Fwd: Music and Mental Imagery: new publication and book launch

Dear colleagues,

we're delighted to announce that Music and Mental Imagery has now been published, both as a hardback and eBook: routledge.com/9780367352165.

Drawing on perspectives from music psychology, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy, musicology, clinical psychology, and music education, Music and Mental Imagery provides a critical overview of cutting-edge research on the various types of mental imagery associated with music. The four main parts cover an introduction to the different types of mental imagery associated with music such as auditory/musical, visual, kinaesthetic, and multimodal mental imagery; a critical assessment of established and novel ways to measure mental imagery in various musical contexts; coverage of different states of consciousness, all of which are relevant for, and often associated with, mental imagery in music, and a critical overview of applications of mental imagery in health, educational, and performance settings.

To celebrate the publication we invite you to join our online book launch from 4:00-5:30pm (CET) on Tue, 24 Jan 2023. The event will include short invited responses, a conversation with video artist George Barber and a panel discussion with four contributors of the book.

To join this free online book launch, please register here: tinyurl.com/musicandimagery

Programme of the launch event:

1) Chaired by Prof. Andrea Halpern, invited responses will be delivered by Prof. Elizabeth Margulis, Prof. Jane Ginsborg, and Dr. Steffen Herff.

2) Dr Liila Taruffi in conversation with George Barber about his new documentary Mind-Wandering in a Van.

3) Panel discussion with Prof. Bence Nanay, Dr Amy Belfi, Dr Kelly Jakubowski, and Dr Helena Dukič.

All best wishes,

Mats, Liila, and Georgina

--

Dr. Mats B. Küssner

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (Lecturer)

Institut für Musikwissenschaft und Medienwissenschaft

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

 

Visiting Research Fellow

Centre for the Science of the Creative and Performing Arts

Department of Psychology

Goldsmiths, University of London

 

Tel: +49 (0)30 2093-65809

Web: http://hu.berlin/mbkhu

 

Just published:

Music and Mental Imagery (Routledge) ***SAVE 20% on my new book using the code ESA22***

Mind-wandering during contemporary live music: An exploratory study (Musicae Scientiae)

Fwd: music-data seminar this Thursday

Dear All,

The next seminar of the AHRC funded research network 'Datasounds, Datasets and Datasense' will take place this Thursday, Dec. 1^st at 4pm (UK time) online. Professor Ian Cross will be speaking about Music, Speech and Affiliative Communicative Interaction: Pitch and Rhythm as Interactive Affordances

If you wish to join us online please email o.ben-tal@kingston.ac.uk for the link.

Abstract: This paper presents the idea that, across cultures, musical interaction is communicative and intrinsically affiliative, overlapping significantly in function with the phatic speech register.  I will refer to experimental evidence that supports the view that joint music-making and phatic conversation can overlap not just in function but also in form.  I will suggest that what can be interpreted as phatic conversation or as participatory music are manifestations of a superordinate domain of affiliative communicative interaction, and will submit that features that we tend to think of as musical —such as discrete patterns in pitch and rhythm— are best construed not as aesthetic properties but as interactive affordances that may be functional in the achievement of interpersonal affiliative alignment.

Fwd: New open access book: Music and Digital Media: A planetary anthropology, edited by Georgina Born (UCL Press)

UCL Press is delighted to announce the publication of a new open access book that may be of interest to list subscribers: Music and Digital Media: A planetary anthropology, edited by Georgina Born. Download it free: https://bit.ly/3AdCSFy

*******************************************
Music and Digital Media
A planetary anthropology
Edited by Georgina Born

Free download: https://bit.ly/3AdCSFy
*******************************************

Anthropology has neglected the study of music and this needs to be redressed. This book sets out to show how and why. It does so by bringing music to the subfield of digital anthropology, arguing that digital anthropology has much to gain by expanding its horizons to music – becoming more interdisciplinary by reference to digital/media studies, music and sound studies.

Music and Digital Media is the first comparative ethnographic study of the impact of digital media on music worldwide. It offers a radical and lucid new theoretical framework for understanding digital media through music, showing that music is today where the promises and problems of the 'digital' assume clamouring audibility – while acting as a testing ground for innovations in the digital-cultural industries. The book contains ten chapters, eight of which present comprehensive original ethnographies. The chapters between them addresses popular, folk and art musics in the global South and North, including Kenya, Argentina, India, Canada and the UK/Europe, with each chapter providing a different regional or digital focus.

