Cultural heritage and sustainable development targets : a possible harmonisation? Insights from the European Perspective

The Agenda 2030 includes a set of targets that need to be achieved by 2030. Although none of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focuses exclusively on cultural heritage, the resulting Agenda includes explicit reference to heritage in SDG 11.4 and indirect reference to other Goals. Achievement of international targets shall happen at local and national level, and therefore, it is crucial to understand how interventions on local heritage are monitored nationally, therefore feeding into the sustainable development framework. This paper is focused on gauging the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals with reference to cultural heritage, by interrogating the current way of classifying it (and consequently monitoring). In fact, there is no common dataset associated with monitoring SDGs, and the field of heritage is extremely complex and diversified. The purpose for the paper is to understand if the taxonomy used by different national databases allows consistency in the classification and valuing of the different assets categories. The European case study has been chosen as field of investigation, in order to pilot a methodology that can be expanded in further research. A cross‐comparison of a selected sample of publicly accessible national cultural heritage databases has been conducted. As a result, this study confirms the existence of general harmonisation of data towards the achievement of the SDGs with a broad agreement of the conceptualisation of cultural heritage with international frameworks, thus confirming that consistency exists in the classification and valuing of the different assets categories. However, diverse challenges of achieving a consistent and coherent approach to integrating culture in sustainability remains problematic. The findings allow concluding that it could be possible to mainstream across different databases those indicators, which could lead to depicting the overall level of attainment of the Agenda 2030 targets on heritage. However, more research is needed in developing a robust correlation between national datasets and international targets

Multiple Viewpoint Systems: Time Complexity and the Construction of Domains for Complex Musical Viewpoints

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An explicitly structured control model for exploring search space: chorale harmonisation in the style of J.S. Bach

In this research, we present our computational model which performs four part har-monisation in the style of J.S. Bach. Harmonising Bach chorales is a hard AI problem, comparable to natural language understanding. In our approach, we explore the issue of gaining control in an explicit way for the chorale harmonisation tasks. Generally, the control over the search space may be from both domain dependent and domain inde-pendent control knowledge. Our explicit control emphasises domain dependent control knowledge. The control gained from domain d ependent control enables us to map a clearer relationship between the control applied and its effects. Two examples of do-main dependent control are a plan of tasks to be done and heuristics stating properties of the domain. Examples of domain independent control are notions such as temperature values in an annealing method; mutation rates in Genetic Algorithms; and weights in Artificial Neural Networks.The appeal of the knowledge based approach lies in the accessibility to the control if required. Our system exploits this concept extensively. Control is explicitly expressed by weaving different atomic definitions {i.e. the rules, tests and measures) together with appropriate control primitives. Each expression constructed is called a control definition, which is hierarchical by nature.One drawback of the knowledge based approach is that, as the system grows bigger, the exploitation of the new added knowledge grows exponentially. This leads to an intractable search space. To reduce this intractability problem, we partially search the search space at the meta-level. This meta-level architecture reduces the complexity in the search space by exploiting search at the meta-level which has a smaller search space.The experiment shows that an explicitly structured control offers a greater flexibility in controlling the search space as it allows the control definitions to be manipulated and modified with great flexibility. This is a crucial clement in performing partial search over a big search space. As the control is allowed to be examined, the system also potentially supports elaborate explanations of the system activities and reflections at the meta-level

The Recasting of Copyright & Related Rights for the Knowledge Economy

In the European Union, copyright law is increasingly a matter for the European legislator. Member states retain ever less competence to regulate intellectual property rights. This study critically examines the \u27acquis communautaire\u27 in the field of copyright and related (neighbouring) rights, focusing on the seven copyright specific directives, from the 1991 Software directive to the 2001 Information Society Directive. It also deals with distinct issues that are on the agenda of the EU: After reviewing arguments for and against the extension of the term of protection of phonograms (sound recordings), the authors conclude there is no convincing case for extending the term of protection for sound recordings and performing artists. Neither are there compelling arguments to further harmonize the term of protection of co-written musical works. The issue of \u27orphan works\u27 is one that could benefit from an EU wide solution. Having assessed the benefits and drawbacks of the fifteen years of harmonization of copyright, the authors conclude that the European legislator should exercise restraint in further harmonization efforts at least as long as a coherent vision of the role of copyright in the EU is lacking. The Study was commissioned by the European Commission, DG Internal Market (2006) and is available at the Institute for Information Law website

