Abstract of Diacousticon: Curation, Audience, and the Listening Machine by Stephan M. Moore, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2015. This thesis provides a thorough discussion of the interactive sound art piece Diacousticon, created by the author in 2014, including a description of the current state of the field of sound art. Diacousticon is a system of eight robotic musical instruments installed around the inner perimeter of a fountain at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, outside Katonah, NY. The instruments listen to each other and to their environment, and respond musically to what they hear. The installation of the piece is site-specific and site-responsive, attuned to its immediately available circumstances. The author discusses his work in relationship to the ideas of philosopher Jacques Ranciére, the field of surveillance art, and the recent revelations of government privacy violations by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The author also discusses the evolution of his personal approach to generative, algorithmic art making that he refers to as ecological composition. Diacousticon is discussed in the context of the major sound art exhibition In the Garden of Sonic Delights, which the author curated, and the effects of his curatorial decisions on the work and the exhibition as a whole. An explication is provided of the physical structure, circuitry, code, and installation of the work, as well as a narrative of the work’s development, an evaluation of its impact, and a summary of outcomes and future implications.
Moore, Stephan M.,
"Diacousticon: Curation, Audience, and the Listening Machine"
(2015).
Computer Music and Multimedia Composition Theses and Dissertations.
Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.
https://doi.org/10.7301/Z0KK995K
