E A S T N – E u r o p e a n A r t - S c i e n c e - Te c h n o l o g y N e t w o r k
A F E S T I VA L O F D I G I TA L C R E AT I V I T Y 25 – 30 JUNE 2018
FULL PROGRAMME eastn.uk/manchester
#EASTNManc
presented by
Welcome to EASTN-DC Manchester: A Festival of Digital Creativity In this booklet you will find a complete programme of all our events, plus biographies of all our visiting and local composers, artists, programmers and innovators, from: - Ljudmila Art and Science Laboratory, Slovenia - Conservatorio di Cuneo, Italy - Cardiff Metropolitan University, Wales - Royal College of Music, Stockholm - ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany - Ionian University, Corfu, Greece - NOVARS Research Centre, The University of Manchester The European Art - Science - Technology Network (EASTN) for Digital Creativity is a project that emerged from several European institutions involved in research, technology development, creation and education in the field of technologies applied to artistic creation. The NOVARS Research Centre, part of the Music Department at the University of Manchester, is one of the 14 European Institutions involved in the EASTN-DC Network. We are very proud to be organising the first full-week Network event during 25-30 June 2018. We hope you find the week inspiring, educational, and fun! Many thanks to the Manchester team: Ricardo Climent
Project Coordinator
Sarah Keirle
First Project Assistant
David Berezan
Artistic Creator
Jon Tipler
Music Technician, Network Administrator
Guillaume Dujat
MANTIS System manager and Tech Coordinator
Falk Morawitz
MANTIS System manager and Tech Coordinator
MHC Support Team
Martin Harris Centre Technical staff: Karl Spencer and Tom Pearce Martin Harris Centre Events Team (Amy Jones, Anne-Marie Nugnes, Emma Rayner, Nathan Mannion, Hannah Garret, Anne Brandolani and Director Mark Woolstencroft.
MONDAY 25th JUNE
JOHN THAW STUDIO THEATRE
12:00 – 13:00
Meet and Greet Informal gathering and official Welcome from Caroline Bithell, Head of Music at the University of Manchester, and staff from NOVARS Research Centre, followed by a quick programme overview.
13:00 – 14:00
Welcome lunch and drinks reception in the MHC Foyer
14:00 – 15:00
Digital Creativity 1a robotcowboy: Onwards to Mars (2018) a one astronaut space opera
Dan Wilcox
robotcowboy is a wearable computing platform to explore new types of manmachine music & artistic performance. Embedded computing, custom software, and audio electronics are utilized to build portable, self contained systems which both embed and embody the computation on the performer. This cyborg approach is both empowering and compromising as new sonic capability & movement are offset by the need for electrical energy: elements of tension between human and system. robotcowboy shows are always live and contain aspects of improvisation, feedback with the audience, and an inherent capability of failure, i.e. the “live” in live performance.
15:00 – 16:00
Digital Creativity 1b Hörspiel Composition
Henrik Frisk, Kim Hedås and Anders Elberling
A presentation of a recent workshop in Sweden with participants with little or no experience in sound composition 16:00 – 17:00
Digital Creativity 2a Game Audio for Real and Virtual Instruments Band together with Digital Musicians
Ricardo Climent
A presentation and live-demo about constructing Mix Reality Musical Duels by Ricardo Climent using the Unreal Game Engine 4.
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After a 10-year journey using game-audio and game engines to construct sonic centric immersive experiences, Ricardo will introduce his new ideas towards combining his different digital instruments for competitive Musical Duel performances. His collection of digital instruments includes a Bass clarinet, two African timbila, a VCS3 synthesizer, a 4-stringed Asian Pipa, a Microbial Ensemble, a Violin, a meca-bird simulator, a marching-band Snare Drum and an Ethertrum, an instrument to audify the Ethereum blockchain. The first formal Duel battle will be presented in September 2018 at Festival Música Actual Manises in Valencia, alongside Sigma Project (a Saxophone Quartet) and Manusamo & Bzika (3D models). These Sonic Duels are informed by the concept of applying “eSports” in the context of traditional Musical Battles and Duels, typically seen between snare drummers in marching bands, beatboxing battles, saxophone battles, etc. 17:00 – 18:00
Digital Creativity 2b Current 9 Composing with Audio-visuals
Mark Pilkington
Mark Pilkington will discuss approaches to working with audio-visual media to create electroacoustic music, focusing on the composition Current 9 (2018) that integrates non-representational imagery with electronic sounds through an interactive performance platform. The talk will offer a rare insight into working practices and a chance to have first-hand experience of a custom-built music system. This particular piece consists of coded structures and stop-frame animations that form an interactive graphic score in motion. His practice encapsulates both sound and image as a means to extend spatial imaginings between real and virtual space. The coupling of sound and image are applied to electroacoustic music, installation and screen-based works. Forging immaterial and creative labour through a network of interwoven and augmented territories, his work increasingly queries the way operations carry great critical and creative potential. Seeking new modes of critical engagement that incorporate multiple narratives through non-digital and digital aesthetic informs the direction of his practice. www.markpilkington.org.uk
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TUESDAY 26th JUNE
JOHN THAW STUDIO THEATRE
10:00 – 11:00
Digital Creativity 3 Magnetic Dance A live-streamed performance and research discussion
Iannis Zannos
Magnetic Dance is a telematic dance performance where dancers in different locations use their movements to weave the rhythm and melody of the music through their movements measured by wearable wireless sensors. Current locations planned for performance are Tokyo (in cooperation with the Department of Intermedia Art at the Tokyo University of the Arts), Brussels, and Athens (in cooperation with the National Observatory of Athens). In each location a sound synthesis algorithm is used to produce the sound locally, by combining the data received at all locations in the performance. The idea of remotely coordinating rhythmic patterns through movement is inspired by the experiments made to confirm John Stewart Bell's theorem explaining entanglement phenomena in quantum mechanics and by traditional african music performance practices as well as references to the relationship between song and weaving in early greek and mesopotamian cultures. The events in Brussels and Athens are part of an artscience exhibition of the topic of "Cosmonauts of Inner Space" (see: http://cosmonauts.oursite.eu). This live-streamed session will be followed by a research discussion with Iannis Zannos in Tokyo.
11:00 – 12:00
Digital Creativity 4a The Augmented City Large-scale installations in public areas
Kim Hedås
A discussion of a large-scale data-driven installation in Hospital Karolinska Sjukhuset in Stockholm and Malmö. 12:00 – 13:00
Digital Creativity 4b Maia: The Augmented City Virtual / Augmented reality demo and soundwalk
Ignacio Pecino
MAIA, designed for EASTN-DC by artist-in-residence Recursive Arts (Ignacio Pecino), is a mixed reality simulation framework designed to materialise a digital overlay of creative ideas in synchronised trans-real environments. It has been proposed as an extension to the author’s previous research on Locative Audio (SonicMaps).
