Jason Freeman

Please see below the updated call for participation in ICAD 2012, including papers, posters, extended abstracts, the sonification competition, and the thinktank doctoral consortium.

18th International Conference on Auditory Display

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

The 18th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2012) will be held June 18-22, 2012, at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the heart of midtown Atlanta, Georgia. The event will mark the 20th anniversary of the 1st International Conference on Auditory Display. Since 1992, ICAD has been the premier international venue for the dissemination and discussion of work related to the science, art, and practice of sound as a communicative display. Through its active Sonification Lab and Center for Music Technology, Georgia Tech is pleased to host ICAD’s vibrant community of researchers and practitioners on its campus.

The primary conference venue will be the Historic Academy of Medicine at Georgia Tech (

 The facility is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and was reopened in December, 2011 following an extensive renovation. The Academy’s theater — the primary lecture hall for ICAD 2012 — was remodeled with particular attention to acoustics and aesthetics. Special social events for the week will include a concert, a banquet, and a welcome reception. A variety of other informal social gatherings and excursions in the midtown and downtown Atlanta (and surrounding) areas will be available.

Technical areas for ICAD include but are not limited to:

* 3D and Spatial Audio * Aesthetics, Philosophy, and Culture of Auditory Displays * Accessibility * Applications of Sound in Systems * Auditory Display Theory and Methods * Auditory Information Design * Evaluation and Usability of Auditory Displays * Human Factors of Auditory Display * Sound Interaction * Auditory Cognition, Perception, and Psychoacoustics * Sonification and Exploration of Data through Sound * Sonification as Art * Technologies and Tools for Auditory Display

Call for Submissions: Papers, Posters, and Extended Abstract

Proceedings papers will be archived and made publicly available in the Georgia Tech SMARTech system (

 This searchable system cross-indexes with Google Scholar and will allow for dissemination of the peer-reviewed conference proceedings to a wide audience. The types of submissions solicited for ICAD 2012 include:

Papers. Full papers should describe work that offers a substantial contribution to the field of auditory display. Paper submissions will be 6-8 pages in length, including all figures and references. Authors of accepted papers will be invited to give a 20 min oral presentation of their work, and at least one author must present the work at the conference for the paper to appear in the published proceedings.

Posters and demonstrations. Poster submissions should describe both finished work and work in late stages of progress. Work that is complete enough that meaningful conclusions can be drawn at the time of submission are encouraged. Submissions describing demonstrations should include interactive audio experiences that showcase work for which first-hand experience will be informative. Submission for posters and demonstrations require a proceedings paper of up to 4 pages in length. Authors of accepted submissions will be invited to participate in a 60 minute poster and/or demonstration session, and at least one author must present the work at the conference for the paper to appear in the published proceedings. When weighing the decision to submit to poster and demonstration sessions, we encourage authors to consider their work in relation to the potential positive benefits (both to authors and their audiences) afforded by the personal interactions that occur in this type of session.

Extended abstracts. The extended abstracts submission category is new for ICAD 2012. These submissions should include but are not limited to late-breaking results, works in early stages of progress, novel methodologies, unique or controversial theoretical positions, and discussions of unsuccessful research or null findings. Particular attention will be paid to the potential for extended abstracts to lead to engaging presentations of broad benefit to the auditory display community. Submissions for extended abstracts require a proceedings paper of up to 2 pages in length. Authors of accepted abstracts will be invited to give a 10 min oral presentation of their work, and at least one author must present the work at the conference for the abstract to appear in the published proceedings.

Call for Entries: Sonification Contest (“Listening to the World Listening”)

Composers, sound artists, and sonification researchers are invited to create sonifications for the ICAD 2012 sonification competition. This year’s competition is inspired both by the ICAD 2004 theme (“Listening to the Mind Listening”) and by the radical changes over the past decade in how we listen to music and how we share our listening activities with others. There is no static data set for this competition; instead, entrants are invited to use a set of provided data APIs to obtain social media listening data.

Sonifications may be fixed-media audio files, interactive software programs or web sites, smartphone apps, musical performances, or sound installations. They may sonify the data in real time or out of real time. Submissions must include an audio or video recording, no more than five minutes in length, of the complete sonification, excerpts from the sonification, or documentation of the sonification, as appropriate. Submissions must also include a 2-4 page statement, following the ICAD 2012 paper template, that describes the techniques used to create the sonification and the motivations behind them.

A jury (Alberto de Campo, R. Luke Dubois, Adam Lindsay, and Brian Whitman) will select finalists to be featured during ICAD 2012, and the winner will be announced during the conference. The statements of each finalist will also be published in the ICAD conference proceedings. Finalists are strongly encouraged to attend the conference but need not attend the conference for the statement to appear in the published proceedings and for the submission to be considered for an award.

