Full-time
- Stipend of £22,000 per year (tax free)
- Tuition fees waived
- Duration: Three years
Part-time
- Stipend of £11,000 per year (tax free)
- Tuition
- Duration: Six years
Find more details about PhDs at UWL at: https://www.uwl.ac.uk/course/research/music?start=1560&option=33
We are looking for someone to propose a doctoral research project based around this amazing and unique collection of electronic musical instruments starting in Sep 2025. The proposal can be for anything to do with the collection, but it needs to support the agenda that underpins the Townshend Studio project: a place for learning, collaboration, experimentation and play which is inspired by and built upon the musical and artistic legacy of Ealing, with a goal of promoting and encouraging creative practice for all. In particular, we are looking for proposals which create shareable new content, activities and/or knowledge which promote this agenda. Practice-based approaches are encouraged.
Possible areas for applications might be:
- Exploring ways in which contemporary digital technologies can be used in conjunction with these machines. The university has a range of audio, MIDI and control voltage interfaces.
- Placing the Townshend Studio and its collection of instruments in a historical context. Projects might range from histories of synthesis and sampling to the Ealing / West London music scene.
- Understanding how communities of practice and individuals engage with and use the collection. This might be a study that works in collaboration with the funded Artist-in-Residence scheme that started in 2025.
- An ethnographic study about the technology and its maintenance. Many of the older items in the collection have very few people qualified to maintain them and very few experienced expert users. How can we capture that knowledge and make it available?
- Using the collection to explore and understand Roy Ascott's cybernetic approach to creativity and practice as embodied in the Groundcourse which Pete Townshend attended at a pre-cursor to UWL in the early 1960s.
· Study ways of embedding diverse and inclusive practices into the configuration and use of the technology and the space it is in. This might be from a perspective of culture, gender, disability, neurodiversity or any other protected characteristic.
· Develop an extendable taxonomy to catalogue and analyse the sonic and functional properties of the synthesisers (and others) and develop a digital open-access archive that includes high-quality recordings and detailed analysis of each synthesiser's capabilities.
PhD scholars will be expected to carry out teaching or research duties for a maximum of six hours per week (full-time) or 3 hours (part-time).
Application deadline
Home/settled students: 15 June 2025 at 11:59pm. International students: 30 April 2025 at 11:59pm
If you are interested, please contact Simon Zagorski-Thomas or Justin Paterson in the first instance with a short outline of your idea and we will help to develop a formal application from that.
Use this link to find details about some of the amazing instruments in the collection: https://www.uwl.ac.uk/study/study-facilities/the-townshend-studio/synthesisers
