International Symposium on Music Acoustics

The International Symposium on Music Acoustics will be held in Sydney and Katoomba in late August, 2010. Format Dates and places Deadlines Accommodation Registration Getting there The weather and the time of year Walking and a warning Jetlag ISMA brings together the world’s researchers on music acoustics in areas including strings plucked, struck and bowed, wind, brass and percussion, organs, other keyboards, the voice, the nature of music, physical phenomena, techniques and modelling in music, perception and recognition of music.

Format

In 2010, the format is unusual. ISMA will be a satellite meeting of the ICA. However, it will also overlap with and include special sessons of the ICA. The review committee for ICA’s Music Acoustics sessions and for ISMA will be the same. The papers judged of greatest general interest will be presented at ICA, and the more specialised papers will go to ISMA’s independent sessions, to be held in Katoomba (in the Blue Mountains to the West of Sydney.)

Dates and places

The special sessions of ICA that will also be part of ISMA will be held on Thursday 26 and Friday 27 August, in the Sydney Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. ISMA will reconvene on Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 August, in the Carrington Hotel, Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains, about 100 km West and 1 km up from Sydney. Saturday and Sunday will have no sessions and it is hoped that delegates will find suitable amusements between Sydney and Katoomba. The dinner and traditional musical evening will be Monday 30 August.

Deadlines

Deadlines for submission and registration will be advertised later.

Accommodation

A reduced rate has been negotiated with the Carrington Hotel. However, it is not suitable for the student budget. For that reason, we have also reserved twin share and dormitory rooms at the Katoomba Youth Hostel, which is about 400 m South of the Carrington and for which ISMA has a group membership. The Youth Hostels Association has a compliant definition of Youth, with some members in their tenth decade.

Registration

Hey, it's still a year away... But if you know of some potential and generous sponsors, please let us know.

Getting there

Sydney is in the South East corner of Australia: airline and ship's crews know the way.

Katoomba is on the Sydney surburban network and served by commuter trains (Blue Moutains line, direction Lithgow). The trip is about 2 hours and the Western half of it is quite pleasant. The station is about 100 m from the hotel (and, thanks to the delightfully simple geometry of the region, vice versa).

By air, Sydney is about 22 hours (including a refueling stop) from Europe, about 13 hours from the West coast of the Americas, 9-19 hours from Asia or Antarctica, and 20 hours from Africa. Take a book or three and see Jetlag.

The Asian highway is effectively closed in Afghanistan and Burma.

The weather, the time of year and tourism

Late August is winter in Australia. But it is a moderate winter. Sydney temperatures for late August are 10°C (average min) and 19°C (average max); 5-14°C for Katoomba. August is the second driest month, after September (the Sydney Olympics was in September). Bring a sweater and a weatherproof jacket, but bring walking boots, sunglasses, and a hat, too.

Yes, you've often heard people from the Southern hemisphere complain when Notherners hold conferences in August, when we find it difficult to attend. So why are we holding a conference during winter, at a time when the cheap and excellent university theatres and student accommodations are full, and when many conference organisers and helpers cannot get time off from teaching and studying? Basically, because Australians had no choice in the timing of this ICA either, and because the ISMA organisers decided that science and the planet were best served by maintaining the consecutive timing. If you do not plan to combine the two conferences, then we apologise for the inconvenient choice of date.

The Blue Mountains never have ski-able snow, and are several hours by road from the ski fields, which are not highly rated for downhill skiing.

If you wish to combine your visit with some warmer weather, the Northern part of the country is tropical and you would miss the monsoon and the cyclones. Cairns and Darwin have regular international flights and are 3 and 4 hours flight from Sydney.

Walking

There are many beautiful bushwalks in the national parks around Katoomba. Warning. The national parks are wilderness. They are large, rugged and wild. Walkers who leave the tracks often get lost and sometimes are not recovered for days or weeks afterwards. Please be careful.

Jetlag

This author, who sleeps soundly on planes and who is not upset by changing time zones, wonders whether a large component of what is called jetlag is in fact just lack of sleep: it's much easier to function at any time of the day if you are well rested. So the main aim is to sleep well on the plane. So:
• before you go to the airport, get a large dose of exercise so that you will be relaxed and tired.
• drink lots of juice and water, but not too much alcohol or coffee on the plane. A couple of glasses of wine with meals can help you have a sleep after each meal.
• sleep as much as you can on the plane, especially during the movies, and whenever you feel even a bit tired.
• when you are not sleeping, and especially when the plane lands en route, get up and stretch and get some exercise.
• when you arrive, do not sleep during daylight. Stay out in bright sunshine as much as possible, and then in bright lights till at least 8 or 9 pm.
• it is said that shorts and short sleeves have the advantage that they expose to the sun the inner arm and back of the knees, areas that are usually not tanned, and therefore capable of making melanin more rapidly.
• the final synchronisation can be pharmaceutically assisted: a couple of drinks before bed and a few coffees in the morning help reset the metabolism and the melanin will follow.