The Spatial Aural Exciter

Sound can change the world and so can listening. The written part of my thesis is examining the urban acoustic environment with the aid of two frameworks illuminating the perspectives of sound as an event and sound as an effect. It gives an overview of the universe of sound in the context of the urban sonic environment and elucidates the discourse on noise and its beauty. My practical work is the creation of a network of electronic sounds which opens the possibility to explore and discover densities of sound events, and their temporal and spatial diffusion. The aim is to develop a prototype which can be used as a tool for further artistic explorations. It is a spatial intervention and a sonic network at the same time. The piece is inspired by the immense variety of sound impressions from everyday experiences. The way we listen is part of how we see the world

Presented at New Factual Storytelling Symposium, Canberra

Presented Master of Arts research at New Factual Storytelling Symposium, Canberra, by Skype, and screened my film 'Greensplat' http://ucdoclab.blogspot.co.nz/p/news.htm

Machinima And Video-based Soft Skills Training

Multimedia training methods have traditionally relied heavily on video based technologies and significant research has shown these to be very effective training tools. However production of video is time and resource intensive. Machinima (pronounced \u27muh-sheen-eh-mah\u27) technologies are based on video gaming technology. Machinima technology allows video game technology to be manipulated into unique scenarios based on entertainment or training and practice applications. Machinima is the converting of these unique scenarios into video vignettes that tell a story. These vignettes can be interconnected with branching points in much the same way that education videos are interconnected as vignettes between decision points. This study addressed the effectiveness of machinima based soft-skills education using avatar actors versus the traditional video teaching application using human actors. This research also investigated the difference between presence reactions when using avatar actor produced video vignettes as compared to human actor produced video vignettes. Results indicated that the difference in training and/or practice effectiveness is statistically insignificant for presence, interactivity, quality and the skill of assertiveness. The skill of active listening presented a mixed result indicating the need for careful attention to detail in situations where body language and facial expressions are critical to communication. This study demonstrates that a significant opportunity exists for the exploitation of avatar actors in video based instruction

Towards a Practitioner Model of Mobile Music

This practice-based research investigates the mobile paradigm in the context of electronic music, sound and performance; it considers the idea of mobile as a lens through which a new model of electronic music performance can be interrogated. This research explores mobile media devices as tools and modes of artistic expression in everyday contexts and situations. While many of the previous studies have tended to focus upon the design and construction of new hardware and software systems, this research puts performance practice at the centre of its analysis. This research builds a methodological and practical framework that draws upon theories of mobile-mediated aurality, rhetoric on the practice of walking, relational aesthetics, and urban and natural environments as sites for musical performance. The aim is to question the spaces commonly associated with electronic music – where it is situated, listened to and experienced. This thesis concentrates on the creative use of existing systems using generic mobile devices – smartphones, tablets and HD cameras – and commercially available apps. It will describe the development, implementation and evaluation of a self-contained performance system utilising digital signal processing apps and the interconnectivity of an inter-app routing system. This is an area of investigation that other research programmes have not addressed in any depth. This research’s enquiries will be held in dynamic and often unpredictable conditions, from navigating busy streets to the fold down shelf on the back of a train seat, as a solo performer or larger groups of players, working with musicians, nonmusicians and other participants. Along the way, it examines how ubiquitous mobile technology and its total access might promote inclusivity and creativity through the cultural adhesive of mobile media. This research aims to explore how being mobile has unrealised potential to change the methods and experiences of making electronic music, to generate a new kind of performer identity and as a consequence lead towards a practitioner model of mobile music

Multimodal experiments in the design of living archive

Designing a ‘living archive’ that will enable new forms of circus performance to be realised is a complex and dynamic challenge. This paper discusses the methods and approaches used by the research team in the design of the Circus Oz Living Archive. Essential to this project has been the design of a responsive methodology that could embrace the diverse areas of knowledge and practice that have led to a design outcome that integratesthe affordances of the circus with those of digital technologies. The term ‘living archive’ has been adopted as a means to articulate the dynamic nature of the archive. This is an archive that will always be evolving, not only because of the on going collection of content, but more importantly because the performance of the archive users will themselves become part of the archive collection

Reducing and removing barriers to spatial audio : applications of capital as a critical framework to promote inclusion in spatial audio : a thesis submitted to Massey University in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in Music at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand

