Open Symphony: Creative Participation for Audiences of Live Music Performances

This work is partly supported by the FAST-IMPACt EPSRC project (EP/L019981/1), the Centre for Digital Music EPSRC Platform Grant (EP/E045235/1), the EU H2020 Audio Commons project (688382), QMUL's Centre for Public Engagement, the China Scholarship Council, and Arts Council England (Sound and Music Organisation Audience Labs)

A Participatory Live Music Performance with the Open Symphony System

Our Open Symphony system reimagines the music experience for a digital age, fostering alliances between performer and audience and our digital selves. Open Symphony enables live participatory music performance where the audience actively engages in the music creation process. This is made possible by using stateof- the-art web technologies and data visualisation techniques. Through collaborations with local performers we will conduct a series of interactive music performance revolutionizing the performance experience both for performers and audiences. The system throws open music-creating possibilities to every participant and is a genuine novel way to demonstrate the field of Human Computer Interaction through computer-supported cooperative creation and multimodal music and visual perception

FEATUR.UX: An approach to leveraging multitrack information for artistic music visualization

FEATUR.UX (Feature - ous) is an audio visualisation tool, currently in the process of development, which proposes to introduce a new approach to sound visualisation using pre-mixed, independent multitracks and audio feature ex- traction. Sound visualisation is usually performed using a mixed mono or stereo track of audio. Audio feature ex- traction is commonly used in the field of music information retrieval to create search and recommendation systems for large music databases rather than generating live visual- isations. Visualizing multitrack audio circumvents prob- lems related to the source separation of mixed audio sig- nals and presents an opportunity to examine interdepen- dent relationships within and between separate streams of music. This novel approach to sound visualisation aims to provide an enhanced listening experience in a use case that employs non-tonal, non-notated forms of electronic music. Findings from prior research studies focused on live per- formance and preliminary quantitative results from a user survey have provided the basis from which to develop a prototype for an iterative design study that examines the impact of using multitrack audio and audio feature extrac- tion within sound visualisation practice

Identifying divergent design thinking through the observable behavior of service design novices

© 2018, Springer Nature B.V. Design thinking holds the key to innovation processes, but is often difficult to detect because of its implicit nature. We undertook a study of novice designers engaged in team-based design exercises in order to explore the correlation between design thinking and designers’ physical (observable) behavior and to identify new, objective, design thinking identification methods. Our study addresses the topic by using data collection method of “think aloud” and data analysis method of “protocol analysis” along with the unconstrained concept generation environment. Collected data from the participants without service design experience were analyzed by open and selective coding. Through the research, we found correlations between physical activity and divergent thinking, and also identified physical behaviors that predict a designer’s transition to divergent thinking. We conclude that there are significant relations between designers’ design thinking and the behavioral features of their body and face. This approach opens possible new ways to undertake design process research and also design capability evaluation

Play and the exhibition:the problematic fun of showcasing of videogames in informal and formal contexts

Video games are inherently problematic as cultural artefacts, presenting issues of stability, currency, interaction and participation (to name but a few) in their curation. These issues are not necessarily unique to video games in an exhibition context, but their combination with the on-going debate about the status of video games as an art form inspire discussion and debate. Despite the issues presented by video games, there have been countless video game exhibitions in formal and informal contexts, typically focussing upon the historical narrative around games or their position as artefacts with cultural value. It is only in the last few years that artistic and academic study of this problematic field has developed traction, through both an emerging body of literature looking to formalise video games exhibitions practices and practitioner debate. 2019 sees the inaugural Game Arts International Assembly “a think tank for the international games arts ecosystem” bringing together leading curators and makers working at the forefront of public display of interactive arts and playful media.This paper contributes to the developing body of knowledge which analyses video games exhibition methods by formalising and evaluating the methods utilised within informal and formal contexts of video games exhibition from the perspective of reception theory. The study of both large scale exhibition such as those orchestrated by the Victoria and Albert museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum alongside the one night indie game night or play party is a unique contribution to the field, with studies typically focussing on approaches within one given context. Reception theory provides a lens through which the active participative role of the attendee or visitor in meaning making can be evaluated and allows consideration of the connection between selected methods of exhibition and the resulting meaning making opportunities possible for a range of potential audiences

Radiated sound power from near-surface acoustic sources

This paper investigates the radiated sound power from idealized propeller noise sources, characterized by elemental monopole and dipole acoustic sources near the sea surface. The free surface of the sea is modelled as a pressure-release surface. The ratio of sound power of the near surface sources to the sound power from the same sources in an unbounded fluid is presented as a function of source immersion relative to sound wavelength. We herein show that the sound power radiated by submerged monopole and horizontal dipole sources is greatly reduced by the effect of the free surface at typical blade passing frequencies. In contrast, the sound power from a submerged vertical dipole is doubled. A transition frequency for the submerged monopole and horizontal dipole is identified. Above this transition frequency, the radiated power is not significantly influenced by the sea surface. Directivity patterns for the acoustic sources are also presented

Integrating interactive technology concepts with material expertise in textile design disciplines

Textile and fashion designers are increasingly interested in integrating interactive technologies into their practice. However, traditional design education typically lacks support for them to develop technical digital and electronics skills alongside their expertise in materials. Reflecting on outputs from an e-textile design workshop and 8-week design projects with four textile design students using an e-textile toolkit, and follow-up data collection with the students one year after the projects, we argue that starting technical explorations with raw materials results in a better understanding and more flexible use of technical knowledge. We also argue that this newly acquired knowledge is then more fully integrated with their pre-existing material knowledge as it is applied to physical interface design. The results contribute to the development of tools and approaches in supporting designers with material expertise to learn tangible interaction design skills

Effect of a serrated trailing edge on sound radiation from nearby quadrupoles

A periodic boundary element technique is implemented to study the noise reduction capability of a plate with a serrated trailing edge under quadrupole excitation. It is assumed for this purpose that the quadrupole source tensor is independent of the trailing edge configuration and that the effect of the trailing edge shape is to modify sound radiation from prescribed boundary layer sources. The flat plate is modelled as a continuous structure with a finite repetition of small spanwise segments. The matrix equation formulated by the periodic boundary element method for this 3D acoustic scattering problem is represented as a block Toeplitz matrix. The discrete Fourier transform is employed in an iterative algorithm to solve the block Toeplitz system. The noise reduction mechanism for a serrated trailing edge in the near field is investigated by comparing contour plots obtained from each component of the quadrupole for unserrated and serrated trailing edge plate models. The noise reduction due to the serrated trailing edge is also examined as a function of the source location