The book is unique in bringing ethnographic research on popular, folk and art musics from the global North and South into a comparative framework on a large scale, and creates an innovative new paradigm for comparative anthropology.

Free download: https://bit.ly/3AdCSFy

----------------------
uclpress.co.uk | @uclpress

Fwd: [DMRN-LIST] Deadline approaching: Fully funded PhD in Performing Arts Technology at Michigan

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Anıl Çamcı <acamci@umich.edu>
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2022 at 15:33
Subject: [DMRN-LIST] Deadline approaching: Fully funded PhD in Performing Arts Technology at Michigan
To: <DMRN-LIST@jiscmail.ac.uk>

Dear DMRN list,

This is a friendly reminder that the applications for a fully funded PhD in Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan are due by December 10. You can find more information about the program and application procedure below.

The Department of Performing Arts Technology at the University of Michigan's School of Music, Theatre & Dance is now accepting PhD applications for Fall 2023.

Students in the program will benefit from: 

• individualized attention from a large, accomplished faculty with varied research and creative interests;

• a flexible curriculum with numerous specialized course offerings that allow for breadth and depth;

• access to cutting-edge research facilities; 

• an inclusive, diverse, and collaborative student community of artists and scholars in a vibrant, comprehensive performing arts school;

• the material, social, and intellectual resources of one of the top public research universities in the United States; 

• 5 years of full funding including tuition, a salary stipend, summer stipend, and generous health care benefits;

• professional and career development opportunities around teaching, research, and performance;

• many opportunities for additional funding, professional development, academic and community support through the Rackham Graduate School.

Incoming students will complete two years of coursework, including a small core of required courses, cognates, and electives chosen from across four thematic clusters: Interaction Design, Audio Programming, Production, and Intermedia Composition/Performance. Afterwards, PhD candidates will work on a dissertation topic of their own design in close collaboration with a faculty advisory team tailored to the student's interests. The program encourages diverse research methodologies, including practice-based approaches. The program also involves opportunities for gaining teaching experience.

Ongoing faculty research areas include new interfaces for musical expression, data sonification, virtual reality music systems, telematic performance, haptics and accessible music interfaces, digital fabrication for acoustics, computational creativity, antiracist music theories and pedagogies, technical ear training and critical listening, and poetic interactions of sound, image, and story.

Applications for the PhD program are due by December 10. More information and detailed application instructions are available on the program page. Applicants must have completed undergraduate and master's degrees in related fields (e.g., music, music technology, engineering, media arts, computer science) prior to entering the PhD program. Students currently in the final year of a master's degree may apply for admission contingent upon successful completion of their degree. Those interested in a master's program are invited to apply to the MA in Media Arts by December 1 (note the earlier deadline).

If you have any questions about the program, admissions process, or the Department of Performing Arts Technology, feel free to contact the PAT Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Anıl Çamcı <acamci@umich.edu>.

Best,

Anıl Çamcı, PhD

Assistant Professor and Director of Graduate Studies

Department of Performing Arts Technology

School of Music, Theatre & Dance

University of Michigan

http://anilcamci.com

Fwd: CALT Conference 2023 - Abstract submission deadline extended

Dear colleagues and friends,

The first international conference CALT: Creative Approaches to Learning and Teaching will be held at the Faculty of Education in Osijek on March 24 and 25, 2023. The purpose of the conference is to bring together all experts and scientists whose work is aimed at questioning the traditional and contemporary view of creativity and at promoting new approaches in learning and teaching in which the emphasis is placed on creative activity and expression. More about the conference, themes, and participation you may find at the conference website: https://calt-conference-2023.webnode.hr/

We are pleased to announce that the deadline for Abstract submission has been extended until November 15, 2022. We would appreciate it if you could forward this message to colleagues that might be interested in Conference participation.



