Technology has been an all-important and defining element within the arts throughout the 20th century, and it has fundamentally changed the ways in which we produce and consume music. With this Focus we investigate the latest developments in the digital domain – and their pervasiveness and rapid pace, which demand a closer look at the relations between arts and technology. The composers’ understanding of her occupation is challenged – and alongside, mediatisation and changes in distribution mark an incursion on solid conceptions of the artwork. Together, this means changing conditions for both production and reception of contemporary music and sound art.

With ‘Digital’ we present four composers' very different answers to how technology impact their work. To Juliana Hodkinson it has become an integral part of her sonic writing. Rudiger Meyer analyses the relationships between art and design and how technology affects our habits of consumption. Risto Holopainen presents a notion of autonomous instruments and automated composition that, in the end, cannot escape the human while Jøren Rudi reflects on aesthetic elements and artistic approaches to sound in computer games.

This focus is edited by Sanne Krogh Groth, Rasmus Holmboe, Christian Jaksjø and Andreas Engström, and is supported by Nordisk Kulturfond.