Sonic Phantoms Compositional explorations of perceptual phantom patterns

I use the term ‘Sonic Phantoms’ to refer as a whole to a cohesive collection of sound compositions that I have developed over the past five years (2009-2014; fifty pieces, structured in four separate collections / series), dealing at a fundamental level with perceptual auditory illusions. For the creation of this compositional body of work, I have developed a syncretic approach that encompasses and coalesces all kinds of sources, materials, techniques and compositional tools: voices (real and synthetic), field recordings (involving wilderness expeditions worldwide), instrument manipulation (including novel ways of ‘preparation’), object amplification, improvisation and recording studio techniques. This manifests a sonic-based and perceptive-based understanding of the compositional work, as an implicitly proposed paradigm for any equivalent work in terms of its trans-technological, phenomena-based nature. By means of the collection of pieces created and the research and contextualisation presented, my work with ‘Sonic Phantoms’ aims at bringing into focus, shaping and defining a specific and dedicated compositional realm that considers auditory illusions as essential components of the work and not simply mere side effects. I play with sonic materials that are either naturally ambiguous or have been composed to attain this quality, in order to exploit the potential for apophenia to manifest, bringing with it the ‘phantasmatic’ presence. Both my compositions and research work integrate and synergise a considerable number of disparate musical traditions (Western and non-Western), techno-historical moments (from ancient / archaic to electronic / computer-age techniques), cultural frameworks (from ‘serious’ to ‘popular’), and fields of interest / expertise (from the psychological to the musical), into a personal and cohesive compositional whole. All these diverse elements are not simply mentioned or referenced, but have rather defined, structured and formed the resulting compositional work

Malay sound arts::Reimagining biophony and geophony materials. Commentary of original composition portfolio 2019-2023

This PhD takes the research theme of Nada Bumi or Voice of the Earth: exploring andaccentuating hidden Malaysia biophonic and geophonic materials, for expressing self-cultural identity and narrative through sound arts practice. The portfolio and accompanying commentary present eleven sound-art works ranging from instrumental electroacoustic music to Web-Audio API based sound installation. The main idea for this portfolio research is to explore the association of folklore, tales, myths, legends and art cultural narrative of the Malay race and the ancestors of Malay (proto-Malay), with the selected hidden and unheard Malaysia natural soundscape, in producing new sound art works. Therefore, I proposed two major compositional themes each comprising several works; Miroirs of Malay Rebab (MiMaR), and Seed of Life (SoL). The works in Miroirs of Malay Rebab reimagine selected unheard biophonic and geophonic materials as mirrors of several Malay performing art-cultural narrative and their stories, such as Makyung theater dance, Malay Gamelan music dance, Ulek Mayang dance and their stories that I have been exposed to during my undergraduate music studies in Malaysia. The works in Seed of Life (SoL) take a similar approach but focused more on local Malay and proto-Malay folklores, tales, legends and myths associated with my childhood experience. Furthermore, as I delved into the conceptual and compositional aspects of creating the Miroirs of Malay Rebab (MiMaR) set and Seed of Life I (SoL) set, I had the privilege to engage in an enriching journey of (self-) exploration through the creation of sound art within the vibrant Bristol soundscape with support from the local sound art community. This experience was part of my involvement in the Hidden Bristol Soundwalks project, which provided a unique platform for my creative endeavors. I have decided to include this project in this portfolio, which has similar compositional approach with Seed of Life (SoL). Both the major cycles, Miroirs of Malay Rebab (MiMaR) and Seed of Life (SoL), include Western classical music instrumentations with electronics; fixed media; and interactive media. This portfolio was composed and developed at the Studio One, Department of Music in the Faculty of Arts, University of Bristol; the Bristol Interaction Group (B.I.G.) Lab in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol; and my home studios in Clevedon, UK, during the period of October 2019 until September 2022. The portfolio consists of scores, studio-audio production recordings, and several live performance recordings. The commentary comprises a set of philosophical considerations about my compositions and intent for creation based on the Nada Bumi theme and sub themes. Further chapters are dedicated to compositional techniques, related traditions and piece-specific documentations. The portfolio is supplied as a set of digital media, containing pdf files of musical scores in notation, associated software or media components of the works, recordings of the studio-based music, and recordings of several live public performances made in mid-2022 after the period of covid-19 lock-downs

The heliospheric current sheet at solar maximum

Whilst near solar minimum it was possible to gain an understanding of the structure of the heliosphere in three dimensions using only low latitude in situ measurements, at solar maximum this was not the case. The Ulysses mission, with its unique almost polar orbit has provided an opportunity to investigate the structure of the heliosphere in three dimensions during a period of solar maximum. This thesis has focussed on investigating the topology and evolution of the HCS at solar maximum as well as the local structure of the boundary itself using magnetic field and plasma observations taken during the second Ulysses orbit. As a passive structure the Heliospheric Current Sheet (HCS) acts as a marker for the dynamic evolution of solar wind surrounding it while the large scale structure of the HCS also reflects the structure of the solar magnetic field. By combining simultaneous spacecraft observations at differing latitudes with potential field models the HCS was found to be near vertical at low latitudes and non planar at high latitudes. A second technique using minimum variance analysis to infer the orientation of the HCS concurred that the HCS extended to high latitudes, with the added suggestion that the topology was modified by stream interactions. Suprathermal electron heat flux measurements suggested the presence of substantial local HCS structure, especially during periods where the Ulysses trajectory skimmed along the HCS.Open acces

Social Justice Documentary: Designing for Impact

Explores current methodologies for assessing social issue documentary films by combining strategic design and evaluation of multiplatform outreach and impact, including documentaries' role in network- and field-building. Includes six case studies