The legal framework and commercial strategies for collective management in preparation to the UK’s withdrawal from the EU

In its Notice to stakeholders: withdrawal of the United Kingdom and EU rules in the field of copyright of March 2018, the European Commission indicated that one of the effects of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU is likely to be a reduced degree of reciprocity in the way collective management organisations operate. This article analyses reactions and current collaborative efforts produced by industry stakeholders facing an uncertain legal framework in the field of collective management of music copyright

Noise Peddler: An exploration of the 21st century pedalboard

Noise Peddler is a practice-based research project exploring the 21st century guitar pedalboard as composition and performance interface. Recent growth in the guitar pedal industry has seen a notable increase in popularity of the pedal platform, expansion in the number of manufacturers, the scope of effects available, and solidification of the concept of the pedalboard. The widespread adoption of MIDI/CV control, alongside the packaging of increasingly experimental and complex processing into stompbox formats has expanded the pedalboardʼs potential as a flexible canvas for the creation of unconventional guitar sounds. Performers such as Sarah Lipstate, Nels Cline and Ed OʼBrien have popularised the use of unconventional processing techniques to produce soundscapes where the guitar itself, arguably, no longer occupies the main role, acting as signal generator at the start of a chain. Noise Peddler takes this development to a possible conclusion, removing the guitar to create no-input pedalboard performance systems. This paper gives an overview of the Noise Peddler project, the contexts in which it operates and the opportunities it offers for reconsidering the pedalboard as a performative and compositional tool. It reflects on the research undertaken to date and engages with a series of questions: what is the role of the pedalboard in the performance ecosystem of the contemporary guitarist? How do the affordances of the pedalboard as a performance system, and guitar pedal technology more broadly, shape composition and performance practice? What is revealed of the ghost of the guitar when the guitar itself is removed and all that remains are the pedals? Ultimately, Noise Peddler explores guitar-based music created beyond the fretboard, in the circuits, systems and processes of the pedalboard, informed by the researchersʼ practices that unite unconventional approaches to contemporary instrumental and electroacoustic composition with musical journeys founded on being guitarists

Inheritance of Digital Media

This is a preprint of a chapter accepted for publication by Facet Publishing. This extract has been taken from the author’s original manuscript and has not been edited. The definitive version of this piece may be found in 'Partners for Preservation: Advancing digital preservation through cross-community collaboration' Facet, London, 9781783303472 which can be purchased from http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=303472#about-ta

Artificial intelligence, education and music : the use of artificial intelligence to encourage and facilitate music composition by novices

The goal of the research described in this thesis is to find ways of using artificial intelligence to encourage and facilitate music composition by musical novices, particularly those without traditional musical skills. Two complementary approaches are presented. We show how two recent cognitive theories of harmony can be used to design a new kind of direct manipulation tool for music, known as "Harmony Space", with the expressivity to allow novices to sketch, analyse, modify and compose harmonic sequences simply and clearly by moving two-dimensional patterns on a computer screen linker to a synthesizer. Harmony Space provides novices with a way of describing and controlling harmonic structures and relationships using a single, principled, uniform spatial metaphor at various musical levels; note level, interval level, chord level, harmonic succession level and key level. A prototype interface has been implemented to demonstrate the coherence and feasibility of the design. An investigation with a small number of subjects demonstrates that Harmony Space considerably reduces the prerequisites required for novices to learn about, sketch, analyse and experiment with harmony - activities that would normally be very difficult for them without considerable theoretical knowledge or instrumental skill. The second part of the thesis presents work towards a knowledge-based tutoring system to help novices using the interface to compose chord sequences. It is argued that traditional, remedial intelligent tutoring systems approaches are inadequate for tutoring in domains that require open-ended thinking. The foundation of a new approach is developed based on the exploration and transformation of case studies described in terms of chunks, styles and plans. This approach draws on a characterisation of creativity due to Johnson-Laird (1988). Programs have been implemented to illustrate the feasibility of key parts of the new approach