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For this purpose, a number of hyper-real virtual replicas (1:1 scale) of real world locations are to be built in the form of 3D parallel worlds where user-generated content is accurately localised, persistent, and automatically synchronised between both worlds—the real and the virtual counterparts. The focus is on fading the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds, facilitating creative activities and social interactions in selected locations regardless of the ontological approach. We should thus be able to explore, create, and manipulate “inworld” digital content whether we are physically walking around these locations with an AR device (local user), or visiting their virtual replicas from a computer located anywhere in the world (remote user). In both cases, local and remote agents will be allowed to collaborate and interact with each other while experiencing the same existing content (i.e. buildings, trees, data overlays, etc.). This idea somehow resonates with some of the philosophical elaborations by Umberto Eco in his 1975 essay "Travels in Hyperreality", where models and imitations are not just a mere reproduction of reality, but an attempt at improving on it. In this context, VR environments in transreality can serve as accessible simulation tools for the development and production of localised AR experiences, but they can also constitute an end in itself, an equally valid form of reality from a functional, structural, and perceptual point of view. 13:00 – 14:00
Lunch break
14:00 – 15:00
Research Session 1 HAPTICS Electronic Instruments with Physical Feel
Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos
This short presentation and demonstration is related to haptic digital musical instruments: their design, fabrication, programming and usage. It will also present my reflections on some outcomes regarding the use of open-source force-feedback interfaces in musical, compositional and performance context. Two low-cost haptic devices using motorised faders called FireFader developed by Edgar Berdahl and the author will be demoed after the presentation. 15:00 – 16:00
Research Session 2 Data Sonification Exploring Molecular Sonification in Musical Composition
Falk Morawitz
“So that I may perceive whatever holds // The world together in its inmost folds.” – Faust, Johann Wolfgang Goethe A journey through three years of PhD research exploring the use of chemical data for sound creation. Featuring the first ever PhD at NOVARS combining shared supervision between Music and the School of Chemistry.
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The open research session presents methodologies for and examples of the use of chemical data in electroacoustic music composition: from aesthetic inquiries into the audification of atomic oscillations, over virtual reality molecular art installations, to the sonification of complex chemical systems such as the pollution cycles of the Baltic Sea and DNA patterns of extinct animal species. 16:00 – 17:00
Research Session 3 Virtuoso: further avenues of exploration Prototyping A VR Trainer with the MYO Armband
Ricardo Climent
HSIF-funded project Virtuoso is a collaborative effort between Manchester University academics from Music (NOVARS Research Centre), the Alliance Manchester Business School and EON Reality, a company specialised in Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) software for Education and Training. Find out more about this biofeedback-based training system for violinists to understand how to reach the highestlevels of musical performance learning from a VR and potentially AR training system. The Virtuoso team includes Richard Allmendinger (AMBS, UoM), Jane McConnell (Eon Reality UK, Manchester), Ricardo Climent (NOVARS, UoM), Chris Rhodes (NOVARS, UoM), Cameron Sands (Computer Science, UoM), and Kieron Flanagan (AMBS, UoM).
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WEDNESDAY JOHN THAW STUDIO THEATRE 27th JUNE 10:00 – 10:30
Research Session 3a Stiwdio Everywhere Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos Working and Living Around the World as an Artist | Designer This talk will present my experiences during the one year career break “Sabbatical” – I spent exploring, reflecting, experimenting, documenting and travelling around the world. More importantly it will show how this experience became a new way of living, thinking and working remotely in the area of Art and Design. As an academic, transdisciplinary researcher and practitioner at the intersection of art, science and technology, the talk will present related projects from the past and the present and will offer some insights on about how our time permits this location independent working lifestyle and how the nomadic lifestyle can be catalyst for the creative people. Safe travels!
10:30 – 11:00
Research Session 3b TABÚ An artistic project in composition to fight racism in Mexico
Rosalía Soria
In this talk the author presents her artistic project, a portfolio of electroacoustic music which aims to create awareness and fight racism in Mexico. In spite of the great cultural diversity present in the country, discrimination towards certain citizens is present in daily life. The author will talk about the diverse challenges posed by this project regarding aesthetic approaches, music formats, cultural issues, social engagement, and ethics. Mexican society is the result of a confluence of diverse races and cultures, mostly because of the Spanish colonisation. Diversity is present and includes not only Europrean, but also African and Asian origins. Most importantly, all over the country there are still 61 different indigenous groups that have persisted in spite of the colonisation. According to statistics (INEGI, 2017), 88% of the Mexicans consider themselves morenos (persons of dark skin tone). Yet different levels of discrimination towards the indigenous (indios) and morenos exist. Discrimination is present neither by law nor by regulation; but by behaviours in everyday life, at workplaces, schools, and in political and social environments. On the contrary, there is respect, and privileges for people of white origins or brighter skin. This piece collects fragments of interviews with Mexicans who agreed to share their experiences regarding this matter. Not only they wish to express their own concerns or struggles, but also to raise awareness about this issue, and even more, to give some advice to eradicate this problem. The language and statements in the piece mostly belong to the Mexican culture. Many of the references can only be understood in the context of this culture, whereas others can be more universal. It is not the composer’s intention to offend any audiences due to the nature of the topic or the use of specific words. Rather, the intention is to address this problem that deeply affects Mexican society, and to incite reflection. 6
11:00 – 13:00
Showcasing Digital Talent Introducing Creative work from leading Media Institutions based in Manchester for teaching and training.
13:00 – 14:00
Lunch break
14:00 – 15:00
Panel 1 Future Audiences A discussion on digital media's new perspective on accessibility due to economic/social background
15:00 – 16:00
Panel 2 Independent cultural information infrastructure and the EU Digitisation has almost become an euphemism for privatisation. The access to public digitised resources is restrained by giving technical or copyright reasons and excuses. This means that local, non-iconic works, modern and contemporary art(ists) lose visibility. The loss of open public access by cultural providers outsourcing communication and content to big social networks, walled gardens which are closed by default, have privacy problems and build a bubble around each user. Social networks are good for marketing but extremely bad at memory. Europeana is a good example though, as it has boosted the visibility of digitised national heritage archives, tying them into one open web system, but it lacks the “living culture” that the Europeans are creating and experiencing now.
18:00 – 19:30
COSMO RODEWALD CONCERT HALL Concert 1 Next City Sounds Did I Sleep? TABÚ Le voci del mondo B is for Bird Machinic Propositions La Fiesta del Diablo Night Escape
Hofmann / Kempf / Pich / Wilcox Edward Campbell Rosalía Soria Giuseppe Gavazza Ricardo Climent Mongrel (Henrik Frisk / Anders Elberling) Adriana Ruiz Brona Martin
Next City Sounds
Hofmann / Kempf / Pich / Wilcox
An Electroacoustic live performance by Yannick Hofmann, Marco Kempf, Elizabeth Pich and Dan Wilcox. “Next City Sounds: Karlsruhe” presents a sonic portrait of the city of Karlsruhe and brings together the original approaches of four sound artists in an electroacoustic live performance. The work uses urban soundscape recordings that were recorded between 2015 and 2016 over a period of one year from seven listening stations distributed over the public space of Karlsruhe. The media artist Yannick Hofmann has recorded twelve thirty-second endless loop cassette tapes with urban soundscape recordings. On a MIDI keyboard, the twelve semitone steps of the octave are used as an interface, which allows 7
the cassettes, played by twelve walkmen, to be combined in a musique-concrète-like way. The artist and programmer Elizabeth Pich uses a modified version of the app “Code Chain” she developed: eight selected sounds can be edited in real-time with audio effects on three tablet computers. Until August 2018, ZKM | Karlsruhe will show “Code Chain” as an independent installation work in the context of the exhibition “Open Codes”. The US-American media artist and programmer Dan Wilcox has prepared an algorithm for filtering voice and other sound signals from urban sound recordings. Marco Kempf, sound artist and creative coder, has condensed 24 hours of sound material – fittingly dating back to January 6, 2016 – into a thirty-minute electro-acoustic soundscape-composition for Ambisonics, which behaves like a kind of sound carpet. Did I Sleep?