IMPORTANT DATES

Application for participation with submission of abstract and keywords: November 15, 2022

Notification of abstract acceptance: December 10, 2022

Registration and registration fee payment: January 10, 2023

Deadline for submitting full papers: May 15, 2023


With best wishes,
Mia Mucić,
Organizing Committee Secretary

--

učiteljica mentorica glazbene kulture i umjetnosti,

OŠ Zrinskih Nuštar i Gimnazija Matije Antuna Reljkovića

098/ 947 67 42

doktorandica
Poslijediplomski studij Obrazovne znanosti i perspektive obrazovanja
Fakultet za odgojne i obrazovne znanosti
Sveučilište Josipa Jurja Strossmayera u Osijeku

Fwd: REMINDER - Webinar: Telling Operatic Stories: Race, ethics and authenticity

Dear all, 

This is a reminder email as well as an invitation for our Thursday's Webinar. The event is free on Zoom and open to anyone interested in opera, culture and society. 

Please do not hesitate to follow the Twitter Telling Operatic Stories for updates. Looking forward to seeing you then and please feel free to share this to the people who might be interested in it! 

Kind regards,

Luqian Zhao

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Webinar: Telling Operatic Stories: Race, ethics and authenticity

 

Thursday 6 October, 4.30 - 6pm. Zoom link: https://universityofleeds.zoom.us/j/89304294702

 

In recent years, the opera industry and academic study of opera have grappled with the ethics of presenting certain stories on the stage. Controversies over racial and cultural depictions in recent opera productions demonstrate that such critical reckoning is timely and urgent. 

 

At stake are questions of how (and which) audiences listen, of who has the right to tell certain stories, and how organisations facilitate or inhibit authentic creative voices. 

In this, the first of six online seminars to be held in 2022-23 as part of the Sadler Seminar Series 'Telling Operatic Stories: Race, ethics, and authenticity', opera practitioners and scholars will come together to open up discussion around the ways in which opera stages encounters between different groups and cultures. 

 

The session is an invitation for dialogue between panellists and audience, that aims to create a space in which individual perspectives can be explored, and to identify the key themes and questions that will inform the rest of the series. By bringing academic perspectives from Leeds and beyond together with creative voices from Opera North, this seminar explores how engagement between research and practice can explore race and storytelling in opera.

 

Confirmed speakers:

Sam Durrant (School of English, University of Leeds)

Dominic Gray (Projects Manager, Opera North) 

Maggie Kubanyiova (School of Education, University of Leeds) 

Imani Mosley (School of Music, University of Florida) 

Ariana Phillips-Hutton (School of Music) 

Edward Venn (School of Music) 

Matthew Kofi Waldren (Conductor)

 

The event is free on Zoom and open to anyone interested in opera, culture and society. Please do not hesitate to follow the Twitter Telling Operatic Stories for updates. For further information, or if you have trouble accessing the seminar, please contact Luqian Zhao (mclz@leeds.a.cuk).

Fwd: Tenure-track position in Music Technology at Georgia Tech

Dear colleagues, 

 

The School of Music at the Georgia Institute of Technology is beginning a search for a full-time, tenure-track position at the level of Assistant Professor.  Please find the full details and application link on this page.

 

I would be happy to answer any questions related to the position or the school. Please share among your graduating PhD students and colleagues! 

 

Kind regards, 

Claire Arthur 
Assistant Professor, School of Music
College of Design
Georgia Institute of Technology

Pronouns: she, her

claire.arthur@gatech.edu

Fwd: Music Therapy in the UK Today conference

Music Therapy in the UK Today: a weekend conference with the Music
Therapy Charity and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London,
29th-30th October 2022
We look forward to welcoming you to the 2nd Music Therapy Charity
Conference, arranged in collaboration with the music therapy
department at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
The aim of the conference is to provide a forum for new and innovative
music therapy research funded by the MTC, alongside clinical
discussion and improvisation workshops organised by the Guildhall.
The conference will be of particular interest to students (with
special rates) ,music therapists, arts in health practitioners and
current and future researchers: all are welcome!

Keynote Speakers:
Dr. Catherine Carr, (Queen Mary University of London): Tony Wigram
Travelling Fellowship Memorial lecture
Dr Tracey McConnell and Dr Lisa Graham-Wisener (Queen's University
Belfast): "Building capacity for high-quality research on the role of
music therapy in supporting informal carers of people at end-of-life:
MusiCARER project".
Dr Claire Flower (Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHs Foundation Trust
London and Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge): "Music Therapy
Research & Practice, Shall We Dance?"

