FOREWORD

It was probably this major trend Glenn Gould had in mind in 1966, when he wrote that « dial twiddling is in its limited way an interpretative act. Forty years ago the listener had the option of flicking a switch inscribed "on" and "off" and, with an up-to-date machine, perhaps modulating the volume just a bit. Today, the variety of controls made available to him requires analytical judgment. And these controls are but primitive, regulatory devices, compared to those participational possibilities which the listener will enjoy once current laboratory techniques have been appropriated by home playback devices. » This technical evolution is also what makes music, in all its forms, the most coveted market for new cultural industries stemming from text, image and sound digitalization.

The mission of IRCAM is to explore the questions raised by the development of electronic technologies, with the highest degree of artistic, scientific and philosophical concern. This is why IRCAM founded Resonances, the International Convention on Music Technologies. Every Fall, Resonances will exhibit the international cartography of innovations and their artistic and industrial developments, and will host various artistic events : concerts, installations and exhibitions.

Resonances 2002 will focus on New Instruments, new ways of listening, and the scope of metadata, and will stage the digital convergence between growingly « active » listening systems and new digital instruments, enabled by new analysis technologies of sound and music.