Edward Campbell
'Did I Sleep?' is the sonic simulation of a sleepless night. The experience of falling in and out of consciousness, moving between grounded reality and the abstract dream world, is realised through the deployment of real-world recordings which are then manipulated and recontextualised to mimic the abstract referential nature of dreaming. TABÚ
Rosalía Soria
Mexican society is the result of a confluence of diverse races and cultures. This piece collects fragments of interviews with Mexicans who agreed to share their experiences regarding discrimination towards the indigenous (indios) and morenos, a problem that deeply affects Mexican society today. Le voci del mondo
Giuseppe Gavazza
The performance is never the same. Le voci del mondo (2018) (The voices of the world) is the version expressly re-composed for the MANTIS System in Manchester’s Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall. Previously this piece (the same but always different) has been performed on 24 channels at Acousmonium (Miso Music, O’Culto de Ajuda, Lisbon, May 2015) and 24 channels at Sound dome (EASTN, #AST, Grenoble November 2015, Cité de La Musique, Romans-sur-Isère, October 2016). Working for my PhD on the subject of GENESIS (software of musical synthesis for physical modelling) as a tool for musical composition I have created many thousands of models capable to generate sounds. Every model has its own voice that can be a complex and richly articulated sound. Some of these sounds often appear to me like voices of strange animals, cryptic signal coming from this world or outer world, primaeval sounds from musical instruments.
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For Le voci del mondo (2018) I have chosen 32 models capable to generate long sounds (minutes or hours) and I have assigned every voice to a single channel of the loudspeakers orchestra. I like to imagine that in every loudspeaker is hidden one of these uncommon sounding objects. Each sound in a box, like each animal in a cage. Playing at the mixer during the concert I shall give audio-life to one, some or all these voices scattered in space and I feel to stay immobile in the centre of an unreal singing forest or zoo. I have taken the title and I took inspiration from the beautiful novel of Robert Schneider, “I suoni del mondo” (personal translation from Italian): "The closer he came to the smooth rock, the more Elias felt restless. It seemed to him that the noise of the footsteps, the breath, the crackle of the frozen snow, the distant thuds of the wood, the water's murmur under the ice of the Emmer, that all around him had to grow and to melt into one grandiose sound. When he finally reached his cliff he felt a rumble like a thunder ready to burst out from his breast. And at that moment, as if having a premonition of his own future, he suddenly began to sing. Therefore the prodigy happened: that afternoon of his fifth year of life Elias heard the sound of the universe." The original title of the novel, Schlafes Bruder, became Brother of sleep in English and Le voci del mondo in the Italian version. The English translation is more accurate, but I love the Italian one: less precise, but faithful to the spirit of the novel. Certainly I would not have titled my composition Fratelli di sonno o Sonno fraterno. B is for Bird
Ricardo Climent
Birdsongs and nature have inspired humans and informed musical compositions and other art forms for centuries. This live game-audio composition navigates an ancient Chinese folktale: "Hu was a wise woman who, for many years, had taken care of the flowers and birds of an enchanted Chinese Botanical garden. During the day, it looked like ordinary places to wander about. But when the sun was down, earth and sky merged together into a purple glow, while Hu intoned a musical Pipa born from a butternut squash and played with synthetic birds in the orchards until dawn..." The outcome is a game-audio live performance composition emerging from the design of an interactive music system for mimicking birds' vocal anatomy preforming alongside a virtual pipa (a four-stringed Chinese plucked instrument). The playground consists of an evolutionary aural ecosystem entitled “B - is for Bird”, which drives sounds from a modular synthesizer, as the core audio-engine source for soundscaping a virtual garden. Such 3D ecosystem (which may have alternative themes). The singing meta-birds become A.I. actors on a game-engine server platform, which interact with the Pipa. 3D models by Manusamo & Bzika (collaborative studio) Machinic Propositions
Mongrel (Henrik Frisk / Anders Elberling)
Machinic propositions is an artistic project and an attempt to critically examine Deleuze and Guattari’s theorems of deterritorialization as found in chapter seven and ten of their seminal book A Thousand Plateaus (Deleuze & Guattari, 1980). The artistic method is one where conceptual deduction and improvisation play central roles. It has grown out of our thinking about contemporary media and our attempts to critically examine both our own pro-technical approach and the hyper media-landscape we live
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in. This method was developed based on our artistic ideas, the needs of the projects we engage in, and the conditions of our respective practices. At the core of our work lies the attempt to deconstruct the relationship between sound and image. Our work process is slow, and the work on the present project began in 2016 and is likely to continue in the future. There are interesting parallels between the way we work, and the idea put forward by Deleuze of style as the ability to "stammer in one’s own language". Our working process is situated in the attempt to stutter in "language" while avoiding it in "speech". The modes of synchronization that have become central to our works will be further explored through the modes of thinking relating to the theorems introduced by D&G. There are, however, many points of entry. The systems of de/reterritorialization in this context are interpreted as attempts to detach both sound and image from their highly defined modes of engagement. Not in order for them to merge into one, but to become what may be described as the opposite of a couple.
La Fiesta del Diablo
Adriana Ruiz
The primary sounds and musical approach to the piece has elements of the Colombian ensemble from the Cauca department known as ChirimĂa. The festive musicians go around the city (at new year’s carnival festivities) playing traditional drums and flutes accompanied by a person dressed as a devil that collects money from the audience. The 8-channel piece is a quest to find a balance between the real and a fictional sound world inspired by the sonic possibilities of the instruments. Night Escape
Brona Martin
Night Escape is the first in a series of works that will explore the soundscape that surrounds Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Florida where I have attended residencies with composers Jonty Harrison and Natasha Barrett. Night Escape explores a night-time soundscape using a field recording as the source material. Crickets dominate this field recording. I find the sound of crickets extremely relaxing and calming and their presence reinforces the fact that I am somewhere else, exploring and travelling because their sound to me is somehow exotic. I have restricted myself to using one night-time recording, which facilitates the exploration of this recording in detail. NightEscape was composed using a ring of 8 loudspeakers. The piece offers the listener time to immerse themselves in a meditative and calming soundscape, taking time out of busy schedules to pause, reflect and escape. This piece was composed at EMS, Stockholm, March 2018.
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20:00 – 21:00
Concert 2 Javaari Dense Spin Blue Lungs Fontana Remix
Manuella Blackburn Kim Hedås Brümmer / Lintermann Sarah Keirle Gianluca Verlingieri
Javaari
Manuella Blackburn
Javaari is the term given to the bridge of the sitar where the melodic and sympathetic strings run and create the sound. The term also refers to the unique buzzing tone produced by the sitar. This piece explores these fascinating timbres originating from this instrument and pays particular attention to the beautiful pitch bends that arch over and under like vocal melismas. The work is structured into four episodes, each exploring a different intensity of explicit cultural sound use — often the sitar material is in the fore and sometimes it recedes or pokes through intermittently. Javaari was realized at the Visby International Centre for Composers (VICC, Sweden) and at Liverpool Hope University (England, UK). This acousmatic work is the first in a series of pieces composed in collaboration with Milapfest based at Liverpool Hope University. The yearlong project aims to examine the translation and transference of cultural sound to electroacoustic music and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Many thanks go to Roopa Panesar (sitar), Kousic Sen (tabla), Raaheel Husain (sitar), Kiruthika Nadarajah (violin), Senthan Nadarajah (mridangam), Kaviraj Singh (santoor), Upneet Singh (tabla), and Rohan Kapadia (tabla). Dense
Kim Hedås
The music of Dense is based on ideas of spatiality in relation to time. Spatial and temporal changes in the music's movements provide a continuously changing polyphony. Imaginary sites, rooms, positions and directions are the basis of the music. Perforations, holes and voids from the sound material are superimposed, while structures with varying degrees of density are created. The music alternates between becoming dense, packed or airy. In Dense, the imaginary room is dark and lacks the bottom, the room slowly draws the music down and sinks deeper towards the darkness. Dense is twelve minutes long and was originally composed for eight Speakers at EMS (Elektronmusikstudion), Stockholm, Sweden. Spin
Brümmer / Lintermann
“Spin” is an interdisciplinary project designed by Ludger Brümmer and Bernd Lintermann for the Long Night of Culture in Kaiserslautern 2014 under the title “The Origin”. The visual objects projected in stereoscopic 3D were realized with the software Xfrog developed by Bernd Lintermann. Both the musical level and the visual event are based on random processes that change in sound as noise and visually as structure. Adonis Daukaev developed a dance choreography that relates to the architectural objects of the video and the structural progressions of the music. Blue Lungs
Sarah Keirle
Stand on the cliff and breathe. Can you feel the great swathe of sea air, the salt, the sky, the horizon, move within the space behind you ribs? 11
This piece explores external space vs. space inside the body, immense space vs. intimate space, a single moment vs. infinity. Fontana ReMix
Gianluca Verlingieri
Premiered at Mexico City’s Musica y Escena Festival in 2006, Verlingieri’s Fontana reMix multichannel tape has been revised in 2008-9 for a for Wave Field Synthesis projection on 189 loudspeakers at the Casa del Suono in Parma, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Cage’s original Fontana Mix tape. Verlingieri’s work has then been performed worldwide in several speaker configurations, both as tape alone or simultaneously with a live performance of Cage’s Aria by the American bass-baritone Nicholas Isherwood. The idea of reMix is not related to any elaboration of Cage’s original tapes, but rather lies in the attempt to metaphorically “mix-up” two aspects: first, a composition process fully adherent to the set of tools and rules provided by Cage himself with the 1960 Peters score, and, second, the effort to go beyond the first process, giving back to the composer some decision-making responsibilities, mainly in terms of macro-form structure and kind and density of events, but also with regard to the categories of the sonic materials or the techniques to process them. The resultant kaleidoscope is, once again, a (re)mix between the acoustic properties of sound objects and their cultural meanings in the present society. Photo by Sergio Bertani
THURSDAY 28th JUNE
COSMO RODEWALD CONCERT HALL
09:00 – 11:00
Workshop 1 Diffusion workshop A workshop dedicated to the MANTIS 55-genelec surround sound live diffusion system, as well as other diffusion systems brought by visiting members of the network.
