Angela McArthur – Spatial Sound with the IKO Speaker
The Studio in Bath are delighted to welcome artist and researcher Dr. Angela McArthur, to give a talk sharing their work with the IKO 3D Audio Speaker – a spherical, omnidirectional speaker for immersive sound installations and performances.
The possibilities of spatial sound are finally starting to gain mainstream awareness. Yet format and distribution remain an obstacle for most practitioners, for anything other than headphone listening. The IKO loudspeaker first arrived in the UK in 2019. Angela toured it the same year, showcasing its unique affordances and portability in spatial sound reproduction. More than five years on, six IKO loudspeakers are homed in the UK, the highest geographical concentration worldwide. What is the IKO, what can it do, and why should you consider it for your next project (and… how might you make this a reality?).
About Angela McArthur
Dr. Angela McArthur is an artist, academic and interdisciplinary advocate. She leads a Master’s programme in spatial sound in the department of Anthropology at University College London. She has undertaken many artist residencies and interdisciplinary collaborations, including a five month residency working with the IKO loudspeaker at the Institut für Elektronische Musik (IEM) in Graz. She initiated the first UK tour of IKO works in 2019. Her work centres around the practice and theorisation of aesthetics in sound, underrepresented (including other-than-human) onto-epistemologies, and ocean environments. She champions diversity in access and representation. She’s worked in studio, live and location environments and founded Soundstack, an annual series of workshops, masterclasses and concerts about spatial sound aesthetics.