Straddling the intersection

Music technology straddles the intersection between art and science and presents those who choose to work within its sphere with many practical challenges as well as creative possibilities. The paper focuses on four main areas: secondary education, higher education, practice and research and finally collaboration. The paper emphasises the importance of collaboration in tackling the challenges of interdisciplinarity and in influencing future technological developments

Self/scape: an exploration of belonging and wayfaring

Self/Scape is an autoethnographic sonic exploration of searching, belonging, and praying through sound as well as exploring the socio-cultural conditions and the lived experiences of a globalized Latino. Following the framework of Practice as Research (PaR), Miguel has been creating and theorizing about and through this piece during his two-year degree. This piece is the culmination of Miguel’s research at UCT in which a theatrical production is transformed into a curated space that is made to coexist with(in) a digital soundscape. That is to say that this piece has been created to be experienced through the use of headphones and QR codes. Each QR code will be specifically placed in relation to the content of the code which documents the journey of self-discovery through a multitude of spaces around the world from Los Angeles to Cape Town

Investigating aural : a case study of its relationship to degree success and its understanding by university music students

The central aim of this research is twofold: first, to examine the relationship between university music students’ aural ability as measured in examination marks and overall success on a music degree programme; and second, to investigate current university music students’ views on aural and its importance in a music degree programme. Previous research indicates that aural skills are vital in developing musical expertise (see Karpinski, 2000a), yet the precise nature of those skills and the emphasis placed upon them in educational contexts merits attention. An extensive review of literature provides an introduction to terminology as well as a framework with which to understand research perspectives on aural, specifically to address aural in practice and aural as process. Two empirical studies are carried out as part of a case study investigation in this thesis: Study 1 compares aural test scores with overall marks obtained in a music degree so as to investigate their potential correlation; Study 2 analyses the views of current undergraduate and postgraduate music students from the same institution via focus groups about aural alongside their response to the data obtained in Study 1. Findings indicate that there are positive correlations between students’ aural test marks and overall degree results, although these are not always significant. The views of current students about aural reflected shifts in understanding from undergraduate to postgraduate level, with the former offering specific ideas about what it entails and highly subjective attitudes towards it, and the latter providing abstract and broad appreciation of aural in music practice. The students provided tentative remarks about the findings of Study 1. Related issues that emerge within the research, including the students’ views on training, singing, and the role of module choice in gaining a music degree, are debated as part of the thesis

Exploring the use of conversational agents to improve cyber situational awareness in the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm, which aims to extend the power of the Internet beyond computers and smartphones to a vast and growing range of "things" - devices, processes and environments. The result is an interconnected world where humans and devices interact with each other, establishing a smart environment for the continuous exchange of information and services. Billions of everyday devices such as home appliances, surveillance cameras, wearables and doorbells, enriched with computational and networking capabilities, have already been connected to the Internet. However, as the IoT has grown, the demand for low-cost, easy-to-deploy devices has also increased, leading to the production of millions of insecure Internet-connected smart devices. Many of these devices can be easily exploited and leveraged to perform large-scale attacks on the Internet, such as the recently witnessed botnet attacks. Since these attacks often target consumer-level products, which commonly lack a screen or user interface, it can be difficult for users to identify signs of infection and be aware of devices that have been compromised. This thesis presents four studies which collectively explored how user awareness of threats in consumer IoT networks could be improved. Maintaining situational awareness of what is happening within a home network is challenging, not least because malicious activity often occurs in devices which are not easily monitored. This thesis evaluated the effectiveness of conversational agents to improve Cyber Situational Awareness. In doing so, it presented the first study to investigate their ability to help users improve their perception of smart device activity, comprehend this in the context of their home environment, and project this knowledge to determine if a threat had occurred or may occur in the future. The research demonstrated how a BLSTMRNN with word embedding could be used to extract semantic meaning from packets to perform deep packet inspection and detect IoT botnet activity. Specifically, how the models use of contextual information from both the past and future enabled better predictions to be made about the current state (packet) due to the sequential nature of the network traffic. In addition, a cross-sectional study examined users' awareness and perception of threats and found that, although users value security and privacy, they found it difficult to identify threats and infected devices. Finally, novel cross-sectional and longitudinal studies evaluated the use of conversational agents, and demonstrated them to be an effective and efficient method of improving Cyber Situational Awareness. In particular, this was shown to be true when using a multi-modal approach and combining aural, verbal and visual modalities

Aural education and its pedagogical conceptualisation in higher music education

‘Aural training’ has been a part of Western tertiary formal music education from the latter’s beginnings in the 19th century. Traditionally, it focuses on pitch and rhythm, and features the practices of solfège and dictation, which can be traced back to the work of Guido d’ Arezzo in the 11th century. Guido’s system, as well as later uses of solfège and dictation in 19th-century European and American schools and choirs, aimed to aid and facilitate musical learning for both children and adults. More recently, however, empirical research has shown music teachers and students to be often negatively predisposed towards this branch of music education, across different levels. Criticisms pertain to issues such as a perceived narrow focus on pitch and rhythm, acontextual treatment of musical material, emphasis on reproductive activities and on verbalisable musical knowledge, along with a longstanding neglect to forge links between ‘aural training’ and music psychology. During the last four decades or so, many educators across countries have proposed different approaches to broadening the content and methods of this type of course, aiming to highlight its connections with other subjects of the music curriculum and enhance its overall relevance for the music student and their future professional needs. Aiming to contribute to this discourse, the present study seeks to explore the practice of ‘aural training’ from historical, pedagogical, psychological and cultural perspectives. As a result of this investigation, a number of pedagogical principles are proposed, as a possible way of widening ‘aural training’ into a broader, more relevant and effective form of ‘aural education’. Findings emphasise the multi-faceted and subjective character of our relationship to music; the inter-connection between different ways of experiencing musical sound; the ubiquitous presence of emotion in all of these; the richness of implicit forms of knowing; and the inestimable importance of assimilated aural experience for learning, performing and improvising music. A more holistic approach, which will acknowledge the richness of our relationship to music and be rooted in absorbed aural experience, is proposed as a possible alternative to 'aural training'

Embodied Cognition In Auditory Display

Presented at the 19th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2013) on July 6-9, 2013 in Lodz, Poland.This paper makes a case for the use of an embodied cognition framework, based on embodied schemata and cross-domain mappings, in the design of auditory display. An overview of research that relates auditory display with embodied cognition is provided to support such a framework. It then describes research efforts towards the development this framework. By designing to support human cognitive competencies that are bound up with meaning making, it is hoped to open the door to the creation of more meaningful and intuitive auditory displays