UPIC

This symposium is intended to explore current approaches and contemporary trends in the field of graphic notation for parameter generation in music as well as the historical importance of the “UPIC“ system used by composers for their creations. When the “UPIC“ (Unité Polyagogique Informatique de CEMAMu, Centre d’Études de Mathématique et Automatique Musicales) was developed by composer Iannis Xenakis in the 1970s a completely new technical interface was born on the foundations of the idea of notation. Using the tablet interface, composers for the first time could control musical parameters, waveforms and entire works directly on an electronic tablet while the computer was converting them into sound in real time. Drawing thereby becomes the vehicle of both the micro- and macrostructure of a musical work. The revolution in graphic compostition triggered by Xenakis and supported by other established computer musicians such as Jean-Claude Risset or Curtis Roads continues forty years later thanks to modern computer programs, such as the graphic open source sequencer “IanniX“ and “HighC“ and lately “UPISketch“.  Artists as well as musicologists will resituate the “UPIC“ in the following days in both a historical and cultural contex and also discuss the state oft he art in the field of electroacoustic sonifications of graphic notations in lectures, a panel discussion and concerts presenting works created with “UPIC“ or similar approaches.