron...@wits.ac.za) and Miles Warrington (miles.wa...@up.ac.za).
Deadline for submission: 15 September 2027
Afrocentric Electroacoustic Practices – ‘Before, in Dogon lands, there were things like this’[1]
Organised Sound celebrates the announcement of an Africa-themed issue which proposes to probe creative, technical, philosophical and performative modes and modalities at play when under-represented geographical regions resonate with this global publication’s interest in sonic creativity.
This call for contributions is inspired and framed by African Feedback[2], an artistic field research intervention conducted during November 2004 by the composer and sound sculptor Alessandro Bosetti. The bulk of his field recordings, made around Bandiagara (14°20'58"N 3°36'32"W) and Mopti (14°29'42"N 4°11'25"W) in Mali, Yako (12°57'49"N 2°15'29"W) and Ouagadougou (12°22'24"N 1°31'11"W) in Burkina Faso, consist of informal exchanges with local listeners and their responses to randomly selected excerpts from contemporary compositions presented over headphones. These field recordings served as source material for an acousmatic composition also titled African Feedback, the first version of which was completed between January and August 2005 in Berlin and Paris. Finally, in 2007 the project’s field note transcriptions, along with additional comments and information regarding its context, motivation and execution, were published in booklet format.
Close reading of the above reveals that the interplay between technologies and the audio-visual musical arts in Africa not only harbours potential for historical reflection, but also for reviewing current practices and imagining and projecting future scenarios and developments. Against this background, contributors are challenged to explore African and outside surveys and insights regarding existent and potential sonic creative and music technological endeavour, including, but not limited to:
• Historical perspectives foregrounding the contributions and legacies of pioneering African composers, recordists, archivists and practitioners working in these areas;
• African sonic creativity viewed in the broadest sense;
• Revisiting, re-interpreting and re-evaluating relevant technologies utilised by African performers, instrument builders, artisans and culture bearers in a broad and inclusive manner;
• The rise and impact of contemporary African sound recording, mixing mastering, composition and production techniques and technologies;
• African empirical musicology;
• Engineering, signal processing, information technology and African sonic arts;
• African composition and performance space and interface design;
• The African music industry;
• African scenarios driven by Big Data; the Fourth Industrial Revolution; posthuman eco-, bio- and zoocentric optimisation, artificial intelligences and creativity.
Organised Sound seeks issue-driven submissions relevant to the journal’s readership. It does not seek artists’ statements or work/project descriptions without an underlying central question and contextualisation.
Against this background the proposed Africa-focused issue strives to provide a platform for contributions that venture beyond describing, mapping and reporting on electroacoustic practices. It affirms the continent’s historical relevance in this regard by inviting inclusive and rigorous musicological engagements with sound-art, technologies, creative and performative ecosystems. Most importantly, it serves as a catalyst, inspiring the next generation of her artists shaping the global future of electroacoustic music studies.
As always, submissions unrelated to the theme but relevant to the journal’s focus areas are welcome.
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SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 September 2027
SUBMISSION FORMAT:
Notes for Contributors including how to submit on Scholar One and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or at the following url: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/information/author-instructions/preparing-your-materials.
General queries should be sent to: o...@dmu.ac.uk, not to the guest editors.
Accepted articles will be published online via FirstView after copy editing prior to the full issue’s publication.
Editor: Leigh Landy; Associate Editor: James Andean
Founding Editors: Ross Kirk, Tony Myatt and Richard Orton†
Regional Editors: Liu Yen-Ling (Annie), Dugal McKinnon, Raúl Minsburg, Jøran Rudi, Margaret Schedel, Barry Truax
International Editorial Board: Miriam Akkermann, Marc Battier, Manuella Blackburn, Brian Bridges, Alessandro Cipriani, Ricardo Dal Farra, Simon Emmerson, Kenneth Fields, Rajmil Fischman, Kerry Hagan, Eduardo Miranda, Garth Paine, Mary Simoni, Martin Supper, Daniel Teruggi, Ian Whalley, David Worrall, Lonce Wyse
[1] Response from Tapaninju Dolo, participant in Alessandro Bosetti’s African Feedback project.
[2] Errantbodies / Ground Fault, 2007; Alessandro Bosetti African Feedback.