aimusicstudies2024

The First International Conference in AI Music Studies

December 10-12 2024 Stockholm, Sweden

Location: Stallet Stallgatan 7, Stockholm (T) Kungsträdgården

KTH in the snow

Prospects, Challenges and Methodologies of Studying AI Music in the Humanities and Social Sciences

AI music (music generated by or with artificial intelligence technologies) is now part of established music ecosystems. While only a few years ago such music was “on the fringe”, it is quickly becoming more present and moving into the mainstream due in large part to the commercial exploitability of the technology, what it produces for what it costs, and its growing public accessibility (complete with claims of “democratizing” music production and composition). The development and application of AI to music creation is attracting significant sums of money from private circles, not to mention considerable efforts in academic engineering circles; yet, perhaps with the exception of intellectual property (e.g., legal ownership) and ethics (e.g., responsible use), many topics of AI music remain by and large under-explored by critical examination and reflection in the humanities and social sciences. This motivates several key questions for critical analysis and reflection:

  1. How can the AI music ecosystem and its components be formally studied, and what considerations must be made to make sense of it?
  2. What challenges arise in the application of established disciplines, such as musicology or ethnomusicology?
  3. What are the prospects and challenges for AI Music Studies for the Humanities and Social Sciences in general?
  4. What is needed in terms of new methodologies for this area of study, and what interdisciplinary connections are required?
  5. How are copyright, and intellectual property more generally, being challenged by the emergent music ecosystem being populated by AI music?
  6. What are the implications of AI Music in terms of economic, environmental and sociocultural sustainability?
  7. What are perspectives from music ecosystems other than the hegemonial popular music ecosystem of the Global North?
  8. What are the positions of music cultures that so far remained largely outside of the digitalization of cultural data?

The First International Conference in AI Music Studies 2024 explores the prospects, challenges and new methodologies required for the study of AI music within the Humanities and Social Sciences. It aims to bring into conversation scholars working in music computing, musicology, ethnomusicology, sound studies, science and technology studies, philosophy, ethics, economics, feminist and posthumanist studies to help define and develop, or even challenge the need for, a discipline of AI music studies. Further motivation for this conference comes from: B. L. T. Sturm, K. Déguernel, R. S. Huang, A. Holzapfel, O. Bown, N. Collins, J. Sterne, L. Cros Vila, L. Casini, D. Alberto Cabrera, E. A. Drott, and O. Ben-Tal, “MusAIcology: AI Music and the Need for a New Kind of Music Studies.” SocArXiv, 2024.

Financial support for the conference comes from:

  1. Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
  2. Kungliga Musikaliska Akademien
  3. ERC-2019-COG No. 864189 MUSAiC: Music at the Frontiers of Artificial Creativity and Criticism

Keynote Speaker

Professor Georgina Born

The keynote speaker of the first conference is Dr. Georgina Born, Professor of Anthropology and Music at University College London.

Schedule

AIMS2024

Accepted panel

Conference registration

Link Early registration (up to Aug 30 2024): 2000 SEK + 750 SEK for conference dinner Late registration: 3000 SEK + 750 SEK for conference dinner

Other information

Please send questions or comments to aimusicstudies2024@kth.se.

Organising Committee

Steering Committee

Archive

Call for presentations, panels and workshops

We are seeking presentations, panels and workshops for the conference. Each presentation will be given 20 minutes in a session, and each session will conclude with a podium discussion of its presented works. Each panel will have 3-5 participants, and last at least 60 minutes with audience discussion. A workshop consists of two hours of directed work and discussion around a topic. To submit a presentation, please write an abstract of no more than 300 words about your work and how it relates to the core themes of the conference. For panels, please write a description of the topics to be discussed and composition of the panel. For workshops, please write a description of the topics to be worked with, a schedule, and information on the workshop leaders. Email these to aimusicstudies2024@kth.se by the date below.

Dates