36 research outputs found

    Data Sonification in Creative Practice

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    Sonification is the process of data transmission with non-speech audio. While finding increasing acceptance as a scientific method, particularly where a visual representation of data is inadequate, it is still often derided as a ‘gimmick’. Composers have also shown growing interest in sonification as a compositional method. Both in science and in music, the criticism towards this method relates to poor aesthetics and gratuitous applications. This thesis aims to address these issues through an accompanying portfolio of pieces which use sonification as a compositional tool. It establishes the principles of ‘musification’, which can be defined as a sonification which uses musical structures; a sonification organised by musical principles. The practice-as-research portfolio explores a number of data sources, musical genres and science-music collaborations. The main contributions to knowledge derived from the project are a portfolio of compositions, a compositional framework for sonification and an evaluation framework for musification. This thesis demonstrates the validity of practice-as-research as a methodology in sonification research

    A CONTINUED MUSICAL AND PERSONAL DIALOGUE WITH THE WAVES OF EPILEPSY.

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    This thesis is accompanied by EEG audio data and experiment examples, EEG Epilepsy Electronic Music Soundscapes and a MAX/MSP Synthesizer.A Continued Musical and Personal Dialogue with the Waves of Epilepsy. In the early hours of the morning several years ago I awoke with paramedics leaning over me. In a state of confusion, my first conscious decision was to enter my music production studio while they attempted to lead me to the ambulance. Music was important to me even in a disorientated post-ictal state (an altered state of consciousness following a seizure). Two weeks later I awoke with paramedics standing over me again. I had started to experience multiple seizures. During the previous weeks, I also experienced numerous incidents of memory loss when delivering presentations at work, feelings of being returned to the room following an absence of consciousness and suffering from temporal disorientation. I also experienced multiple episodes of déjà vu, aromas that were difficult to identify, visual distortions and waves of euphoria like momentary intoxication of an unknown origin. These experiences began to increase in frequency until my first tonic-clinic seizure. Following medical tests, I was diagnosed with epilepsy. It was a confusing period with no history of epilepsy in my family and no physiological causes could be identified. I viewed epilepsy as an overwhelming authority, it takes control of your life and asserts its power upon you, forcibly changing your reality in an instant. When I saw the EEG readouts from my tests I noticed how similar they were to sound waves. As an electronic musician, this project is being used as an artistic and cathartic opportunity to creatively transform the power of epilepsy and reassert my personal identity upon it. Symbolically reclaiming personal control and creatively transforming the psychological perception of personal power that is lost through the experience of epilepsy. Transforming it from an internal destructive force into an external and creative activity in my life. Capturing the cultural and emotional experiences of epilepsy and transforming them into cinematic electronic soundscapes using research and musical experimentation with EEG epilepsy signals. It is an existential exploration, the results will be tangible, accessible and reasonable in the transformation of the EEG epilepsy recordings from the uncontrollable unconscious into the creative conscious. This project will apply transposition, mathematics, research and creative exploration to map epilepsy EEG events into computer synthesized soundscapes, transforming the passive nature of diagnoses and treatment into a proactive and creative process. This thesis shares an individual's research and experiences of epilepsy with a community that have an interest in transforming the passive sufferer into a creatively active and articulate patient. Professor Dan Lloyd (Thomas C. Brownell) Professor of Philosophy at Trinity College states that: “It is observed that fMRI (Brain) activity is more similar to music than it is to language...” Lloyd D. (2011). If, as Lloyd suggests, brain activity is more like music than language then what might epilepsy be saying or possibly singing during these events? What are the audible timbres of these events? Researchers such as Wu et al, Psyche et al, Chafe and Parvizi have previously interpreted EEG data of epilepsy EEG events to aid medical research, but it is not exploring the emotional timbre of epilepsy from a patient’s perspective. The previous research derived musical notes from EEG signals to trigger MIDI instruments and modulate non-epilepsy related audio sources for medical identification purposes. This project examines the possible timbres derived directly from the EEG data to explore and creatively describe the emotional and physical experience from a patient’s perspective.  This thesis presents the personal experience of epilepsy, the development of electroencephalography (EEG), the sociocultural history of epilepsy. the sonification and musification of EEG data, plus the concepts involved in the design of timbre and sound effect. For this project, a bespoke granular synthesizer called ‘The Oblique-Granizer’ (programmed with Cycling74's MAXMSP) has been constructed that employs EEG signals, converted to digital audio, to synthesize timbres that explore the description of human experience and emotions related to epilepsy. This thesis includes research that has been carried out into mathematical algorithms to generate musical notes and melodic information in electronic music compositions using EEG epilepsy seizure activity. The aim is to take back personal control by creatively transforming the EEG data and my psychological perception of epilepsy into electronic soundscapes and sonic textures through exploration of sonification and musification techniques.dBs Music U

