Sean Ellis Hussey
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Call for Scores.Submit.Receive Feedback?

8/18/2015

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PicturePeer Review Process
          How great would it be to receive feedback on an application you have spent hours and hours (and dollars and dollars) crafting, compiling, and proofreading? “Impossible!” you say, “too many people apply, reviewers don’t have time for that!” Two words. Peer review.

          I learned about peer review from my partner, who is studying to get his PhD in psychology from Northwestern University. He recently submitted his first manuscript to a prestigious journal and told me all about the process of submitting one’s work for publication in science. This handy chart is helpful, and more information about peer review can be found here.

          The critical point not illustrated in this chart is that the each reviewer writes a formal response and critique of the work they are reviewing. This is both to advise the editor about the submission, and to give the author feedback how their work can be improved in the case it is not chosen for publication. 


          This is the part of peer review that amazes me most. Aside from established scientists being expected to frequently read new findings in regard to their field of study, these experts carve time out of their busy lives to review a stranger’s work. This practice is future oriented. The goal of the reviewers is not only to find the best article to publish, but to create the most fertile soil for the submissions that weren’t quite up to snuff, to grow into publishable science. 

          I am not alone in the art world, or even the world world, in that I am continually applying for opportunities to further my career and am usually rejected. What is more frustrating than the rejection is that I cannot think of a time I received helpful or critical feedback when my work is not accepted. Perhaps my work is overall not good enough. The point is I, and so many others, have no idea if our applications were the first or last to be rejected.

          Charles Rosen said, 
“The death of classical music is perhaps its oldest standing tradition.” All I can think is, Why aren’t people saying the same thing about science? Why can science continue to change and grow and that not be a sign of it dying? Perhaps artists are dramatic in their word choice. I’m willing to argue that peer review, being a future oriented and altruistic practice among scientists, contributes to the advancement of science. How can artists adapt some of these practices to further our field? 
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Representing Data Through Sound

8/6/2015

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          As a composer I am biased. I think music effectively crystallizes a unified goal among large groups, often more effectively than anything else. In an effort to use music to implement political and social change I have been interested in using parameters of a specific scientific study to inspire a piece of music. I think global climate change is perfect for this project.

          I will collect the past 100 years of climate data from seven to nine regions around the world. My vision is to create a fixed-media track for each region. Climate change has been indexed in many ways, from temperature shifts, to sea-level elevation, to increasingly erratic weather patterns. This tremendous array of data will provide ample opportunity to produce sounds.

          For example, each year can be represented by thirty seconds of music, and the average temperature of a given year can translate to a specific drone frequency. In this example, each month will be distilled to 2.5 seconds of music, the decibel level for which will be determined by the month’s average temperature in relation to the average temperature of that year. This is only one example. There are a multitude of ways I can use music to represent how our world climate is changing.

          The fixed-media tracks that I create for each region will provide a harmonious soundscape of the global climate from 1915 to the present. The most effective means of displaying this music is to showcase it publicly as an art installation. Each region will be represented by speaker systems. These speakers will be spread throughout a large space where audience members can “walk through the world” and hear the global climate changing over the last 100 years!

           Similar work has been done recently, and it is important to highlight these individuals:

  •           Composer Daniel Crawford from the University of Minnesota composed Planetary Bands, Warming World,  earlier this year. It is a beautiful acoustic string quartet in which, "each note’s pitch 'is tuned to the average annual temperature in [four] region[s], so low notes represent cold years and high notes represent warm years.'"
  •           Composer Matthew Burtner and media artist Scott Deal created Auksalaq in 2011, an  “opera [that] integrates music, sonic and visual art, science, and social commentary to provide a stirring statement on global climate change.” It was the 2011 IDEA Award Winner form Internet2.
 
          Please comment and let me know if there are any other artists and musicians doing similar work! I would love to connect with them!

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    Sean Ellis Hussey is a Chicago-based composer

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