The Programme will include research presentations given by Guildhall
Alumni and recipients of grants awarded by the Music Therapy Charity:

Dr Elizabeth Coombes: The Singing Unit: a mixed methods study
exploring the benefits of a music therapy intervention for parents of
premature babies during their hospital stay.
Vicky Kammin: "Experiences of Music Therapy in Paediatric Palliative
Care from multiple stakeholder perspectives: a Systematic Review"
Gemma Lenton-Smith: Investigating a music therapy service in a primary
mainstream school: the teachers' perspective"
Joon Oh: "Music therapy with young people from multicultural
backgrounds in South Korea"
Tara Roman: "Disability, ethics and music therapy research: An
exploration of ethical considerations in a participatory research
project with disabled children and young people"
Dr Giorgos Tsiris: "Why researching spirituality in music therapy?"
Tina Warnock: "How does a music therapist's vocal awareness and
approach affect the potential for vocal interplay with a child with
autism?"
Bryony Waters: "Development and evaluation of Person Attuned Musical
Interactions (PAMI) Manual in Dementia – A UK Version"

Practical sessions will include a workshop with Dr Sarah Gail Brand
(Professor of Improvisation, Guildhall School of Music and Drama),
exploring improvised music making in music therapy and musical
performance from her doctoral research, and clinical discussion
workshops facilitated by Ann Sloboda (Head of Music Therapy, Guildhall
School of Music and Drama, Psychoanalyst and member of the British
Psychoanalytic Society).

The conference fee will include lunch on Saturday 29th, tea/coffee on
both days and a drinks reception 5-6pm on Saturday evening; it will
close at 1400 on Sunday 30th October.

Booking:
Via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/music-therapy-in-the-uk-today-
tickets-335304664277?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
Early Bird (until 20th September 2022) £90 (+7.61 booking fee) Student
£40.00 (+£3.71 booking fee)
Standard (until 20th October 2022) £120 (+£9.95 booking fee)

Or, direct to The Music Therapy Charity (no booking fee) via bank transfer to:
Account name: The Music Therapy Charity
Sort code: 40-52-40
Account number: 00001391
Reference: RCUK(YOUR NAME)

NB Cancellations up to 19/08/22 will be refundable minus the
Eventbrite fees but cancellations after 19/08/22 will not be
refundable.
All enquiries should be addressed to the Conference Secretary, Nicola
Barton, info@musictherapy.org.uk

looking for musicians with a diagnosis on the autistic spectrum to take part in my PhD study

Fwd: Musical Bodies, Musical Minds by Dylan van der Schyff, Andrea Schiavio and David J. Elliott (on sale August 30, 2022 from the MIT Press),

Hello,

 

I am sending along a digital review copy of our forthcoming book, Musical Bodies, Musical Minds: Enactive Cognitive Science and the Meaning of Human Musicality by Dylan van der Schyff, Andrea Schiavio and David J. Elliott (on sale August 30, 2022 from the MIT Press), which may be of interest to you. The book offers an enactive account of musicality that proposes new ways of thinking about musical experience, musical development in infancy, music and evolution, and more.

 

Musical Bodies, Musical Minds provides an innovative account of human musicality that draws on recent developments in embodied cognitive science. The authors explore musical cognition as a form of sense-making that unfolds across the embodied, environmentally embedded, and sociomaterially extended dimensions that compose the enactment of human worlds of meaning. This perspective enables new ways of understanding musical experience, the development of musicality in infancy and childhood, music's emergence in human evolution, and the nature of musical emotions, empathy, and creativity.

 

Developing their account, the authors link a diverse array of ideas from fields including neuroscience, theoretical biology, psychology, developmental studies, social cognition, and education. Drawing on these insights, they show how dynamic processes of adaptive body-brain-environment interactivity drive musical cognition across a range of contexts, extending it beyond the personal (inner) domain of musical agents and out into the material and social worlds they inhabit and influence. An enactive approach to musicality, they argue, can reveal important aspects of human being and knowing that are often lost or obscured in the modern technologically driven world.

 

"An inspiring contribution to the rapidly changing field of contemporary musicology drawing on the latest developments in enactive and ecological perspectives on embodiment,"said  Ezequiel A. Di Paolo, Research Professor, Ikerbasque, the Basque Foundation for Science. "The authors deftly combine a wide range of disciplines to put forward an integrated view of human musicality as situated and intersubjective meaning-making."

