Call for Papers: BioSphere & TechnoSphere 2 – Emotion and Affect in Musics Beyond the Human

This distinction should be explored using neuroscientific, cultural studies and cultural-historical approaches, drawing on interdisciplinary methodologies (Herzfeld-Schild 2020). In musicology, concepts from the history of emotions – such as ‘emotional communities’, ‘emotional practices’ and ‘emotional regimes’ – are receiving increasing scholarly attention and are being used as analytical frameworks.

In the context of the technosphere, both AI-generated music and AI-generated playlists should be examined as part of the history and practice of emotion, or understood as phenomena in the history of emotions in their own right. Unlike human-made music, AI-generated music may not offer listeners a human creator with whom they can identify, along with the attitudes, biographies or artistic personas that often shape listeners' engagement with music. The question is whether this gives rise to a new form of emotional practice when emotional responses are elicited by music alone, without the social interactions that characterise, for example, live concerts. If, on the other hand, AI-generated avatars are used to design carefully constructed musical personalities and star images, this raises complex questions about emotional bonds and strategies for evoking emotion within the technosphere. Underlying this is the overarching question of what (new) significance music holds as a cultural technique and practice.

Closely connected to this is the question of the significance of streaming platforms and their AI recommendation systems (playlists), which would need to be examined to determine the extent to which music listening organised around activities and moods shifts from emotion to affect – or vice versa.

With regard to animal vocalisations (such as the songs of birds and whales), as well as soundscape ecologies and the sonification of biological data, current approaches in interdisciplinary emotion research can be situated within a long history of emotional responses to nature. In this respect, the conference seeks to contribute to a history of emotions within the sounding biosphere.

In current research projects which seek to decipher the emotional and affective dimensions of non-human sound production using bioacoustic (technology-assisted) analysis and, in some cases, deep-learning approaches, also point to a methodological convergence between the technosphere and the biosphere. The conference welcomes contributions engaging with these methodological developments.

The interconnection between the musical biosphere and the technosphere also raises conceptual questions – such as the extent to which not only humans, but also technologies or animals, can be understood as emotional and affective agents. Within the framework of a strict distinction, should the biosphere be associated with (instinctive) affects and the technosphere with (cognitive) emotions? Or can such a dichotomy be rethought in favour of a more interwoven understanding, one that can be explored through musical examples? By pursuing these and related questions, the conference ultimately aims to explore possibilities for a ‘more-than-human’ conception of musical emotions and affects.

We welcome contributions on the following topics and questions:

• Musical interconnections between technology and the organic world
• The emotional history of making and listening to music in the biosphere and technosphere
• Staging of emotions/affects and emotionalising/affective stagings in the biosphere and technosphere
• Emotional and affective content of non-human sound production and methods for its analysis
• How are power relations realised, perpetuated and/or destabilised through sonic practices of emotion?
• What significance do emotions and affects hold for social relationships in the biosphere and technosphere?
• What role do emotions and affects play in platform logics and recommendation systems?
• What might a more-than-human understanding of sonic and musical emotions and affects look like?
• Further perspectives on the general conference theme

Contributions from all (sub)disciplines of musicology are welcome, as are those from music-related fields within neighbouring academic disciplines and from interdisciplinary areas such as Human-Animal Studies, Critical Animal Studies, Critical Plant Studies, Multispecies Ethnography and AI Music Studies. Artistic-academic submissions that engage with the conference theme within the context of artistic research are also warmly welcomed. There are no conference fees.

Unfortunately, no subsidies are available for travel and accommodation costs. Due to the Nuremberg trade fair schedule, we recommend that you book your accommodation early via the usual booking platforms.

Presentation formats:

Lecture or performance lecture (either 30 min + 15 min Q&A or 20 min + 10 min Q&A). Please specify in your submission which format your presentation will take and how long you will need.

Conference languages: English/German

Submissions:

• Deadline: 17 July 2026
• Abstract: max. 300 words
• CV: max. 200 words
• Contact: Yvonne Wasserloos (yvonne.wasserloos@moz.ac.at), Martin Ullrich (martin.ullrich@hfm-nuernberg.de) & Daniel Suer (daniel.suer@hfm-nuernberg.de)
• Feedback on submissions will be given by: 31 July 2026

The publication of an anthology is planned (English/German, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht); final manuscripts should be submitted by 15 February 2027.

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