Music Expectation by Cognitive Rule-Mapping

Iterative rules appear everywhere in music cognition, creating strong expectations. Consequently, denial of rule projection becomes an important compositional strategy, generating numerous possibilities for musical affect. Other rules enter the musical aesthetic through reflexive game playing. Still other kinds are completely constructivist in nature and may be uncongenial to cognition, requiring much training to be recognized, if at all. Cognitive rules are frequently found in contexts of varied repetition (AA), but they are not necessarily bounded by stylistic similarity. Indeed, rules may be especially relevant in the processing of unfamiliar contexts (AB), where only abstract coding is available. There are many kinds of deduction in music cognition. Typical examples include melodic sequence, partial melodic sequence, and alternating melodic sequence (which produces streaming). These types may coexist in the musical fabric, involving the invocation of both simultaneous and nested rules. Intervallic expansion and reduction in melody also involve higherorder abstractions. Various mirrored forms in music entail rule-mapping as well, although these may be more difficult to perceive than their analogous visual symmetries. Listeners can likewise deduce additivity and subtractivity at work in harmony, tempo, texture, pace, and dynamics. Rhythmic augmentation and diminution, by contrast, rely on multiplication and division. The examples suggest numerous hypotheses for experimental research

Voice Station: A Portfolio of Four Works Exploring Radio Art and Its Mediated Voices

This study pertains to the creative explorations of the human voice and the radio medium through a portfolio of four projects titled Voice Station. The research and creative processes of the portfolio draw on the practices of radio art, a genre that encompasses a wide range of artistic experimentations with the conventions and complexities of the medium. Voice Station centres the human voice as the only compositional material to investigate how recorded and mediated voices can be used artistically in diverse radio environments by employing distinct platforms and technologies: Voice Station I (2019-21) is a fixed-medium composition that offers a sonic vocabulary for the portfolio and, thus, establishes its conceptual and technological foundations; Voice Station II (2021-22) is a web-based, participatory live stream comprising vocal materials contributed and curated by the participants; Voice Station III (2022) is a radio installation that invites visitors to an interactive listening experience via the radio dial in a gallery environment; finally, selected episodes of my ongoing radio program at CJSW FM, Vocal Cords, provide an examination of the relationships between radio and voice from a broader perspective of campus and community broadcasting. The vocal catalogue, audio processing methods, and formal strategies emerging from each project are recycled and evaluated throughout the portfolio. This iterative practice uncovers sonic and metaphorical similarities between the two core concepts of this study, radio and voice, and presents a structural model shared by each project

Developing a Polyrhythmic Idiolect

This practice-based multi-media study sets out to reveal how procedural methodologies effect transformative change in a polyrhythmic drum-set idiolect, premised on the idea that archetypal variants and phraseological patterning constituting my musical “voice” are, primarily, results of a procedural mind rather than aggregations of replicative ideas acquired from elsewhere. The thesis accordingly sets out a detailed participant-observer study designed to reveal methodological processes and outcomes pertaining to the cultivation of a unique sonic identity. In revealing how structural-organisational processes can evolve personalised ways of manipulating rhythm, this research offers new analytical tools for understanding what improvising drummers do. Two important aims of the study are (a) to effect and document transformative change in my drum-set language through the application of improvisational methodologies, and (b) to reveal these procedures in operation from a participant-observer perspective, thereby showing how sonic identity can be individuated through personal agency and decision-making/selection processes operating within constraints. Original generative methodologies for hybridizing vocabulary and propagating unique archetypal variants – namely, the Iterative Loop Cycle and Transitional Synthesis - are central to this project, which targets six developmental areas: Suspended Primary Pulsation, Densities, Pulse Streaming, Transposing Rhythm, Isochronous Asymmetry and Mixed Rates

Upstream Transients at Planetary Bow Shocks

Kinetic processes occurring upstream of planetary bow shocks can greatly perturb the magnetosphere-striking solar wind. Collisionless shocks are highly non-linear systems with complicated feedback mechanisms. Transient events form part of the growing evidence that shocks are highly variable and far more complex than a large-scale quasi-static picture would suggest. In this thesis we survey Cluster magnetic field, thermal ion, and energetic particle observations upstream of Earth’s bow shock to investigate events known as foreshock cavities. Foreshock cavities exhibit depressions in magnetic field magnitude and thermal ion density, associated with enhanced fluxes of energetic ions. Two models of foreshock cavity formation exist and we attempt to discriminate between them. Cavities are found in all parts of the Cluster orbit upstream of the bow shock but preferentially in fast, moderate magnetic field strength solar wind streams. Localising foreshock cavity observations in a coordinate system organised by physical processes in the foreshock, reveals a systematic change in foreshock cavity location with the cone angle between the solar wind flow and magnetic field. At low (high) cone angles foreshock cavities are observed outside (inside) the expected boundary of the intermediate ion foreshock. This result favours a model of foreshock cavities as isolated bundles of magnetic flux preferentially filled with energetic particles. We present a case study locating an isolated foreshock cavity precisely with respect to measured bow shock position. We use Cluster’s multispacecraft nature to constrain the cavity extent. Associated particle populations are studied in detail. A second case study is shown to coincide with a transition from the deep ion foreshock to the electron foreshock. This event has some features expected from the new model of cavities as brief encounters with a spatial boundary in the global foreshock. Finally, we present the first observations of explosive events resembling Hot Flow Anomalies near Saturn’s bow shock

Nature in electroacoustic music

This thesis accompanies the six submitted works, focusing on the utilisation of nature as a compositional factor, and its appreciation in the context of electroacoustic music. Apart from providing a separate discussion of each work. the thesis introduces a theoretical framework, where nature is defined in different types and sources, and where the idea of `naturalness' within a musical context is approached through an examination of certain sound-behaviours. Reference is made to compositional methods used in the six works