 

The book goes on sale August 30. Please go here to access an early digital review copy. If you have any questions or require a physical review copy, please let me know and we can make accommodations.

 

Thank you for considering coverage.

 

All best,

Rachel

 

Rachel Aldrich 
Associate Marketing Manager | The MIT Press
One Broadway, Fl 12 | Cambridge, MA 02142
(617) 253-3383 | raldrich@mit.edu 
Pronouns: she/her

Fwd: The Growth of Music and Science: Professor Ian Cross and his impact and legacy

Professor Ian Cross recently retired from being director of the Centre
for Music and Science at the University of Cambridge. We will be
celebrating his work on the 25th and 26th July. This event is part of
the GROWTH series at Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK and will explore
the growth of music and science through a series of invited talks by
Ian Cross, his PhD students, Wolfson alumni and close collaborators.

For more information:
https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/events/growth-music-and-science-professor-ian-cross-and-his-impact-and-legacy

If you would like to join online, please register here:
https://imperial.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bKhfPmFLQNBNVgW

Best wishes,
Neta

Dr Neta Spiro
Reader in Performance Science


CENTRE FOR
PERFORMANCE SCIENCE

The CPS is a partnership of
Royal College of Music | Imperial College London

www.PerformanceScience.ac.uk

Fwd: CALL FOR WORKS – SOUND/IMAGE22 - 18-20 November 2022, University of Greenwich

========================================= 

CALL FOR WORKS – SOUND/IMAGE22

18-20 November 2022, University of Greenwich 

========================================= 

 

This festival brings together artists and experts exploring the relationship between sounds and images, and the images which sounds can construct by themselves. 

 

We actively encourage applications from candidates of all ethnicities, backgrounds and genders, who are traditionally underrepresented.  

 

We seek submissions and proposals for – TALKS, CONCERTS, SCREENINGS, PERFORMANCES, INSTALLATIONS – exploring diverse areas of sound / image practice, including (but not limited to):  

• Audio-Visual Composition;  
• Visual Music; Acousmatic Music;  
• Expanded Cinema;  
• Experimental Film;  
• AV Performances;  
• Sound and Image Relationships;  
• Sonic Image;  
• Perception of Sound;  
• Embodiment & tactility;  
• Impressions of space and place. 

 

Deadline for submissions: 12 August 2022 at 23:59 UTC+1 

 

SUBMIT via: https://greenwich.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/soundimage-2022-call-for-works 

 

For further information visit: https://www.gre.ac.uk/research/activity/las/soundimage-22-call-open 

 

=== 

Call for Papers - 500 word abstract 

We invite submissions on the following topics including, but not limited to: 

• Audio-visual Composition; 
• Visual Music; 
• Acousmatic Composition; 
• Audio-visual Performance; 
• Sound and Image Relationships; 
• the Sonic Image; 
• Perception of Sound; 
• Embodiment & tactility; 
• Impressions of space and place. 

=== 

Call for Audio-Visual Works – submit via a non-expiring link 

We invite composers and filmmakers to submit their audio-visual compositions for performance.  Works should be no longer than 15 minutes in duration. 

• Fixed media works will be presented at a formal screening in our 'Cinema' space with 16:9 HD projection and up to 7.1 surround sound. 
• Installations will be installed in our University Galleries.

• Live Performances will be presented in our Television Studio space. 

=== 

Call for Acousmatic Works – submit via a non-expiring link 

We invite composers to submit acousmatic compositions for performance. 

Works should be no longer than 15 minutes in duration. 

Works will be presented via loudspeaker orchestra. 

====================================================== 

Deadline for submissions: 12 August 2022 at 23:59 UTC+1 

================================================ 

 

SUBMIT: https://greenwich.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/soundimage-2022-call-for-works 

 

For further information visit: https://www.gre.ac.uk/research/activity/las/soundimage-22-call-open 

 

--------------------------------

Dr. Andrew Knight-Hill

Associate Professor (Reader) in Sound Design and Music Technology,
SOUND/IMAGE Research Group,
University of Greenwich, London.
a.hill@gre.ac.uk

www.ahillav.co.uk 

Current Projects:

"Audiovisual Space" (AHRC Leadership Fellowship) - https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FV006975%2F1
"A Sonic Palimpsest" (AHRC Research Grant) - https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT003030%2F1

