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

Three letters to a child: Producing a documentary film with mid-range technology

Recent technological developments have made cinema production- and post-production hardware and software accessible to large audiences. Historically, cinema production has been an endeavor that has required such manpower and initial monetary investment that the art has been beyond the reach of most people. Thanks largely to computer-technology –related developments, however, equipment and software for filmmaking are becoming affordable, thus a development that we can call the democratization of filmmaking is taking place. Most cinema productions that end up enjoying any appreciation or attention tend to still be relatively high budget productions. This gives rise to an interesting question: is this because of the talent of those people working in high-budget productions, or is it due to objective quality that can only be achieved with relatively high-end production- and post-production hardware and software? Or could producing professional-quality cinema be possible with mid-range technology? The latter question is the research problem in this project. My hypothesis is that it is in fact possible to produce professional-quality cinema with technology that is not prohibitively expensive or complex for a lot of people. In other words, at least in theory, it is now more possible than ever for aspirants to produce decent cinema. The most relevant technological developments with regards to the democratization of cinema production are the emergence of DSLR video, and software developments related to increased computer processing power. These factors together make it possible for anybody to build a “film studio”, with modest investment. To prove my hypothesis, I set about making a documentary film with the slimmest of resources: a one-man team. As far as hardware, my production kit is built around the Canon EOS 5DMKII DSLR camera – the piece of equipment that has been key in the “DSLR revolution”, if you like. The end result of this project is the documentary film “Three letters to a child” – which I wrote, directed, shot, edited, color graded, sound designed and composed and produced music for. While “professional quality” is a subjective term, initial reactions to the film are such that it indeed seems that producing professional quality cinema with mid-range technology is indeed possible

Ethnographic Film Study of Indonesian Culture & Climate

The Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies (CERES) wanted to enhance the experience of their visitors by incorporating a series of documentaries into their Indonesian Village. Our documentaries focused on climate relief efforts related to the topics: Air Pollution, Rubbish, Flooding, and General Climate Change. In order to achieve this goal, our team conducted 49 video-recorded interviews with Indonesian community members. The clips from the interviews were then produced into separate topic-based documentaries. CERESwill incorporate these videos into the education program in their Indonesian Village to help visitors of the park learn more about the Indonesian culture through the personal stories we documented

Looking towards the future: the changing nature of intrusive surveillance and technical attacks against high-profile targets

In this thesis a novel Bayesian model is developed that is capable of predicting the probability of a range of eavesdropping techniques deployed, given an attacker's capability, opportunity and intent. Whilst limited attention by academia has focused on the cold war activities of Soviet bloc and Western allies' bugging of embassies, even less attention has been paid to the changing nature of the technology used for these eavesdropping events. This thesis makes four contributions: through the analysis of technical eavesdropping events over the last century, technological innovation is shown to have enriched the eavesdropping opportunities for a range of capabilities. The entry barrier for effective eavesdropping is lowered, while for the well resourced eavesdropper, the requirement for close access has been replaced by remote access opportunities. A new way to consider eavesdropping methods is presented through the expert elicitation of capability and opportunity requirements for a range of present-day eavesdropping techniques. Eavesdropping technology is shown to have life-cycle stages with the technology exploited by different capabilities at different times. Three case studies illustrate that yesterday’s secretive government method becomes today’s commodity. The significance of the egress transmission path is considered too. Finally, by using the expert elicitation information derived for capability, opportunity and life-cycle position, for a range of eavesdropping techniques, it is shown that it is possible to predict the probability of particular eavesdropping techniques being deployed. This novel Bayesian inferencing model enables scenarios with incomplete, uncertain or missing detail to be considered. The model is validated against the previously collated historic eavesdropping events. The development of this concept may be scaled with additional eavesdropping techniques to form the basis of a tool for security professionals or risk managers wishing to define eavesdropping threat advice or create eavesdropping policies based on the rigour of this technological study.Open Acces

Development of a software for panoramic video and audio recordings with microphone arrays

Dense microphones array is certainly one of the most promising technology not only for environmental noise analysis, but also for 3D audio recordings, where 3D stands for a complete spatial description of the event recorded. During last years at the Industrial Engineering Department of Università degli Studi di Parma (IED) with the collaboration of the spinoff AIDA srl., a new meta-theory was developed that provides a framework capable of representing all the known microphones array, based on the model of Virtual Microphones. The strict collaboration with the Centro Ricerca ed Innovazione Tecnologica (CRIT, Research Center and Technology Innovation) of RAI, the national Italian television broadcasting company, quickly individuates some key applications of this technology that conduct to the realization of some ad-hoc dense arrays and of a software to manage all the acquisition and post-processing system. In this PhD thesis work a detailed description of the software, named 3D VMS, will be given, preceded by an introduction about the current state of the art of this technology.Sviluppo di array planari di microfoni e dell'HW/SW necessario per un'applicazione alla manutenzione predittiva delle macchin

