'The Open Work’: Ecologies of participation

Audience engagement with a sound work can extend beyond fixed conventions in
which roles of creation and perception are separate. In an ‘open work’ these roles
are blurred, and the audience takes on an active part of co-creation. Participatory
sound works can be considered as ecologies of engagement rather than fixed
compositions. Technologies of dissemination and interactivity have become part of
the design of such ecologies, and sound artists have integrated them in highly
diverse works. Two main aspects of participatory ecologies will be considered: the
continuum of ‘active interpretation’ to ‘co-authorship’, and the creation of a
community of intersubjectivity. These two aspects will be discussed in the context of
a range of sound works, including the author’s work Shadowgraphs (2009/11) and
its interconnected manifestations: an installation, a live performance and a blog.