"Exploring Cultural Diversity in Experimental Sound" (AHRC Research Grant) - https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FV010964%2F1

"Reconfiguring the Landscape" (Norwegian Artistic Research Project) https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/821232/821233 

Publications:

Sound and Image: Aesthetics and Practices

https://www.routledge.com/Sound-and-Image-Aesthetics-and-Practices/Knight-Hill/p/book/9780367271466

SOUND/IMAGE Research Group

https://www.gre.ac.uk/research/groups/sound-image

Study with us:

Digital Arts MA

https://www.gre.ac.uk/pg/ach/ma-digital-arts

PhD Study / Postdoctoral Fellowships:

Email proposals to: sound-image@gre.ac.uk

University of Greenwich, a charity and company limited by guarantee, registered in England (reg no. 986729). Registered Office: Old Royal Naval College, Park Row, Greenwich SE10 9LS.

Fwd: [DMRN-LIST] 10 fully funded 3-year PhD Studentships

Last 2 days to apply for these funded PhD positions! 

***********

We are delighted to announce 10 fully funded 3-year PhD Studentships at Edinburgh Napier University, School of Computing, with a number of the proposed projects suitable for members of this group. 

This includes working with me on a project called 'Safe City Sound Map', creating a sound map indicating where and when women feel harassed or intimidated as well as where they are happy and safe. Please see the below link for further details and feel free to reach out to myself or my colleagues (their details are with each proposal) for more information.

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CQU398/10-phd-studentships

Feel free to share with your networks.

(The studentships are only available to UK students.)

Kind regards,

Rod Selfridge

r.selfridge@napier.ac.uk

Fwd: Lecturer/Senior Lecturer in Audio Engineering (Research and Teaching)

LECTURER/SENIOR LECTURER IN AUDIO ENGINEERING (RESEARCH AND TEACHING)

University of Surrey

Sound & Video Recording

Location: Guildford

Salary: £42,149 to £61,819 per annum

Post Type: Full Time, Permanent

Closing Date: 23.59 hours BST on Wednesday 20 July 2022

Reference: 042322

We seek an outstanding, self-motivated Lecturer to contribute to the education of exceptional future audio engineers and musicians on the BMus/BSc Music and Sound Recording (Tonmeister) programme in the Department of Music and Sound Recording, and to conduct world-leading research.

The successful applicant will teach on the prestigious Tonmeister undergraduate programme, including electronics and audio programming, as well as: organise and develop modules at undergraduate or postgraduate level; contribute to student recruitment; and conduct personal tutorials with students. You will therefore have a good background in electronics and programming at degree level, excellent administrative and organisation skills, and an ability to clearly explain topics related to audio engineering.

You will have a strong research profile and/or the potential to develop and sustain research activities, with a clear vision for how your research will progress and an idea of how it might feed into or complement the Institute of Sound Recording's (IoSR's) goals of engineering perceptually-motivated audio signal analysis, processing and control systems. You will be encouraged to develop your own research profile and to produce high-quality research outputs, including books, academic journal articles or other appropriate forms of research output.

You will be joining a supportive and varied team of colleagues drawn from both academic and respected industry backgrounds. The programme has a small cohort of high-quality students, enabling a highly collegiate environment between staff and students. Our students are highly motivated and have a strong background in music, mathematics and physics. 

Running since 1970, the Tonmeister programme is unique in the way that it combines study of audio engineering, music, and practical sound recording.  It has produced a stream of successful alumni, including winners of Oscars, Grammys, EMMYs, BAFTAs, and the Mercury Prize. Our graduates work across a wide cross-section of the audio industry, from product design to film music composition, and this alumnus network enables us to call upon current industry expertise in many areas.  Alumni are very keen to give something back to the programme, and our reunions are excellent networking opportunities.  The programme includes a Professional Training Year, and we have regular placements with many high-profile companies including Abbey Road Studios, Focusrite/Novation and Sky Post-Production.

Research in the IoSR focuses on human perception of audio quality and uses this focus to engineer perceptually-motivated signal analysis, processing and control systems. Our projects have been funded by EPSRC, the European Commission and industrial collaborators, involving human listening tests, acoustic measurement, statistical modelling and digital signal processing. Current work is, for example, developing efficient methods of generating artificial reverberation, optimising reproduced audio on headphones in the presence of external environment sound, and modelling timbral perception.

