The University of Sussex invites applications for PhD studentship awards within its Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme entitled "From Sensation and Perception to Awareness", directed by Jamie Ward and Anil Seth.
The prestigious Sussex Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarship Programme brings together doctoral researchers from different disciplines to advance our understanding of the interactions between sensing, perception, and awareness in humans, animals, and machines. The Programme will support an intake of up to NINE students starting in September 2020. PhD students will be registered within one of the participating schools (Life Sciences, Informatics, Psychology, Media Film & Music, and Brighton and Sussex Medical School). The closing date for applications is January 31st, 2020. For further details, including how to apply, see…
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/program/studentships-available-from-the-university-of-sussex-s-leverhulme-doctoral-scholarship-programme-from-sensation-and-perception-to-awareness/?i356p3783
31st January for closing date and 24+25 Feb for interviews.
Investigating Feedback Musicianship
Supervisors: Dr Chris Kiefer, C.Kiefer@sussex.ac.uk & Dr Alice Eldridge alicee@sussex.ac.uk
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There is a growing interest in the creation of and performance with feedback instruments, musical instruments which are characterised by the recurrent circulation of signals, leading to non-linear and complex system dynamics (Eldridge and Keifer, 2017). These dynamics create characteristic sonic outputs, and also mean that the more-or-less stable sensory-motor contingencies which underpin mastery of and performance with traditional instruments dissolve: there are dynamic, often unpredictable, rather than fixed relationships between physical gestures and sonic outcomes. These instruments possess 'a stimulation uncontrollability' (Ulfarsson 2019); compared to traditional performance practice, feedback musicianship is characterised by a more distributed agency between instrument and player. Feedback instruments raise new questions around the nature of musician-machine interactivity, and provide a window into wider concerns of human engagement with real-world complex dynamical systems. We welcome research proposals which investigate and advance our understanding of the experience of feedback musicianship; this could be approached through practice led research together with computational, psychological or physiological methods. Candidates should have an interest in and experience of the study of complex systems, a grounding in cognitive science and have experience in musical improvisation (in any idiom). A third supervisor will be sought according to the needs of the research proposal, in for example, philosophy, neuroscience or psychology.
Performing with Musical Machines
Supervisors: Prof Thor Magnusson, T.Magnusson@sussex.ac.uk
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Recent developments in music technology and artificial intelligence have made the prospect of collaborating and performing with virtual and real musical machines actual. Our systems can learn, evolve and demonstrate creative behaviour. But how do we perceive these machines? How do we talk about computational creativity in its diverse manifestations? What language is emerging here regarding agency, authenticity and authorship? This project will develop series of experiments in robotic and virtual computational creativity and conduct related user studies. It will also engage in discourse analysis of how labs and companies around the world are presenting their creative technologies. The project is an interdisciplinary study with one foot in computer science and the other in the humanities.
Explorations in Robot Opera
Supervisor: Dr Evelyn Ficarra, E.J.Ficarra@sussex.ac.uk
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The idea of using the performing arts as a laboratory through which to explore human – robot interaction (HRI) is gaining traction as a way of energising both the arts and the development of artificial intelligence. Note, for example, the recent Performing Robots conference in Utrecht in May 2019, which repeatedly posited the idea of theatre as a 'test bed' for HRI explorations. Opera is a form which involves a high level of musical, theatrical and visual creativity. Experimental forms of opera, especially devised music theatre and improvisational forms, could therefore be the ideal HRI 'sand pit'. The abilities displayed by good musical / dramatic improvisers, for example (listening skills, a sense of timing and proportion, a commitment to team work, and ability to respond quickly and adapt to a changing situations, an ability to imaginatively co-create) could also be seen as transferable and highly prized social skills, in the development of AI. On the other hand, the influx of robotic and artificial intelligence technologies into the performing arts asks key questions about the nature and meanings of performance itself, as an augmented human experience. Which technologies will create the most compelling 'operatic' experience, and how might they re-define the form? Diverse proposals are welcome. Applicants should have a balance of expertise and/or strong interest in at least two of the following: music composition for opera or music theatre, robotics, music programming (e.g. of improvisational systems), artificial intelligence, machine learning, sensor driven technology.