14:00 – 15:30
Concert 3 Divine Cut In Those Days / Community Karst Grotto Chromatocosmos Unearthed Requiem da Ballo
Guillaume Dujat Hayley Suviste Nikos Stavropoulos Epa Fassianos David Berezan Gianluca Verlingieri
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Divine Cut
Guillaume Dujat
Divine cut is an electroacoustic piece for fixed media (2ch) & live performer (binaural). Special thanks: Polski Fryzjer (Studio Recording), Sassoon Academy (Consultation), Michael Perrett (Bass Clarinet), Ecka Mordicai (Cello), Tariq Eman (Gubal).
In Those Days / Community
Hayley Suviste
This work is a homage to Britain’s urban landscapes, human resilience, poverty and childhood inspired by the pioneering female street photographer Shirley Baker. The photograph’s I have chosen to take inspiration from are Baker’s depictions of the urban clearance programmes of Hulme, Manchester, between 1961 – 1981. "Whole streets were disappearing and I hoped to capture some trace of the everyday life of people who lived there" - Baker Karst Grotto
Nikos Stavropoulos
The title, chosen for its onomatopoeic qualities and its direct references to landscape types as well as geological spatial structures and processes, reflects the sound world of the work. The recordings of source materials were conducted using small electret condenser microphones in a 5.1 Polyhymnia pentagon configuration. The work, which was composed at the studios of the Department of Music Technology & Acoustics in Crete and the Institute for Computer Music and Sound Technology in Zurich, is the result of ongoing investigation into capturing and working with spatiality in acoustic micro space. Chromatocosmos
Epa Fassianos
A stereo electroacoustic composition which is based on Baghlamas’s original recordings. Baghlamas is a traditional Greek instrument which has its roots to an Ancient Greek instrument called Pandoura. Thanks to its touchette, it provided great potential to the instrumentalist to perform phonetic and organic passages which accompanied single pitches, which led to the creation of plural melismata (ornamental phrases of several notes) and legatti, a technique which was impossible to be implemented in Ancient Greek chordophones such as the lyre, where only one single string was used in relation to each pitch. In my work I made an attempt to explore the characteristics of the instrument and its relation to history and Hellenic Culture via acousmatic music. The work has references to melodic lines widely used by Baghlamas performers but is mainly an attempt to recreate a new sonic world. I also aimed to use the instrument in innovative ways, from the recording process (use of sounds emerging from the chording of the instrument) to the development process (application of a wide range of transformations which would lead the sound in new boundaries). The addition of background sounds emerging from the Baghlamas through various transformations, creates a constant dialogue with the foreground sounds. The various sonic colours observed as the piece evolves justify its title. This work is part of my PhD portfolio. Unearthed
David Berezan
Unearthed explores the sounds of soil and things found within it. The work was inspired by my efforts at gardening in my allotment plot. Turning over and preparing the 13
soil each spring reveals a rich layer of regolith below the surface, plant roots, soil organisms and a surprising amount of discarded gardening materials, tools, glass bottles, plastic and metallic objects that has accumulated over the allotment's near 100 years of activity. These latter items are both a nuisance as well as sort of time capsule, and their revealing often reminds me of an archaeological dig. The actions and soundworlds of digging the soil, the discovery of hidden treasures and the micro-scale of the objects, inhabitants and organic matter that are encountered are explored in the work. Source sounds were recorded at plot 13B of the Humphrey Park Allotment association in Stretford UK, using a variety of traditional microphones as well as hydrophones buried in the ground. Suite from Requiem da Ballo
Gianluca Verlingieri
Suite from Requiem da Ballo is an acousmatic work that Gianluca Verlingieri derived from his large composition Requiem da Ballo for poet, live electronics, fixedmedia sound projection and custom-made “loudspeaker pipes”, commissioned by Tempo Reale, the institute founded by Luciano Berio in Florence. Contemporary Italian language, old dialects and other ancient idioms were interwoven in the original text by Pier Luigi Berdondini, here “replaced” by a sonic dialectics once again oscillating between future and past: synthetic sounds interact with ancient folk instruments like Sardinian launeddas or Calabrian ephemeral flutes, in a ritual that becomes salvific through the evocation of rhythm and musicality of an inaudible spoken text. 15:30 – 17:00
Explore our Sound Installations Find our installations in the MHC Foyer and Room F20
FRIDAY 29th JUNE
HOME – MANCHESTER
10:00 – 13:00
Recursive Arts Locative Audio, Procedural Sound Art, Virtual Instruments
Entrepreneur Day This is an opportunity to meet with digital companies in the North West of England and academic colleagues. Ignacio Pecino
Recursive Arts is an independent studio specializing in Unity game and app development with a focus on GIS/Locative Audio, Procedural Sound Art, Virtual Instruments, and anything sound-related. Cardiff School of Art & Design Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos Digital Fabrication and Musical Instruments Design This presentation is related to digital musical instrument design and composition in the era personal digital fabrication. Currently, the third industrial revolution and the maker culture (which mostly appears in small scale laboratories called Fab Labs) is changing the model of production and distribution towards a customised, personal, local fabrication. Creative coding, interaction design and digital fabrication offer an open access medium for the new generation of composers, to develop their creative ideas and produce sonic artworks that manifest them self both physically and digitally. Turning data into sound and turning data into things (that make sound) is the topic of this presentation. 14
13:00 – 14:00
Business Partnership with UoM Business Engagement and Nurturing Talent
Shanta Aphale
Dr Aphale, the Business Engagement Manager, Faculty of Humanities (University of Manchester) will explain how organisations including Digital Companies can partner with the University of Manchester and how they can benefit from the variety of business engagement services they offer. From providing business solutions to nurturing talent, and how they work together to build a strategy for success. Noisy Toys Breaking Computers, Making Noise
Stephen Summers
We will make some simple noise machines from computer guts, learning about sound, electromagnetism and vibrations as well as how to use tools and have fun; can we achieve mechanical funk? 14:00 – 16:00
Lunch break VRH360 VR visualisations and 360 videos
Gabriel Radakovitch / Théo Radakovitch
VRH 360 is a French company created by construction professionals, which offers high quality VR visualizations for architects and land developers. For more immersive experiences, we use multichannel audio. Gabriel Radakovitch, the Manchester based artistic director, will be present to showcase VR projects on different devices. Deft Ear Sound Branding, Game Audio, Sound Design & Music
Craig Burgess / Joe Shorrocks
Deft Ear create tailored sound and music content, strategies and experiences to enhance brands, games, video, apps, VR and creative media content. Their tailored sound and music content, sound branding strategies, audio asset management, music licensing, creative development and technical production expertise incorporate a range of approaches designed to suit and augment an existing project identity, aesthetic and core aims and objectives; whether you’re developing a brand, game title, marketing campaign, app or just want to try a different approach. www.DeftEar.com @DeftEar Info@DeftEar.com RnD Enterprises Richard Stevens / David Raybould / Nikos Stavropoulos Spatial Audio Utilities for Unreal Game Engine Richard Stevens co-authored The Game Audio Tutorial (Focal Press, 2011) and Game Audio Implementation (CRC Press, 2015) David Raybould and Niko Stavropoulos (EA composer). Working with Electroacoustic Composer Nikos Stavropoulos, the team are exploring the potential for game engines to act as tools for spatial music composition, realisation, and performance. These tools enable composers to visualise and interact with their music in 3D space in ways not possible within a traditional digital audio 15