The research within this thesis aims to address the question of whether barriers of capital to the field of spatial audio can be reduced or removed. Spatial audio is the musical utilization of space, where spatialization is the salient feature of the musical work. As a field, it primarily exists within academic and art institutions. Because of this, there are numerous barriers that prohibit people from engaging with the field. These barriers include significant technical requirements, the need for education, the expense of large spatial audio systems, amongst others. These barriers mean that those who are excluded have little to no pathway to engage with the field. This thesis explores the barriers in spatial audio through the lens of capital. Viewed as one’s level of resource, a lack of economic, social, symbolic, cultural, and physical capital can exclude many from engaging with spatial audio. The research within this thesis identifies barriers of capital that exist within the field through qualitative and quantitative survey analysis as well as literature review. The identified barriers are then addressed through practice-led and practice-based research with the creation of new spatial audio works and compositional strategies, alongside user surveys to ascertain the efficacy of the research

Soundings: A Practice Led investigation into Interactive and Immersive Sound Art Installations 2000-2018

This thesis proposes Soundings to investigate interactivity, engagement and immersion while exposing an argument for knowledge concerning sound installation art in the 21st-century. This will be achieved through a system of artworks, interviews, observations and analysis of research findings. The objective, as an enquiry, acknowledges sound art relative to contemporary installation practice initiated from a visit to the Sonic Boom exhibition in the year (2000). As an artist who works digitally and employs sound and video as the pervasive practice, this examination exists in the sonic arts connected within the vocabulary of visuality. Possessing an auditory recognition related to creative compositions has been the stimulation, emphasising play as the central constituent of embodiment and interactivity. The 21st-century arrived with a Sonic Boom of associations amongst progressions of software and hardware while acknowledging the technical proficiency, creative vision, personal values and cultural context to create engaging and meaningful works that connect with audience members. Specific technology is omnipresent and the thesis is separated into four chapters, with each stage discussing the author’s artworks, further supporting the practice-led aspect of the project. Queries include, what is the role of the audience when presented with a sound installation that requires some form of engagement? Therefore, this research investigates the different roles of participator, composer and author from the perspective of the exhibition Playback in 2018. Demonstrating with digital sound refers to any sound manipulated, created or processed using specific technology as the principal motivation for an exhibition. The space in which the sound art is exhibited provides a physical framework but also influences how it is perceived and experienced by the audience. Compositions, performance and participants creating sound works present this thesis as a 21st-century account, making up two volumes. Sound, installation and space become the compositional framework and an arrangement of associations where immersion and perception are expected in the sound art installation. Listeners becoming actively engaged and playing with sound will take centre stage, inspired through involvement and collaboration. Seeking to reveal what it is to be immersed in sound art, the digital practice includes physical and computer-mediated intermedia installations designed to reveal theoretical positions in immersive auditory taxonomies

Designing with and for People with Dementia: Wellbeing, Empowerment and Happiness

Designing with and for People with Dementia: Wellbeing, Empowerment and Happiness is the International Conference 2019 of the MinD Consortium, the DRS Special Interest Group on Behaviour Change and the DRS Special Interest Group on Wellbeing and Happiness, hosted by the Technische Universität Dresden, in Dresden, Germany. The conference proceedings provide trans-disciplinary contributions for researchers, practitioners, end-users and policy makers from the design and health care professions in terms of new findings, approaches and methods for using design to improve dementia care and to support people with dementia and their carers. The conference has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 691001, and from the DFG German Research Foundation

Thesis Inquiry & Process: Something About Reality

This thesis documents the employment of a system of Process and Inquiry as it serves as a structural foundation for an investigation of the manner in which Reality is represented in visual portraiture. Through a vigorous exploration of the concept of Reality and its singular nature, it is hypothesized that intrinsically unique experiences could potentially be communicated through the perceptive abilities of the emotional quotient. The effects of media, timing, complexity, abstraction, and authenticity are examined for their effect on the apparent clarity of concepts transmitted in this manner. The inquiry ultimately manifests in the daily creation of self-portraiture, as well as a multimedia exhibition inspired by the theatrical arts, that speak to the communal understanding of the Human Experience

Desiring machinations of Matertekhnologi

vii, 161 leaves : ill. ; 29 cm. --Desiring Machinations of Matertekhnologi is an Individualized Multidisciplinary thesis that synthesizes feminist frameworks with new media art to investigate the mediated body in relation to communications technology. The thesis illustrates contemporary, twenty-first century artists working with feminist strategies, the body, performance and technological media. Theoretical discussions are developed that imagine or suggest new forms of subjectivity that could be experienced through artistic appropriation of communicative, networked and technological media. These discussions include my studio investigations and unfold around the following themes: corporeal feminism, body-based philosophy, a subversion or manipulation of consumer technologies through intervention, appropriation and performance, the politics of space and location through networked interaction, and the mediated body in relation to communication technologies through a valorization of embodiment and the senses