Call for Submissions – Volume 30, Number 2

Issue thematic title: Perspectives and Trajectories in Spatial Music and Sonic Art

Date of Publication: September 2025

Publishers: Cambridge University Press

Issue co-ordinators: Andrew Lewis (a.p.lewis@bangor.ac.uk) and Nikos Stavropoulos (N.Stavropoulos@leedsbeckett.ac.uk)

Deadline for submission: 15 September 2024

Perspectives and Trajectories in Spatial Music and Sonic Art

There has been an explosion in the popularity of spatial music and sound over the last few years, thanks to innovations on music streaming platforms, immersive cinema sound, VR gaming and virtual worlds, Media Device Orchestration, and viral phenomena such as ‘8D Audio’. Developments in the technology of spatial sound and its accessibility are adding to this growth and accelerating creative change. Spatial sound is no longer the preserve of experimental art music, but an increasingly familiar element of a wide range of media and art experiences. What is the impact of this technological, cultural and social change on the practice of spatial electroacoustic music and sonic art? Will enthusiasm for ‘3D sound’ be as short-lived as that for 3D cinema, or are we witnessing a truly profound shift in the creative landscape of our age?

Topics for consideration include:

• Comparative studies of the use of space in different genres across the art/popular/commercial music spectrum (e.g., acousmatic, EDM/IDM, sound design in games)
• The implications for spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art in the rise of XR and the ‘metaverse’
• The implications of spatial innovations in popular and commercial music for art music practice, and vice-versa
• Connections between spatial electroacoustic music and theories of space in other disciplines (e.g., architecture, environmental science, linguistics, social studies)
• Recent technical innovations in the creation, performance and dissemination of spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art
• Methodologies for analysing the spatial dimension of electroacoustic music/sonic art
• Site-specific sonic art and locative audio
• Spatial music/sonic art of the past and its influence on the present
• The relationship between theories and practices of spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art
• ‘Forgotten’ spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art
• Issues of spatial perception in electroacoustic music/sonic art
• Spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art pedagogy
• Issues of diversity and access in spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art, for listeners and practitioners
• The future(s) of spatial electroacoustic music/sonic art

Furthermore, as always, submissions unrelated to the theme but relevant to the journal’s areas of focus are always welcome.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 15 September 2024

SUBMISSION FORMAT:

Notes for Contributors including how to submit on Scholar One and further details can be obtained from the inside back cover of published issues of Organised Sound or at the following url:https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/organised-sound/information/author-instructions/preparing-your-materials

General queries should be sent to: os@dmu.ac.uk, not to the guest editors.

Accepted articles will be published online via FirstView after copy editing prior to the paper version of the journal’s publication.

Editor: Leigh Landy; Associate Editor: James Andean
Founding Editors: Ross Kirk, Tony Myatt and Richard Orton†
Regional Editors: Ricardo Dal Farra, Dugal McKinnon, Jøran Rudi, Margaret Schedel, Barry Truax, David Worrall, Lonce Wyse
International Editorial Board: Marc Battier, Manuella Blackburn, Alessandro Cipriani, Simon Emmerson, Kenneth Fields, Rajmil Fischman, Eduardo Miranda, Rosemary Mountain, Garth Paine, Mary Simoni, Martin Supper, Daniel Teruggi, Ian Whalley