workstation, and with the addition of VR capabilities to experience spatial music in a truly immersive and engaging way. 16:00 – 18:00
Showcase Event Attendees will have the opportunity to experience the different technologies brought and presented during the day including V360 videos, VR tools, and spatialisation tools in UE4. Manusamo and Bzika Alena Mésárošová and Manuel Ferrer Hernandéz Augmented Reality for Musical Instruments Architect Alena Mésárošová is co-founder (with visual artist Manuel Ferrer Hernandéz) of the interdisciplinary art group Manusamo & Bzika, which focuses on the creation of interactive installations involving the use of augmented reality and 3D modelling. Since 2006, the group has produced creative AR work for numerous festivals and projects in Slovakia, Italy, Spain and Portugal. Alena holds a degree in IngenierArchitecture (Inzinier architekt) at the Fakulta Umení, Technická Univerzita v Košiciach, Slovakia as well as a bachelor’s and recently completed a PhD at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Ferrer holds a PhD by the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The AR demos will include musical instruments and more.
SATUDAY 30th JUNE
F20 – MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE
10:00 – 13:00
Workshop 2 Soda a semi-modular instrument building workshop
Staš Vrenko
Soda is a semi-modular electroacoustic instrument with several inputs and outputs, which enable interfacing with other audio devices (such as synths, rhythm machines, guitar pedals, etc.). It may be used either as a standalone synth/signal processor or trigger and CV generator. Signal path starts with a jack input, which can be used for connecting an external signal. Its waveform may then be amplified, filtered and fed into the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), which outputs a frequency modulated ramp waveform signal, ranging from harsh noise to pulsating rhytmic bursts, reminiscent of the external signals characteristics (timbre and amplitude).
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The circuit has two separate audio outputs - a 3.5mm jack line output and an internal amplifier intended for powering the speaker, which encourage an exploration of various feedback possibilities. During the workshop participants will gain basic knowledge on electronics and soldering, assemble Soda kit and get familiar with its possible uses. Bring your DIY synths! 13:00 – 14:00
Lunch break
14:00 – 15:30
Workshop 3 GENESIS Physical Modelling and Simulation for Musicians - click for more
Giuseppe Gavazza
GENESIS is a modular software environment for musical creation that targets both sound synthesis and musical composition by means of physical modeling and simulation. Built over three decades of cutting-edge research at ACROE and ICA, led by Claude Cadoz and his pioneering group in physically-based simulation for artistic creation, GENESIS enables everyone to benefit from the possibilities of physical modeling by creating his/her own models of sounding objects. Thanks to its physical core principles, GENESIS naturally produces lively sounds, i.e. sounds that are rich, organic, and highly dynamic. Sounds produced by virtual objects have an expressive attack, and naturally evolve in intensity and timbre. Moreover, each sound produced by an object subtly differs from the others. Beyond its expressivity, GENESIS also offers a new creative process. Users can design an infinite diversity of virtual instruments and sounds. They can also build virtual physical objects that interact with instruments in order to play them and control their behaviour. It is thus possible to generate sound events and musical phrases – possibly up to the whole structure of musical pieces. GENESIS is the first environment making possible to compose music entirely with physical modelling, opening a whole new world of musical ideas.
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OPENING TIMES:
INSTALLATIONS
MONDAY 25TH JUNE
MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE FOYER
14:00 – 17:00
TUESDAY 26th JUNE 09:00 – 17:00
WEDNESDAY 27th JUNE 09:00 – 17:00
THURSDAY 28th JUNE 09:00 – 17:00
Code Chain Interactive sound installation
Elizabeth Pich and Ludger Brümmer
Devices connected to each other enable chain processes involving several players. In “CodeChain”, sounds are generated according to the principle of the popular children’s game “whisper down the lane” or “telephone”, which are sent to other players and processed by them. Thus the players alter a sound step-by-step, and may change it until it bears no resemblance to the initial sound. The chain begins with rushing sounds, various oscillators, frequency modulators, and own or prepared recordings, which users select via double click. The selected sound is sent to one of the devices in the pool, where a fellow player can add effects. Available effects are echoes and reverberations, delay, treble and bass filters, granular synthesis, and distortion. In addition, the sounds can be formed into a melody with a sequencer. After the sound has had as many effects as desired added to it, it is sent to the next player. Each player changes the sound one more time. The sounds resulting from this process are therefore the result of a collective, partially random, partially deliberate process. Monocause. Dialectics of the Post-Truth Era Interactive sound installation
Yannick Hofmann
It seems as though in the post-truth age processes of public opinion formation are following more and more the exclusive disjunction of mathematical logic (»either … or …«). Whether in the context of the US presidential election campaign of 2016, socalled Brexit, or the Hamburg G20 protests, post-truthism and false dilemmas polarize society and suggest that only extremes exist that are opposed to each other (for example like/dislike, black/white, rich/poor). For “Monocause. Dialectics of the Post-Truth Era”, excerpts from various texts and speeches were collected – including, for example, the doctrine of US President Bush in the 2000s (“you’re either with us, or against us”). With a swipe, museum visitors can express sympathy with or resentment towards people from A like Adorno to Z like Žižek. The swipe gesture thus becomes the equivalent of the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” hand gestures of Roman emperors at the circus. The interface is based conceptually and in its design on the famous dating app Tinder.
ROOM F20, MARTIN HARRIS CENTRE Sculpture (2017) A Cybernetic Audiovisual Installation
Ludger Brümmer
Cybernetic objects are self-regulating or recursively acting systems that seem to act independently. In the Sculpture installation, the computer initially generates manually generated sounds, which are measured by a microphone in their volume and trigger new sounds at the appropriate volume. This system acts completely selfsufficiently and creates different sound patterns as well as visual objects in the form of 18
short video passages. During the performance, the composer does not interfere with the way it works, but merely changes the sounds or video scenes used.
Quantum Music #002 Audiovisual Installation
Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos / Daniel Burgarth
Cybernetic objects are self-regulating or recursively acting systems that seem to act independently. In the Sculpture installation, the computer initially generates manually generated sounds, which are measured by a microphone in their volume and trigger new sounds at the appropriate volume. This system acts completely selfsufficiently and creates different sound patterns as well as visual objects in the form of short video passages. During the performance, the composer does not interfere with the way it works, but merely changes the sounds or video scenes used.
