Introduction


'Matthias Osterwold Matthias Osterwold

After meetings in Stuttgart (Germany) in 1985 and Hasselt (Belgium) in 1987 we are pleased to invite you to the 3rd International Audio Art Symposium, which will be held September 11–14, 1988 in Linz in connection with Ars, Electronica '88 festival. New forms of integrating music with other art media (i.e. visual art, performance, theater, dance, radio play, film and video) are the focus of the symposium. It offers musicians, artists, researchers and organizers from various countries a forum for discussion and reflexion.

The theme "Art Forms Defying Borders: Audio Art" does not define audio art as a specific genre of multimedia work. Defining genres implies a categorical thinking, which sets borders and limitations. But in the field of audio art there is a large variety of heterogeneous artistic methods and issues. Rather than classifying them it is more essential to search for traces of a common attitude, which – ideally – denies disciplinary or categorical thinking. This attitude can be characterized by a tendency to "dissolve" rather than to "cross over" borders, so that media components of the works are no longer analytically separable. Thus "audio art" could serve as a descriptive term, collecting those manifestations of this basic attitude, which contain essential musical – acoustical elements.

It is hardly surprising that these vagabond and unpredictable art forms are rarely found in concert halls, museums and other official institutions, which house more domesticated art. Instead, many independent formats and atypical venues of presentation have evolved. And often artists in this field have been active as both producers of their own work and presentors and organizers of other's works. The artists on the symposium panel mainly belong to this artist/ organizer group.

In addition to contributions on the historical and aesthetic foundations of audio art (in the sense which has been touched on above) and on the relationship to science and technology, the other subjects to be covered in the symposium are questions of public presentation, and of current trends and developments in selected countries.

In order to enhance the exchange of information, the symposium will continue to work towards establishing a network of artists and organizations which present audio art and new music.

At the conclusion of the meeting the Audio Art Symposium will be founded formally as an international organization, in order to guarantee continuity and to support the fulfillments of its purposes.