Launch of ECHO, a new online journal

The 1st issue Archive(s) is now live on echo.orpheusinstituut.be Explore, read, browse and listen to it here.

ECHO is a new online, open access, peer-reviewed journal that exists to share creative work and understanding in the common space at the intersection of music, thought and technology.

Developed and published by the Orpheus Institute

An initiative of the MTT (Music, Thought and Technology) research group at the Orpheus Institute, Ghent, ECHO welcomes artist-researchers to submit contributions for development on its custom platform.

As well as current composition, performance, sonic and web-based art, original approaches to musicological, theoretical and technological topics are very welcome.

Custom platform made for authors

Authors are encouraged to structure digitally native storytelling around their creative work, using media-rich materials, nonlinear navigation and tools of data representation and interactive code. The ECHO software environment is made available to contributors to experiment. No coding knowledge is required.

New format with truly digital features

The innovative format is developed by the Music, Thought and Technology research group to accommodate the specific needs of artistic researchers:

• Digital-first approach (not a digital adaptation of print publications)
• Web-based platform
• Publishing workflow based on multi-user roles with own level of access
• Use of tags to group articles with similar topics
• Alternative paths of navigation
• Responsive (looks good on any device)
• Comment module for reader – author interaction
• Article components:
  • Interactive audio mixer which allows real-time simple manipulation of sound files (up to five tracks)
  • X-Y coordinates to add notations on specific parts of an image
  • Code injector
  • Advanced audio player (a sound file is uploaded once and used three times, each time referring to a different part)
  • Video native upload and easy embed options
  • In-article menu
  • Independent scrolling sidebars
  • WYSIWYG text editor

Publishing schedule

ECHO will appear twice yearly. Topics will remain open for further submission for as long as they remain relevant. Readers are invited to submit comment on articles or response pieces.

Initial issues will address technological concepts that have wide currency in contemporary discourse: digital archive, network, feedback, simulation. The next issue – Networks, edited by Juan Parra Cancino – will appear in Summer 2021.

Editors-in-chief: Jonathan Impett and Nicolas Collins

All enquiries to: echojournal@orpheusinstituut.be

https://echo.orpheusinstituut.be