BIOGRAPHIES David Berezan
David Berezan (Professor in Electroacoustic Music Composition) has acted, since 2003, as Director of the Electroacoustic Music Studios and MANTIS (Manchester Theatre in Sound) at The University of Manchester (UK). After completing a BA in History (1988) at the University of Calgary, a Diploma in Composition (1996) at Grant MacEwan College (Edmonton) and an MMus in Composition (2000) at the University of Calgary, he moved to the UK and completed a PhD in Electroacoustic Composition (2003) at the University of Birmingham (UK). Berezan's work has been awarded in the Klang! (France, 2015), Music Viva (Portugal, 2012), Bourges (France, 2002), Luigi Russolo (Italy, 2002), Radio Magyar (Hungary, 2001), São Paulo (Brazil, 2003, ’05), L’espace du son (Belgium, 2002) and JTTP (Canada, 2000) competitions.
Manuella Blackburn
Manuella Blackburn is an electroacoustic music composer who specializes in acousmatic music creation. However, she also has composed for instruments and electronics, laptop ensemble improvisations, and music for dance. She studied music at The University of Manchester (England, UK), followed by a Masters in Electroacoustic Composition with David Berezan. She became a member of Manchester Theatre in Sound (MANTIS) in 2006 and completed a PhD at The University of Manchester with Ricardo Climent in 2010. Manuella Blackburn has worked in residence in the studios of Miso Music (Lisbon, Portugal), EMS (Stockholm, Sweden), Atlantic Centre for the Arts (New Smyrna Beach, FL, USA), and Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo, Japan). Her music has been performed at concerts, festivals, conferences and gallery exhibitions in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the USA. She is currently Senior Lecturer in Music at Liverpool Hope University (England, UK).
Ludger Brümmer
Ludger Brümmer is a prolific computer musician and media artist. Since April 2003 he has been director of the ZKM | Institute for Music and Acoustics. Ludger Brümmer has received several international awards for his compositional works.
Craif Burgess
I'm the Co-Founder of Deft Ear and a Senior Lecturer at Futureworks School of Media in Manchester, England. I'm the Managing Director and part of the team at Deft Ear creators of sound and music content, strategies and experiences that enhance brands, games, video, apps, VR and creative media content. In addition to my professional practice I'm 19
also the Programme Leader and a Senior Lecturer for the BA (Hons) Music Production degree course at Futureworks, Manchester, England, as well as delivering Avid Certified Pro Tools courses as a certified Avid Pro Tools Instructor. Edward Campbell
Edward Campbell is a composer from the Lake District currently studying the Electroacoustic Composition Masters at the University of Manchester.
Ricardo Climent
Ricardo Climent is Professor of Interactive Music Composition at University of Manchester, UK, where he serves as director of the NOVARS Research Centre and as head of Composition. For the last few years his research has focused on the potential of gameaudio, physics and graphic engines for compositional purposes, using ‘the aural’ as the primary source for navigation and exploration. He previously held a lecturing position at SARC, (Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast), served as resident composer at the JOGV Orchestra, Spain; Conservatorio of Morelia in Mexico; Sonology - Kunitachi College of Music, Tokyo; LEA labs, at the Conservatorio of Valencia; the Cushendall Tower- In you we trust; Northern Ireland, at CARA- Celebrating Arts in rural Areas, cross-border Ireland, N.K. Berlin and at the Push Festival, Sweden. Ricardo co-started collaborative projects, such as: The Microbial Ensemble, (microbial sonification project with Dr Quan Gan), The Carxofa Electric Band (a children's workshop with vegetables and Electronics with Dr Iain McCurdy), The Tornado-Project (a crossatlantic trio project with Esther Lamneck (clarinet) and Elizabeth McNutt (flute)), Drosophila (a dance-theatre tour of a blind fly with KLEM and Idoia Zabaleta), Ho- a sonic expedition to Vietnam, (a game-audio work), S.LOW, (a cross-disciplinary project in Berlin involving artists from 34 countries around the world), LocativeAudio Research Network (co-run by PG students at NOVARS), the Timbila Project ( with Miquel Bernat), CitizenUrge, (with DJ Slim Vic, Sweden), "[5]" -Valencia 1939, including geo-locative data, and "Putney" with Alena Mesarosova, Manuel Ferrer and Mark Pilkington and started the dutch-UK.network 58/58. In terms of education, prior to completing a PhD in Electroacoustic Music Composition and a Master of Arts in the same area (both at The Queen's University of Belfast), he obtained a five-year degree in Economics at University of Valencia, Spain and a 3-year degree by FUFAP, Alcala de Henares University (Madrid)/UPV.
Guillaume Dujat
Guillaume Dujat (b.1993) is a French sound artist & electroacoustic composer based in the UK (Manchester). He is currently doing his PhD at the NOVARS research centre (University of Manchester). https://gdujat.com
Anders Elberling
Anders Elberling is a visual artist, photographer, innovator, instructor, and art director. Originally educated as a photographer (Paris 1985-89) Anders uses visual objects and sound objects as tools to create artistic installations. Due to dyslexia, Anders has developed an imaginative access to communication through the creation of narratives using picture and sound. An important condition for Anders’ artwork is the artistic expression that evolves in the interaction between different art forms. This interaction creates new entities that are larger than those which can be generated by the individual art form alone. Therefore, Anders typically works in projects together with other artists – for example composers, sound artists, electronic and video artists–with whom he generates micro-communities for the handling and composition of digital material through artistic practice. His work is predominantly presented at exhibitions and performances, concerts and theatre productions in broadcast, publications and installations.
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Epa Fassianos
Epa Fassianos is a Greek composer, born in Athens in 1982. He has attended both the University of York (MA in Music Technology) and the University of Sussex (MA in Composition for Media and Film and MPhil in Musical Composition). His BA in Greece was in Informatics and Computer Technology. He has also obtained his Piano Diploma in 2003 with Professor Dimitris Toufexis. In parallel, he has obtained the Diplomas in Harmony, Counterpoint and Fugue respectively. He has a deep interest in film music composition and he has written music for silent films by filmmaker Stan Brakhage. As part of his MA in Composition for Media and Film, he rescored Godfrey Reggio's film "Koyaanisqatsi" (original music composed by Philip Glass). At the moment he is a fourth-year PhD student in acousmatic music at the University of Manchester (NOVARS Research Centre), under the supervision of Professor David Berezan. His area of interest for his PhD is: Creating works of acousmatic music based on aspects of Greek Culture [Religion, Traditional Greek Instruments, Mythology].
Luka Frelih
Luka Frelih (1974) is an artist working with computers and networks, a computer programmer, free software hacker and web designer. He's been a core member of LJUDMILA - Ljubljana Digital Media Lab since its founding in 1994. He is one of the developers for Culture.si and Kulturnik.si cultural information portals run by LJUDMILA. He was in many collaborations connecting technology and art. Member of Makrolab, ASCII Art Ensemble and pioneering net.art community projects: 7-11, Refresh, RemoteC. Programmed the instant ascii camera, a net art generator and more than one web map interface for positioned radio-linked roaming agents. Since 2011 Luka is a member of Theremidi Orchestra, a DIY electronic noise band, using soldering workshops and improvised noise performances as a new way to approach sound and audiences.
Henrik Frisk
Henrik Frisk (PhD) is an active performer (saxophones and laptop) of improvised and contemporary music and a composer of acoustic and computer music. With a special interest in interactivity, most of the projects he engages in explores interactivity in one way or another. Interaction was also the main topic for his artistic PhD dissertation, ‘Improvisation, Computers, and Interaction’. Frisk is Associate Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm and an affiliate of Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University. Henrik has performed in many countries in Europe, North America and Asia including performances at prestigious festivals such as the Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival, NYC and the Montreux Jazz Festival, Switzerland. As a composer he has received commissions from many institutions, ensembles and musicians. He has made numerous recordings for American, Canadian, Swedish and Danish record labels and is currently a member of the collective Kopasetic Productions, an independent label owned and run by improvising musicians.