From Algorithmic to Neural Beamforming

Human interaction increasingly relies on telecommunication as an addition to or replacement for immediate contact. The direct interaction with smart devices, beyond the use of classical input devices such as the keyboard, has become common practice. Remote participation in conferences, sporting events, or concerts is more common than ever, and with current global restrictions on in-person contact, this has become an inevitable part of many people's reality. The work presented here aims at improving these encounters by enhancing the auditory experience. Augmenting fidelity and intelligibility can increase the perceived quality and enjoyability of such actions and potentially raise acceptance for modern forms of remote experiences. Two approaches to automatic source localization and multichannel signal enhancement are investigated for applications ranging from small conferences to large arenas. Three first-order microphones of fixed relative position and orientation are used to create a compact, reactive tracking and beamforming algorithm, capable of producing pristine audio signals in small and mid-sized acoustic environments. With inaudible beam steering and a highly linear frequency response, this system aims at providing an alternative to manually operated shotgun microphones or sets of individual spot microphones, applicable in broadcast, live events, and teleconferencing or for human-computer interaction. The array design and choice of capsules are discussed, as well as the challenges of preventing coloration for moving signals. The developed algorithm, based on Energy-Based Source Localization, is discussed and the performance is analyzed. Objective results on synthesized audio, as well as on real recordings, are presented. Results of multiple listening tests are presented and real-time considerations are highlighted. Multiple microphones with unknown spatial distribution are combined to create a large-aperture array using an end-to-end Deep-Learning approach. This method combines state-of-the-art single-channel signal separation networks with adaptive, domain-specific channel alignment. The Neural Beamformer is capable of learning to extract detailed spatial relations of channels with respect to a learned signal type, such as speech, and to apply appropriate corrections in order to align the signals. This creates an adaptive beamformer for microphones spaced on the order of up to 100m. The developed modules are analyzed in detail and multiple configurations are considered for different use cases. Signal processing inside the Neural Network is interpreted and objective results are presented on simulated and semi-simulated datasets

FINDING THE “TECH” IN TECHNIQUE: A PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH TO ELECTROACOUSTIC CONCERT PERCUSSION PERFORMANCE PRACTICE

Premise and Objectives In our increasingly technology driven society, the impact of technology touches nearly every aspect of our lives in some form or another. This has been acutely felt within the world of percussion, with electroacoustic works representing perhaps the most rapidly expanding area of concert percussion over the last twenty years. Electroacoustic music couples electronic technology with traditional acoustic instruments and/or performance practices. Broadly, this paper outlines a systematic approach to teaching electroacoustic performance practice, based on elements found in a cross-section of percussion literature. In using such an approach, not only does each student become more capable of dealing with this growing body of literature, but also the process of educating these students becomes more efficient for the teacher. As a result, delivery becomes more effectively standardized, and resources can be shared more efficiently among multiple students who may be studying different types of electroacoustic repertoire. Method To organize this exploration, three main genres of electroacoustic repertoire for percussion are compared: prerecorded soundscape, live processing, and electronic pieces. This comparison illuminates the tools and techniques that are relevant to each type of repertoire and reflects not only the narrower focus of electroacoustic percussion, but also the broader goals of applied percussion instruction in the context of a “total” percussion program. Each classification is explored by addressing its critical elements using prime examples from the relevant standard repertoire. For the first classification of works, tape pieces, the project includes discussion on signal flow, balancing electronic and acoustic sound sources, an introduction to digital audio workstations (DAWs), and monitoring techniques. Two primary examples of the repertoire are used to contribute to this discussion; Javier Alvarez’s Temazcal for maracas and tape, and Brian Blume’s Strands of Time. Live processing works present increased challenges with concepts, including sound reinforcement, recording production, how to edit and creatively manipulate sound both in post-production and live, and detailed concepts of signal flow, often including MIDI protocol. To explore the concepts specifically relevant to live processed works, Nigel Westlake’s classic work, Fabian Theory, for amplified marimba and three toms, is offered. Electronic works give students further opportunity to explore MIDI mapping, patch and parameter changes using both hardware and software, and sometimes sound design. In this context, there is a brief exploration of Steve Reich’s Violin Phase. Finally, an exploration of Hans Werner Henze’s, Prison Song demonstrates how all of this technology and technique can come together in combination works. The work requires live sound reinforcement, pre-recorded soundscapes, separate monitoring, live processing, and live MIDI controllers. The paper closes with a brief summary of extra pedagogical considerations, including resource management, pedagogical philosophy, and further implications. Conclusion By examining the logical steps of pedagogically developing through the different broad categories of electroacoustic music, with an emphasis on its reflection of broader liberal values and critical applied analysis, it is believed that this research could yield a model for a more thoughtful approach for applied percussion teachers