‘Animated Sound’: An application of digital technologies and open scores in interdisciplinary collaboration and education

Abstract

We describe a collaborative project carried out with an ensemble of amateur adult musicians in which a participant created a composition derived from her background as an animator in conjunction with the appropriation of interface elements used in digital animation software. Conceived of during the 2020 quarantine for online performance with an undefined instrumentation of acoustic and electronic sound sources, subsequent versions have been created for film soundtracks, ensemble concerts, live-scoring/coding audio-visual presentations and solo performances. These diverse realizations are analysed through two frameworks. The first, adapted from an analysis of the embodiment of values in digital games, indicates that the community-oriented values present in early ensemble versions are replaced by more typical aesthetic values, such as complexity and virtuosity, as the work evolves from one realization to another. The addition of notational and technical elements presupposing conventional musical training results in a particularly profound shift in the perceived nature of the composition. The second framework addresses this divergence in embodied values by expanding the role of the instructor/facilitator in educational and socially engaged practices, situating artistic control and outcomes alongside functions of learning and inclusivity.