There is opportunity to collaborate with many groups across the University; previous and current projects involved the Department of Psychology, the Centre for Vision, Speech and Signal Processing (CVSSP), the Surrey Institute for People-Centred Artificial Intelligence, and colleagues in Music.

The facilities available in the Department for teaching and research include: 3 recording studios containing high quality equipment including consoles from Studer, AMS-Neve and SSL; over 120 microphones for recording and technical measurement; an ITU-R BS 1116 standard listening room containing a 30-loudspeaker reproduction system; and a range of test and measurement hardware and software.  The Department is home to the Moog Sound Lab UK, and benefits from many links with the audio, video and computer games industries. The University is currently investing nearly £2m in new and updated facilities for the Department, including a new film and television production studio, Dolby Atmos dubbing theatre, new computing labs and electronics laboratory, and additional edit rooms.

At Surrey, we are committed to providing an inclusive environment that offers equitable opportunities for all, in the pursuit of Surrey's vision to be a leading global University. We work together to create a truly inclusive culture. We place great value on diversity and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. We are seeking to increase the diversity within our community and would particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups, such as women, people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and people with disabilities.

The interviews are expected to take place on 28 July 2022.

Potential applicants are encouraged to contact Dr. Russell Mason (r.mason@surrey.ac.uk) or Prof. Tony Myatt (t.myatt@surrey.ac.uk) for an informal discussion about the role. To apply, go to https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=042322

Best regards,
  Enzo

--
Enzo De Sena
Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor)
Institute of Sound Recording
Department of Music & Media
University of Surrey
Stag Hill, University Campus, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK

Office: 07 BC 03

Email: e.desena@surrey.ac.uk
URL: desena.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/enzodesena

Fwd: Articles published in Music & Science

Music & Science provides an open-access platform for engaged debate and insight into music research that embraces a wide range of scientific perspectives. A selection of six articles illustrates the highly interdisciplinary scope and focus of the journal. The articles explore topics ranging from the central role of music in mother-infant interaction, to reassessment of the mechanisms underlying music's efficacy in therapy for Autistic Spectrum Disorder, to the responses of plants to vibrations in the form of audible stimuli, to a model of the factors underpinning changes in the structure of the songs of humpback whales, to a re-evaluation and updating of the results of Alan Lomax's monumental Cantometrics project, to a computational study of styles in Swiss yodelling.  The papers illustrate clearly the broad and interdisciplinary reach of the general field of music and science, despite the diversity of their topics and the fields in which their results might be expected to have significant implications.  Together, these six articles provide a snapshot of the diverse and original research presented in the journal, whilst also demonstrating the value of creating a forum for dialogue between music and the sciences.

 

Fancourt, D., & Perkins, R. (2018). The effects of mother–infant singing on emotional closeness, affect, anxiety, and stress hormones. Music & Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204317745746

Mother–infant closeness is vital to a human infant's survival and to the wellbeing of both mothers and infants across the life span.  However, despite mother–infant singing being practiced across cultures, there remains little quantitative demonstration of any effects of it on mothers or their perceived closeness to their infants.  In this study Daisy Fancourt and Rosie Perkins investigated mother-infant interactions among 43 mother-infant pairs, finding that mother–infant singing was associated with greater increases in maternal perceptions of emotional closeness than was the case for other interactions.  Singing is also associated with greater increases in positive affect and greater decreases in negative affect, and greater decreases in both psychological and biological markers of anxiety, supporting previous findings concerning effects of singing on closeness and social bonding in other populations as well as suggesting associations between closeness, bonding, and wider mental health.

 

Janzen, T. B., & Thaut, M. H. (2018). Rethinking the role of music in the neurodevelopment of autism spectrum disorder. Music & Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204318769639

While music as therapy for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has focused on social interaction, communication skills, and social-emotional behaviours, recently there has been an increased research focus on the role of motor and attention functions as part of the hallmark features of ASD. This article by Thenille Braun Janzen and Michael Thaut provides a critical appraisal of these developments, reassessing the role of music as intervention to support healthy neurodevelopment in individuals with ASD. Compelling research evidence indicates that motor and attention deficits are deeply implicated in the healthy neurodevelopment of socio-communication skills and may be key indicators of structural and functional brain dysfunction in ASD. Janzen & Thaut suggest that the significant effect of auditory-motor entrainment on motor and attention functions and brain connectivity may lead to a critical new functional role for music in the treatment of autism.