Full details on the competition and the data APIs are available at 

The deadline for submission of papers, posters, and extended abstracts is February 10, 2012. Detailed formatting and submission procedures can be found on the conference website (link to Author Guidelines: 

 All submissions will be peer-reviewed by a panel comprised of experts in the field of auditory display.

The deadline for submission of entries in the sonification contest is March 1, 2012. Detailed composition instructions and submission procedures can be found on the conference website (link: 

Workshops will be held on June 17, 2012. Sessions are tentatively planned on the following topics: 1) perceptual organization principles for auditory display design; 2) tools and technologies for sonification; and 3) audio assistive technologies for education. Additional workshops and discussions panels are possible and sessions chairs are sought; please contact Bruce Walker (bruce.walker@psych.gatech.edu) for more information or to express interest in participation. Workshop details will be announced on the conference website as sessions are finalized.

A student ThinkTank consortium will be held on June 17, 2012. Students working in the field of auditory display will present works-in-progress (e.g., toward theses or dissertations) and will benefit from intensive feedback from and discussion with a panel of experts and their student peers. The ThinkTank will be sponsored by the National Science Foundation. Funding for travel and accommodations will be available for some students, but will be subject to limitations. Detailed submission instructions for the student consortium will follow in early February 2012, and the deadline for ThinkTank submissions will be in late March or early April. Submissions will be reviewed by the ThinkTank chair and the panelists, and the top submissions will be invited to participate in the consortium.

ICAD will host a sonification concert the evening of June 19, 2012 at the Academy of Medicine. Sonic Generator, the professional contemporary music ensemble in residence at Georgia Tech, will perform seminal works of the second half of the twentieth century that employ creative and innovative approaches to the use of data in musical performance, including music by Charles Dodge, Steve Reich, Earle Brown, and John Cage.

The organizing committee seeks the service and expertise of auditory display researchers, practitioners, and artists. If you are interested in serving as peer-reviewer for submissions, please contact the Program Chair, Michael Nees (neesm@lafayette.edu).

General Chair: Bruce N. Walker, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Program Chair: Michael A. Nees, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA

Music Chair: Jason Freeman, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA , USA

The primary conference venue will be the Historic Academy of Medicine at Georgia Tech (http://www.academy.gatech.edu). The facility is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and was reopened in December, 2011 following an extensive renovation. The Academy’s theater — the primary lecture hall for ICAD 2012 — was remodeled with particular attention to acoustics and aesthetics. Special social events for the week will include a concert, a banquet, and a welcome reception. A variety of other informal social gatherings and excursions in the midtown and downtown Atlanta (and surrounding) areas will be available.

Proceedings papers will be archived and made publicly available in the Georgia Tech SMARTech system (http://smartech.gatech.edu/). This searchable system cross-indexes with Google Scholar and will allow for dissemination of the peer-reviewed conference proceedings to a wide audience. The types of submissions solicited for ICAD 2012 include:

Full details on the competition and the data APIs are available at http://goo.gl/p6gDF.

The deadline for submission of papers, posters, and extended abstracts is February 10, 2012. Detailed formatting and submission procedures can be found on the conference website (link to Author Guidelines: http://goo.gl/g7IJj). All submissions will be peer-reviewed by a panel comprised of experts in the field of auditory display.

      The deadline for submission of entries in the sonification contest is March 1, 2012. Detailed composition instructions and submission procedures can be found on the conference website (link: http://goo.gl/p6gDF).

Workshops will be held on June 17, 2012. Sessions are tentatively planned on the following topics:  1) perceptual organization principles for auditory display design; 2) tools and technologies for sonification; and 3) audio assistive technologies for education. Additional workshops and discussions panels are possible and sessions chairs are sought; please contact Bruce Walker (bruce.walker@psych.gatech.edu) for more information or to express interest in participation. Workshop details will be announced on the conference website as sessions are finalized.

       A student ThinkTank consortium will be held on June 17, 2012.  Students working in the field of auditory display will present works-in-progress (e.g., toward theses or dissertations) and will benefit from intensive feedback from and discussion with a panel of experts and their student peers. The ThinkTank will be sponsored by the National Science Foundation.  Funding for travel and accommodations will be available for some students, but will be subject to limitations.  Detailed submission instructions for the student consortium will follow in early February 2012, and the deadline for ThinkTank submissions will be in late March or early April. Submissions will be reviewed by the ThinkTank chair and the panelists, and the top submissions will be invited to participate in the consortium. 

              bruce.walker@psych.gatech.edu

[ot] updated call for ICAD 2012