The 17° episode dedicated to the discovery of Research Centers, Museums and Recording Studios where electronic music in all its forms is studied and practiced. First: Museo del Synt Marchigiano – Italy (here). Second: SMEM Swiss Museum for Electronic Music Instruments – Swiss (here). Third: MESS Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio – Australia (here). Fouth: Nakatsugawa Korg Museum – Japan (here). Fifth: Museo della Farfisa – Italy (here). Sixth: VSM Vintage Synthesizer Museum – USA (here). Seventh: CIM: Colloquio di Informatica Musicale XXIII – Italy (here). Eighth: SoundMit – International Synth Event – Italy (here). Nine: EMEAPP – Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project – USA (here). Ten: EMS Elektronmusik Studion – Sverige (here). Eleven: Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology (ICST) – Swiss (here). Twelve: IEM Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, Austria (here). Thirteen: Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), USA (here). Fourtheen: Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), USA (here). Fiftheen: Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras (CMMAS), Mexico (here). Sixtheen: Institute of Sonology, Nederland (here). Today is the turn of the interview with Jean-Louis Giavitto, CNRS – Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son, IRCAM, Sorbonne Université, Ministère de la Culture – France. I invite you to read the interview.
How did the STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM come about?
In the early 1970s, President Georges Pompidou wanted to transform Paris into a capital of culture and innovation. He envisioned what would become the Centre Pompidou: an innovative space where contemporary art, music, literature, design and research would come together. He incorporated an acoustic research center into the program, and appointed composer Pierre Boulez as its director. In 1974, he announced the creation of IRCAM, which moved into it’s new building in 1977-1978.
From the outset, Pierre Boulez had a vision: to foster fruitful interaction between contemporary musical creation and scientific and technological research. One of the main challenges was to contribute, through science and technology, to the renewal of musical expression. Conversely, contemporary musical creation, and more generally musical practices, give rise to original scientific issues requiring a multidisciplinary approach, and give rise to theoretical, methodological and practical advances whose scope goes far beyond the musical domain alone. They also have applications in all fields involving sound technologies.
Initially, this research mission was carried out by a separate department, and until 1995, research at the institute was supported exclusively by the Ministry of Culture, outside the academic system. In 1995, a UMR (unité mixte de recherche, a research laboratory operated jointly by several institutions) was created with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). This joint laboratory between the CNRS and IRCAM gradually expanded to include all teams, and, in 1999, took on its current name: STMS (Sciences et technologies de la Musique et du Son). In 2010, the university joined the joint laboratory, and STMS now has four supervisory bodies: IRCAM, CNRS, Sorbonne University and the French Ministry of Culture.
How is it structured?
Unlike most research laboratories, what unites this laboratory is not the scientific discipline concerned, but the object of its research: music and, more generally, organized sound (voice, functional sound, etc.). But each of IRCAM‘s seven teams is rooted in a well-established scientific discipline: signal processing with the Analyse/Synthèse team, applied mathematics and engineering sciences with the S3AM team (Systèmes et Signaux Sonores: Audio/Acoustics, instruMents), acoustics with the EAC team (Espaces Acoustiques et Cognitifs), psycho-acoustics, psychology, musical cognition and neuroscience for the PDS team (Perception et Design Sonores), human-machine interfaces for ISMM (Interaction Son Musique Mouvement), real-time computing and symbolic calculation for RepMus (Représentation Musicales) and finally musicology and philosophy for APM (Analyse des Pratiques Musicales).
It would take too long to describe in detail each team’s field of activity and projects. You can find out more on the laboratory’s website and in the annual activity reports.
How we work together and how we articulate this diversity of approaches to grasp our objects of study is sometimes complicated for an outsider to grasp. That’s why we often present our activities from three main points of view arising from our object of study.
The sound workshop (l’atelier du son): sound is understood here as a physical phenomenon (mechanical, acoustic), but also as digital information that engages mathematical and computer techniques (signal processing) to process sound, musical or multimedia flows, contents and scenes.
The musician body (le corp musicien): this approach focuses on music and sound perceived and produced by human beings interacting with an environment, a machine or other human beings. Sound is no longer reduced to a vibration, but becomes a vehicle for interaction, produced by a biological body and acting on individuals and behaviors.
Finally, creative dynamics (les dynamiques créatives) recognize that while music is a phenomenon produced and perceived by a body that takes advantage of physical objects and organizes a sound world, it is also thought about, imagined – or dreamt – and sometimes formalized before being realized. This theme includes the question of creativity, and the question of the computational creativity, which is emerging today as a crucial scientific issue.
What equipment does the STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM have?
As part of its research activities, STMS has several experimental facilities at its disposal. An anechoic chamber, enables us to carry out acoustic measurements in a controlled environment. An electronics workshop hemps us to prototype our cyberi-musical systems. We have for instance designed there the first version of RIoT, a controller for capturing gestures in real time.
We also work a lot with composers in the IRCAM studios. These are equipped, for example, with an ambisonic dome that enables us to spatialize sound. The ESPRO (espace de projection), which is IRCAM‘s concert hall, is a unique venue that allows us to modulate the room’s acoustics (thanks to movable panels and reverberant surfaces that allow us to adjust reverberation time and sound diffusion characteristics according to the needs of the works being performed). It was one of the very first concert halls in Europe to be equipped with a WFS (Wave Field Synthesis) sound diffusion system with over 300 loudspeakers. This sound spatialization technology recreates a natural sound field in a given space, as if the sound sources were physically present in the room. IRCAM‘s sound spatialization systems were designed and developed by its research teams, and are a fine example of the fertile interaction and the tight coupling between art and science.