    Making music out of architecture and from-architecture-music-an oddyssey

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    These are the documents submitted for the First Review as work-in-progress, the first (longer) and the second (shorter) versions of the PhD research project to date, together with a summary titled The Final Proposal for PhD for First Review September 2019. Please note that the first version is unfinished and needs approximately another 30,000 words, questions answered, some further exploration of points raised in discussion and other relevant points, revision and editing. The second version is on-going. Please Note: The file titled Latest save of Making music out of architecture seems unable to be viewed in Preview perhaps due to its size. It can however be viewed from Download in which case please allow some time for this to occur. The other two documents can be viewed in Previe

    Towards a digitally conceived physical performance object

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    Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 122-126).In the performing arts, the relationship that is established between what is seen and what is heard must be experienced to fully appreciate and understand the aesthetics of performance. Actual physical objects such as musical instruments, lights, elements of the set, props, and people provide the visual associations and a tangible reality which can enhance the musical elements in a performance. This thesis proposes that new and artistic physical objects can, in themselves, be designed to perform. It introduces the Chandelier, a kinetic sculpture, a central set piece for a new opera, a new kind of musical instrument, and an object that performs. The piece moves and changes shape through mechanical action and the designed interplay between surfaces and light. It is intended to be interacted with by musicians and players of the opera. This thesis also explores the design process and evolution of the Chandelier with a primary objective of realizing a constructible, physical performance object through an authentic and abstruse digital conception. It is a conception not of a static nature, but incorporates a dynamic sense of changeable form through coordinated elements of light, mechanics, and sculpture.Steven L. Pliam.S.M

    Multisensory learning in adaptive interactive systems

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    The main purpose of my work is to investigate multisensory perceptual learning and sensory integration in the design and development of adaptive user interfaces for educational purposes. To this aim, starting from renewed understanding from neuroscience and cognitive science on multisensory perceptual learning and sensory integration, I developed a theoretical computational model for designing multimodal learning technologies that take into account these results. Main theoretical foundations of my research are multisensory perceptual learning theories and the research on sensory processing and integration, embodied cognition theories, computational models of non-verbal and emotion communication in full-body movement, and human-computer interaction models. Finally, a computational model was applied in two case studies, based on two EU ICT-H2020 Projects, "weDRAW" and "TELMI", on which I worked during the PhD

    The augmented tonoscope towards a deeper understanding of the interplay between sound and image in visual music

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    This thesis presents the theoretical, technical and aesthetic concerns in realising a harmonic complementarity and more intimate perceptual connection between music and moving image. It explores the inspirations and various processes involved in creating a series of artistic works - attached as a portfolio and produced as the research. This includes the Cymatic Adufe (v1.1) - a sound-responsive, audiovisual installation; Stravinsky Rose (v2.0) - an audiovisual short in Dome format; and the live performance works of Whitney Triptych (v1.2), Moiré Modes (v1.1) and Stravinsky Rose (v3.0). The thesis outlines an approach towards realising a deeper understanding of the interplay between sound and image in Visual Music - through applying: the Differential Dynamics of pioneering, computer-aided, experimental animator John Whitney Sr.; alternate musical tunings based on harmonic consonance and the Pythagorean laws of harmony; and sound’s ability to induce physical form and flow via Cymatics - the study of wave phenomena and vibration - a term coined by Dr. Hans Jenny for his seminal research into these effects in the 1960s and 70s, using a device of his own design - the ʻtonoscopeʼ. The thesis discusses the key method for this artistic investigation through the design, fabrication and crafting of a hybrid analogue/digital audiovisual instrument - a contemporary version of Jenny’s sound visualisation tool - The Augmented Tonoscope. It details the developmental process which has realised a modular performance system integrating sound making, sound analysis, analogue outputs, virtual systems, musical interface and recording and sequencing. Finally, the thesis details the impact of this system on creating audiovisualisation of a distinct quality through: a formalist, minimal, decluttered aesthetic; a direct, elemental and real-time correspondence between sound and image; a mirroring of music’s innate movement and transition within the visual domain; and an underlying concord or harmony between music and moving image

    Music analysis and the computer: developing a computer operating system to analyse music, using Johann Sebastian Bach's "well tempered clavier" book 51 to test the methodology

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    "Most computerised and computer-aided musicological projects are written to achieve specific goals. Once achieved or not achieved as the case may be, the projects and their tools are frequently discarded because their dependency upon specific computer hardware and software prevents them from being utilised by other researchers for other projects. What is needed is a system that, using small tools to accomplish small tasks, can be expanded and customized to suit specific needs. This thesis proposes the creation of a music-analysis computer operating system that contains simple commands to perform simple musicological tasks such as the removal of repeated notes from a score or the audible rendition of a melodic line. The tools can be bolted together to form larger tools that perform larger tasks. New tools can be created and added to the operating system with relative ease, and these in turn can be bolted onto old tools. The thesis suggests a basic set of tools derived from old and new analytical methods, proposes a standard for their implementation based on the UNIX computer operating system, and discusses the benefits of using the system and its tools in an analysis of the twenty-four fugues of Johann Sebastian Bach from the "Well Tempered Clavier", Book II.

    Proceedings of the 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference

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    Proceedings of the SMC2010 - 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference, July 21st - July 24th 2010
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