Giuseppe Gavazza
Giuseppe Gavazza, composer, lives between France and Italy. He teaches composition at the Cuneo Conservatory and has a research activity (PhD) within the ACROE-ICA laboratory in Grenoble with the subject of using the GENESIS physical model synthesis software for musical creation.
Kim Hedås
Kim Hedås (born 1965) is a composer, educated in composition at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Kim Hedås has composed music for several different contexts and her music has been played by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, NorrlandsOperan Symphony Orchestra, Gageego !, Pearls for Pigs, Kroumata, VOX, DalaSinfoniettan and Gothenburg Opera. She also works with 21
electroacoustic music and works with other artists in theater, art and architecture. Over the past few years, Kim Hedås has performed music at Göteborg Concert Hall, NorrlandsOperan, Modern Museum, Kulturhuset, Färgfabriken, Venice Architecture, Kivik Art Center, Theater Galeasen and Dramaten. Yannick Hofmann
Yannick Hofmann is an artist and curator who operates at the cutting edge of sound art and creative coding. He works at ZKM | Hertz-Lab as project coordinator and teaches at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences.
Sarah Keirle
Originally from the Channel Islands, Sarah is an electroacoustic composer, sound designer, contemporary performer and artist based in Manchester, UK. Having graduated from the University of Manchester in 2017 with a first class MusB (hons) in Music, and completed an Advanced Diploma in Sound for Film, Games and TV at SSR in 2018, she is currently studying for a Masters in Electroacoustic Composition and Interactive Media at the University of Manchester. Her interest in audio-visuals and collaboration has led her to work with animation sound, game audio, installations and interactive music. Whatever the medium, Sarah enjoys exploring the emotions, colours and sensations evoked by particular moments in place and time. Her works have been performed at NMNW (New Music North West) 2017, MANTIS 2017, SHETogether 2018, the Walter Carroll Lunchtime Concert series, and during an installation called ‘time-trace-place’ at Porthmeor Studios, St. Ives. Her piece ‘Lescun’ will be performed this year at ICMC 2018 in Daegu, Korea. Sarah has enjoyed being the First Project Assistant for this EASTN-DC week in Manchester.
Marco Kempf
Marco Kempf works at the interface of physical computing, creative coding and electroacoustic composition in the field of spatial sound. He graduated from the Department of Media Arts and Sciences at the Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences with a thesis on the artistic use of brain-computer interfaces. Kempf studies media art at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and is an active member of the research group on Artificial Intelligence and Media Philosophy (KIM).
Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos
Dr Alexandros Kontogeorgakopoulos is a computer music researcher, a lecturer and a musician /sonic artist. He has studied physics, computer science, digital arts, classical music and computer music in Greece and in France. His research and musical interests are situated at the intersection of music, art, science and technology. He has published several articles in journals, international conferences, and participated in many workshops related to music interaction, musical composition and music performance (classical guitar). He has co-organised workshops on haptic digital musical instruments and in digital fabrication and digital musical instruments and and acted as a reviewer for international conferences, journals and book publications. He has also participated in several music ensembles and composed electroacoustic and electronic music. He is member of Cardiff Gamelan community ensemble since 2012. Alexandros has been working in Higher Education since 2009 where he was appointed as a Lecturer in the Music Production and Technology programme in Cardiff School of Art and Design (CSAD) at University of Wales Institute Cardiff (Cardiff Metropolitan University) . He obtained his HEA fellowship in 2013 and has taught various modules related to computer music, audio signal processing, music production, sonic arts, interactive composition & performance, physical computing and sound design. He has also supervised dissertations and creative projects in the areas of art, music and design. Between 2011-2013 he has undertaken the role of Programme Director in Music
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Production and Technology. He is a currently a Senior Lecturer in Sonic Arts and Art/Science/Technology in Cardiff School of Art and Design. Brona Martin Brona Martin is an Electroacoustic composer and sound artist from Banagher, Co. Offaly, Ireland. She completed a PhD in Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Manchester supervised by Professor David Berezan. Brona's research interests include narrative in Electroacoustic music, soundscape composition, acoustic communication and spatialisation. Her research explores metaphorical and real-world representations of diverse soundworlds, images and experiences, where the aim is to reveal particular sonic characters that are not normally the focus of listening. Brona's portfolio of works explore the layers and textures of sounds that contribute to the overall sonic-makeup of specific places both real and imaginary. Through listening, recording, analysing and processing, the layers of a soundworld are studied and analysed. Processing of these materials reveals the sonic qualities and the internal behaviour of specific sounds. Brona's artistic portfolio offers an in depth and alternative listening perspective and experience where the complexity of everyday sounds are examined and rearranged into a new context. References are also made to the design of the acoustic environment where noise pollution often masks the more pleasant sounds of the natural environment. Her acousmatic works composed in stereo, 5.1 and 8-channel have included the creative exploration of soundscapes from Ireland, Manchester, East Coast Australia, Spain, Germany and Florida. Her works have been performed internationally at EMS, ACMC, ICMC, NYCEMF, ISSTA, ZKM, BEAST, Balance/Unbalance, SSSP, iFIMPaC, Sonorities and MANTIS. Falk Morawitz Falk Morawitz is a PhD composer based at the Novars Research Centre, Manchester. He explores the use of molecular sonification – the transformation of atomic vibrations and oscillations into sound – as a novel tool for electroacoustic music composition. These explorations range from purely aesthetic inquiries to creative works concerned with political, ecological and environmental challenges such as global warming or the refugee crisis. He holds a Master’s degree in Music Composition as well as Chemistry. Ignacio Pecino Ignacio Pecino initially studied Physics at the University of Seville (Spain) but soon focused on sound, music and interactive media, starting a career as a composer, sound engineer and software developer. He completed his BMus (Hons) Degree in Music Composition at the “Conservatorio Superior de Malaga”, where he also worked as a sound engineer. In 2007, he attended master classes with members of the INA-GRM in Paris Daniel Teruggi, Parmegiani Bernard and Francois Bayle, increasing his interest for electroacoustic music and other avant-garde genres. As a researcher at The University of Manchester (MA, PhD) he investigated technical and fundamental aspects of locative audio and procedural composition using the Unity Game Engine ("Dynamic Audio Composition via Space and Motion in Virtual and Augmented Environments"). These disciplines were explored in the context of electroacoustic music composition and they are strongly informed by issues of accessibility and perceptual organisation (multimodality), using recursion and emergent phenomena as a means to minimise visual information and reinforce musical gesture and spatialisation. As a software developer, in 2012 Ignacio founded the independent studio Recursive Arts (https://recursivearts.com), specialising in Unity game and app development with a focus on GIS/locative audio, procedural art, virtual instruments, and mixed reality (VR/AR). As a composer, Ignacio Pecino has premiered acousmatic, audiovisual and interactive works at multiple international festivals including: IX Symposium (Montreal), Primavera en la Habana (Cuba), AudioMostly (Corfu, Greece), MANTIS Festival (Manchester, UK), 23
NIME (Baton Rouge, USA), NYEMF (New York), MAEM (Madrid) and Festival Zeppelin (Barcelona). His research output also includes articles, conference presentations and academic papers in specialised publications such as ICMC, RMA Research Conferences, Filomúsica or SulPonticello. Elizabeth Pich
Elizabeth Pich is a software developer who worked at ZKM | Karlsruhe from 2017–2018.
