Open, High and Low: Getting Deep in the Sound Source Code

This text presents a research progress about the relationship between artistic practice and technological development in the field of sound and computer music made with code. In this context, the materials of sound artists and computer musicians are the textual code and the sound generated or controlled by the code. The discussion is related to an apparent dissociation between artistic practice and technological development. To understand this relationship I start from the computer science’s concept of high and low programming levels. Based on this, I observe that artistic practice is usually centred in the high level while technological development points out to both levels. To study this relationship I designed a graph in which artistic practice and technological development have the categories of layers and are connected to the high and low levels by the source code. The access to lower levels makes it possible to understand the control structures that define modes of artistic production of the software, which implies somehow different discourses and questions. This is possible when the source code of software is open, but in order to understand the technological structures in lower levels, from an artistic perspective, a specialized knowledge is required.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Hernani Villaseñor Ramírez

Conference

Publication date: August 2019

Publication date (Print): August 2019

Pages: 99-103

Affiliations

[0001]Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Posgrado en Música

Xicoténcatl 126, Mexico City, 04100, Mexico

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.16

SO-VID: d0aba078-b1d6-4685-a4a3-7c045a94cbb1

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: RE:SOUND 2019 – 8th International Conference on Media Art, Science, and Technology

Conference acronym: RE:SOUND 2019

Conference number: 8

Conference location: Aalborg, Denmark

Conference date: August 20-23, 2019

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Media Art, Science, and Technology

History

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/RESOUND19.16

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

M. Baalman 2015 Embodiment of code A. McLeanT. MagnussonK. NgS. KnottsJ. Armitage International Conference on Live Coding 2015 Leeds, UK 13 15 July Leeds ICSRiM 35 40
H. Barragán 2007 Software: ¿Arte? J. La Ferla El medio es el diseño audiovisual Manizales Universidad de Caldas 583 587
D. Berry 2011 The philosophy of software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age Hampshire Palgrave Macmilla
D. E. BolanakisG.A. EvangelakisE. GlavasK. T. Kotsis 2011 A Teaching Approach for Bridging the Gap Between Low-Level and High-Level Programming Using Assembly Language Learning for Small Microcontrollers Computer Application in Engineering Education 19 3 525 537
D. Chisnall 2018 C Is Not a Low-Level Language: Your computer is not a fast PDP-11 Communications of the ACM 7 61 44 48
S.W. Lee 2019 Show Them My Screen: Mirroring a Laptop Screen as an Expressive and Communicative Means in Computer Music M. QueirozA.X. Sedó Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Porto Alegre, Brazil 3-6 June 2019 UFRGS 443 448
D. Temkin 2017 Language Without Code: Intentionally Unusable, Uncomputable, or Conceptual Programming Languages Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts 9 3 83 91
M. Vazquez-VilarD. OrzaezN. Patron 2018 DNA assembly standards: Setting the low-level programming code for plant biotechnology Plant Science 273 33 41

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] M. Baalman 2015 Embodiment of code A. McLeanT. MagnussonK. NgS. KnottsJ. Armitage International Conference on Live Coding 2015 Leeds, UK 13 15 July Leeds ICSRiM 35 40

[2] H. Barragán 2007 Software: ¿Arte? J. La Ferla El medio es el diseño audiovisual Manizales Universidad de Caldas 583 587

[3] D. Berry 2011 The philosophy of software: Code and Mediation in the Digital Age Hampshire Palgrave Macmilla

[4] D. E. BolanakisG.A. EvangelakisE. GlavasK. T. Kotsis 2011 A Teaching Approach for Bridging the Gap Between Low-Level and High-Level Programming Using Assembly Language Learning for Small Microcontrollers Computer Application in Engineering Education 19 3 525 537

[5] D. Chisnall 2018 C Is Not a Low-Level Language: Your computer is not a fast PDP-11 Communications of the ACM 7 61 44 48

[6] S.W. Lee 2019 Show Them My Screen: Mirroring a Laptop Screen as an Expressive and Communicative Means in Computer Music M. QueirozA.X. Sedó Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression. Porto Alegre, Brazil 3-6 June 2019 UFRGS 443 448

[7] D. Temkin 2017 Language Without Code: Intentionally Unusable, Uncomputable, or Conceptual Programming Languages Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts 9 3 83 91

[8] M. Vazquez-VilarD. OrzaezN. Patron 2018 DNA assembly standards: Setting the low-level programming code for plant biotechnology Plant Science 273 33 41

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