What can you do at the STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM?
Lots of things! It’s hard for me to answer, because there are so many different research topics. For example, in the anechoic chamber, we tested immersive sound devices to carry out and refine phobia treatments (in behavioral psychology, one approach to treating phobias consists in exposing the patient to anxiety-provoking stimuli, in a gradual and controlled way; in this case, it was the fear of dogs, and we had to reproduce a dog’s barking more or less at a distance).
In the studio next door, I worked with RIMs (computer music engineers) to program software that calculates in real time the electronic sounds to be produced during a piece, in synchronization with the human performers. This is an important issue in mixed music (which mixes electronic and instrumental sounds): how to react in real time to the performance of a human musician, in order to regain the musical performativity that disappears when the musician has to follow a fixed recording.
In other offices, psycho-acousticians and composers designed the sound for the Clio electric car (electric cars are too silent, so they need to emit a sound to signal their presence in the public space).
In another team, they recreated the voices of Farinelli and Dalida. In yet another, they are studying how motion sonification can assist a patient in accurately performing rehabilitation exercises.
Today, new artificial intelligence techniques are ‘game-changers,’ and we are applying them to the development of new methods in musical synthesis. Etc., etc.
These examples only begin to illustrate the breadth of projects and themes explored at STMS. Sound enables us to understand our surroundings and to communicate, and music has accompanied humanity since its earliest days. Research topics and artistic opportunities abound.
How is it possible to join the researches at the STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM?
The laboratory hosts CNRS researchers, faculty researchers from Sorbonne University, and also recruits researchers directly affiliated with IRCAM. Like any research lab, we welcome PhD students and post-doctoral researchers (often coming from abroad). Colleagues also visit us, sometimes for extended stays, as many of our projects are collaborative with partners across Europe and worldwide. We maintain strong ties with institutions like CNMAT in Berkeley, CIRMMT in Toronto, the University of San Diego, C-Lab in Taiwan, FLI in Tokyo, among others.
We also welcome artists for research purposes. Musical research, action research, or research-creation are longstanding concepts, particularly well-established in the Anglo-Saxon world (much less in France). STMS supports a residency program that embed an artist within a research team or a researcher into an artistic production — ‘embed’ in the same sense as the term in ‘embedded journalism.’
Is the STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM on social media?
Yes, of course. We have a website showcasing the activity of our teams. More generally, IRCAM is active on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn, where it shares a variety of content to promote its activities in music and research, its events, and its collaborations with artists and scientists. Social media communication is designed to attract a broad, international audience, highlighting concerts, seminars, artist residencies, and educational workshops.
An important site for the lab is the Forum, a community web platform for musical research and technology produced by the lab, which allows us to interact directly with our users.
Does the STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM care for the issue of gender in Electronic Music? And in French Musical Culture?
The lab has taken on these issues; for instance, this month we organized a study day on Women and Science, following a previous day on Feminism and Technology. We’re setting up a mentorship system for doctoral and young female researchers, in collaboration with CNRS and Sorbonne University. The lab aims to be proactive in this area as we have a long way to go: there are currently very few female researchers in the lab. This can be attributed to our foundation in fields historically male-dominated, and we still see few female applicants.
Generally, I believe electronic music has paralleled computing in terms of gender diversity. In its founding period, women were very present (Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Eliane Radigue, Wendy Carlos…), but their presence became largely silent over time. Fortunately, our era is rediscovering these pioneers and make more room for women. Looking at the recruitment in our Cursus program—an intensive, year-long program designed for young composers interested in integrating musical technologies—the gender balance has improved significantly in recent years. While these trends are promising, maintaining focus on this issue remains crucial.
What is your relationship with the French government?
IRCAM is a non-profit organization that renews a contract every three years with the Ministry of Culture to secure its budget. The lab is funded by the Ministry of Culture and also the Ministry of Research and Higher Education through CNRS and Sorbonne University. Additionally, we have numerous research contracts, particularly for European projects.
Ongoing projects and future projects?
We’re living in a time of rapid change, especially with advancements in artificial intelligence. Challenges like automatic transcription or voice synthesis, which had seen little progress for years, are now yielding results directly usable by artists, shifting research toward new fields.
This shift impacts music and composers as well: what does an artist wish to create when generative systems can churn out music on demand (not necessarily high-quality, but then, not all human compositions are either)? There’s a parallel in art history: when photography emerged, it liberated painting from its representational role, allowing painters to explore new artistic directions. Similarly, AI is redefining the boundaries of music. It won’t replace human composers—just as chess machines haven’t replaced human players—but it will bring forth new concerns, forms, and aesthetics.
All this to say that, yes, there are many current and future projects, and that there is still just as much need, as there was in Boulez‘s day, for a profound interaction between art and science. Yet, for me today, it’s difficult to have a clear vision of the road that lies ahead.
Link: STMS (Science et Technologie de la Musique et du Son) IRCAM Home Page
Link: IRCAM Centre Pompidou Home Page
Link: IRCAM Facebook Page
Link: IRCAM Twitter Profile
LInk: IRCAM Instagram Profile