Mark Pilkington
Mark Pilkington is a composer and performer of electroacoustic music. His practice encapsulates both sound and image as a means to extend spatial imaginings between real and virtual space. The coupling of sound and image are applied to electroacoustic music, installation and screen-based works. Forging immaterial and creative labor through a network of interwoven and augmented territories, his work increasingly queries the way operations carry great critical and creative potential. Seeking new modes of critical engagement that incorporate multiple narratives through non-digital and digital aesthetic informs the direction of his pedagogy. His theoretical research focuses on the relationship between artistic genres and their respective aesthetic theories with reference to: electroacoustic music, sound synthesis, visual music, coding, philosophy, and film. His practice especially focuses on audio-visual composition using real and virtual entities as a means to explore time and space. His work have been performed, exhibited and screened at conferences and festivals throughout the UK and Europe. Collaborative interdisciplinary work is carried out with composers and visual artist/s. His work has been performed and screened at ICMC, ARS Electronica, MANTIS festival and the Open Circuit Festival.
Adriana Ruiz
Adriana Ruiz is a Colombian composer and sound engineer. Her creative work ranges from acousmatic composition to film music, soundtrack and studio production, as well as acoustic instrumental composition. After studies in music and sound engineering at the Universidad Pontificia Javeriana (BA), as well as in Composition for Film & TV at the University of Bristol (MA), in September 2015 she started her doctoral studies at the University of Manchester. Under the supervision of Professor David Berezan, she hopes to develop as a composer of acousmatic music, the focus of her research being the exploration and portrayal of “ethnic” Colombian music and soundscapes in acousmatic composition.
Rosalía Soria
Rose is a Mexican composer and electronics engineer based in Freiburg, Germany. She is currently a member of the Mexican National System of Art Creators. She studied composition at the “Conservatorio de las Rosas” in Michoacán Mexico from 2008 to 2012. She completed a MSc in Electrical Engineering at the UMSNH University in Mexico in 2010. In 2010 se received the prestigious PDS award from the University of Manchester, where she completed a PhD in Music at NOVARS Research Centre (2016). Her research is focused on multi-channel composition using state-space models and sonification. Her works include instrumental, fixed and mixed media pieces and have been performed, among other, at the SONORITIES festival in Belfast, Ars Electronic in Austria, Kingt Gut in Hamburg, MANTIS festival in Manchester and ISSTC in Ireland. In 2018 she started working on an artistic project to fight racism in Mexico, a portfolio of electroacoustic pieces funded by the Mexican government (SNCA/FONCA).
Nikos Stavropoulos
Nikos Stavropoulos (b. 1975) is a composer of predominantly acousmatic and mixed music. His works are performed and acknowledged internationally (Bourges, 2000,2002, Metamorphose, Brussels 2002,2008,2016, SCRIME, Bordeaux 2003, Musica Miso, Potrugal, 2004, Punto de Encuentro Canarias International Electroacoustic Composition 24
Competition 2008, Destellos Foundation 2015, 2016, Open Circuit 2016). Other interests include the performance practice of electroacoustic music, multichannel practices and teaching music and music technology. He joined the Music, Sound & Performance Group at Leeds Beckett University in 2006 and is a founding member of the Echochroma New Music Research Group, a member of the Irish, Sound, Science and Technology Association (ISSTA) and the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA). Hayley Suviste
Hayley Suviste (b.1996) is currently undertaking a masters in Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Manchester. Her work has been performed at MANTIS, BEAST FEaST, NMNW (New Music North West) and MUSICA. Hayley also works and performs collaboratively around Manchester, having recently taken part in a residency with Modul Projects working alongside other sound artists to create a live-set that fuses electroacoustic composition, modular synthesis and laptop music. In mid-July, an exhibition taking place at Under_Gallery will showcase the collaborative work between Hayley and visual artist and sculptor Sarah Hawkins, transforming an underground space in Manchester into an immersive abstract environment.
Gianluca Verlingieri
“Talent exceptionel” according to Radio France, Gianluca Verlingieri has gained international recognition with performances, commissions and projects held at venues such as, among the other, INA-GRM (Paris), Italian Academy at Columbia University (New York), Renzo Piano’s Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome), the new Opera di Firenze at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Aix en Provence International Festival, Staatsoper Berlin and in many others in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, England, Denmark, Belgium, Greece, Mexico, USA, Brazil, New Zealand and Australia. Verlingieri’s compositions have been awarded in numerous competitions and call for scores in Europe and North America and released on compact disc by the labels EMA Records, Limen Music, BIS Records and others. As a researcher, Verlingieri identified Luciano Berio’s private tape archive, now hosted at Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel. He also did research on Mauricio Kagel’s musical theater with his personal encouragement, and on John Cage’s tape music, in collaboration with the archive of the Studio di Fonologia di Milano della RAI and Edition Peters. Professor of Electroacoustic Composition at Ghedini Conservatory in Cuneo (Italy), he’s been invited to give lectures by institutions like the CESMA (Lugano) and the Liszt Academy (Budapest).
Staš Vrenko
Dan Wilcox
Iannis Zannos
Staš Vrenko (1991) was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Graduated at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Ljubljana, where he also finished master studies at the Sculpture Department. His interdisciplinary artistic practice combines exploration of various artistic fields with process orientated research, uncovering many different technological and medium- related specifics of the material he is working with, while focusing on innovative and original approaches in various aspects of sound, sound design, field recording, kineticism and segments of performative arts. Dan Wilcox is an artist, engineer, musician, performer who combines live musical performance techniques with experimental electronics and software for the exploration of new expression, often through themes of science fiction, space travel, cyborgification, and far futurism. Iannis Zannos has a background in music composition, ethnomusicology and interactive performance. He has worked as Director of the Music Technology and Documentation section at the State Institute for Music Research (S.I.M.) in Berlin, Germany, and Research 25
Director at the Center for Research for Electronic Art Technology (CREATE) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has taken part at numerous international collaborative Media Arts projects and has realized multimedia performances both alone and in cooperation with other artists. He is teaching audio and interactive media arts at the Department of Audiovisual Arts and at the postgraduate course in Arts and Technologies of Sound of the Music Department at the Ionian University, Corfu. Publications include: "Ichos und Makam" (Comparative Studies on the Modal systems of Greek and Turkish Music, 1994), "Music and Signs" (edited proceedings of the 1997 conference on Music Semiotics and Systematic Musicology), and a number of articles on Music Technology and Media Arts. Participation in artistic collaborations include with Martin CarlĂŠ (2000) programming of interactive sound for Eric Sleichim / Bl!ndman Quartet, and Ulrike and David Gabriel; Cosmos-X - Multimedia installation with multiple audio and video projections based on the work of Iannis Xenakis, with Efi Xirou (20052006); and with Jean-Pierre HĂŠbert real-time sound programming for the installation series on "Sand" (2004-2005). Currently Iannis Zannos is focusing on how environmental issues as well as problems of multiculturality are reflected in media-art terms.
The European Art-ScienceTechnology Network
Programme: Creative Europe Sub-programme: Culture Call number: EACEA 45/2016 Project date: 1 Nov 2017 - 1 Nov 2021 Lead organisation: Association Pour la Creation et Larecherche sur les Outils d'Expression, France Partners: The University of Manchester, UK Ionian University, Spain Aalborg Universitet, Denmark Instituto Superiore di Stdudu Musicali - Conservatorio di Musica Giorgio Federico Ghedini di Cuneo, Italy Kungliga Musikhogskolan I Stockholm, Sweden Drustvo Ljudmila Laboratorij Za Znanost in Umetnost, Slovenia Miso Music Portugal Associacao Cultural, Portugal Zentrum Fur Kunst Und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe Stiftung Des Offentlichen Rechts, Germany Interactive Media Art Laboratory ASBL, Belgium Scene de Musiques Actuelles du Pays de Romans, La Cordonnerie, France Institut Polytechnique de Grenoble, France Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
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