Systemic aspects of auditory interactive art in the public sphere

Abstract

The complex relationship between sound, auditory interfaces, individual action and the public urban sphere can be modeled in many different ways. Generally speaking, any interaction with musical technology should rather embrace a vision of the interference of multiple complex systems than remain in a widespread notion of control between man or environment and machine. Compared to hierarchic and linear models, which are more static and tied with causal structures of ‘behaviour’, the concept of dynamic ‘systems’ holds an advantage in describing complex interactions and multi-dimensional pro­cesses of communication.

This essay introduces the interplay of various aesthetic strategies and their backgrounds in musical interfacing concepts, in performance and urban public space. It gives an impression of changing aesthetic visions of auditory interfaces in the public sphere, from industrial society to contemporary information- and knowledge-based culture.