 

Kwak, D., Combriat, T., Wang, C., Scholz, H., Danielsen, A., & Jensenius, A. R. (2022). Music for Cells? A Systematic Review of Studies Investigating the Effects of Audible Sound Played Through Speaker-Based Systems on Cell Cultures. Music & Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043221080965

In a large-scale review led by Dongho Kwak, a team at RITMO in Oslo extended our knowledge of the potential effects of music in the non-human world by analysing studies of whether musical sound can be used as cell stimuli. An overview of studies that have used audible sound played through speaker-based systems to induce mechanical perturbation in cell cultures found effects such as  enhanced cell migration, proliferation, colony formation, and differentiation ability. However, they also found significant differences in methodologies and cell type-specific outcomes which limited the generalisability of the inferences that could be drawn from the review.  They suggested that future experiments must better control their acoustic environments, use standardized sound and noise measurement methods, and explore a more comprehensive range of controlled sound parameters as cellular stimuli.

 

Mcloughlin, Michael, Lamoni, L., Garland, E. C., Ingram, S., Kirke, A., Noad, M. J., Rendell, L., & Miranda, E. (2018). Using agent-based models to understand the role of individuals in the song evolution of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae). Music & Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204318757021

An interdisciplinary team from the fields of cetacean biology and computer music, led by Michael McLoughlin, explored the ways in which the complex hierarchical structure of male humpback whales may develop in the course of their annual migratory cycles.  While these songs appear gradually to change over the course of the breeding season, instances have been recorded of more rapid song changes associated with patterns of migration. In order to understand the mechanisms that drive these song changes, as individual whales cannot be tracked over long migratory routes, we apply methods used in computer music research. We model the migratory patterns of humpback whales, a simple song learning and production method coupled with sound transmission loss, and how often singing occurs during these migratory cycles. Our model shows that shared feeding grounds where conspecifics are able to mix provide key opportunities for cultural transmission, and that production errors facilitated gradually changing songs.

 

Savage, P. E. (2018). Alan Lomax's Cantometrics Project: A comprehensive review. Music & Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/2059204318786084

Alan Lomax's ambitious and the controversial Cantometrics Project, based on analysis of approximately 1,800 songs from 148 worldwide populations using 36 classificatory features, sparked extensive and fierce debate, and the project never gained mainstream acceptance.  In a comprehensive critical review of the Cantometrics Project, focusing on issues regarding the song sample, classification scheme, statistical analyses, interpretation, and ethnocentrism/reductionism, Pat Savage distils Lomax's sometimes-conflicting claims into diagrams summarizing his three primary results: (1) ten regional song-style types, (2) nine musical factors representing intra-musical correlations, and (3) correlations between these musical factors and five factors of social structure. While the links Lomax claimed to have uncovered between song style and social structure are weakly supported, Savage shows that Lomax's historical interpretations regarding connections ranging from colonial diaspora to ancient migrations provide a more promising starting point for both research and teaching about the global arts.

 

Wey, Y., & Metzig, C. (2021). Machine Learning Classification of Regional Swiss Yodel Styles Based on Their Melodic Attributes. Music & Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043211004497

Yannick Wey and Cornelia Metzig provide a first computational analysis of alpine yodelling, a style of singing that is both idiosyncratic and that has national significance. Through a classification of yodel styles based on their melodic features, the authors demonstrate significant regional differences between yodel tunes in Switzerland, and reveal the most salient musical features that contribute to different yodel styles. The study provides empirical evidence to support anecdotal claims from folklore studies that yodelling, often assumed to have a 'national' style, is in fact rooted in distinct geographic regions. Moreover, the work offers an innovative methodology with potential applications for analysis of other developing or ambiguous genres of music.

 

Find out more about the journal here: https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/music-science/journal202491.

 

Ian Cross (Editor-in-Chief), Adam Okeford, Graham Welch, Emily Payne (Assistant Editor)

 

 

Dr Emily Payne (she/her)

Lecturer in Music

Assistant Editor, Music & Science