Co-edited journal issue [ April 14th, 2021 ]
I co-edited an issue of the Journal of New Music Research with Koray Tahiroglu as a result of Koray's Helsinki symposium. Our introduction to the issue is here: Introduction to the special issue on socio-cultural role of technology in digital musical instruments (open access).
Article in the Journal for New Music Research [ March 30th, 2021 ]
A new article has appeared in the Journal of New Music Research called The Migration of Musical Instruments: On the Socio-technological Conditions of Musical Evolution. This is from my contribution to a Helsinki symposium organised by Koray Tahiroglu. A preprint of the article can be found here: PDF]
TENOR keynote [ May 13th, 2021 ]
I will be giving a keynote at the TENOR (Technologies for Musical Notation and Representation) conference in Hamburg. This is the 6th instance of this exciting conference. Info here.
TU guest professorship [ April 15th - July 15th 2021 ]
This summer term, I will be a guest professor at Technische Universitat, Berlin. I have accepted an invitation for the prestigious Edgard Varese Guest Professorship. At TU I will give two courses: one practical on new systems design as musical composition using SuperCollider and another theoretical where I introdoce concepts from my Sonic Writing book.
New Forms Panel at Seeing Sound [ December 12th, 2020 ]
The fantastic Seeing Sound festival has invited me to partake in a panel called New Forms. The event is online and entrance is free post registration.
Holly Herndon and AI [ October 23rd, 2020 ]
As part of the AI Music Creativity 2020 conference I chaired a session with Holly Herndon on her work. Very interesting talk, and highly recommended.
Ecology, Site and Place [ October 26th, 2020 ]
I'll be part of a panel on "Network ecology: Communities of practice for the digital arts" at the Ecology, Site and Place Piteå Performing Arts Biennial (which normally takes place in Sweden, but is now online during the plague).
Radiokolleg interview [ September 9th, 2020 ]
I was interviewed by Astrid Schwarz about my Sonic Writing research for the Radiokolleg programme on the Austrian Radio Ö1. The week long series looks really interesting and I'm joined by some superb researchers and practitioners.
SIIDS Keynote [ September 4rth, 2020 ]
I will be giving a keynote at the Sound, Image and Interaction Design Symposium. Because of Covid, the symposium will be streamed. My talk is entitled "Interfacing Sound: Visual Representation of Sound in Musical Software Instruments" and further information can be found here.
I will also give a book talk about my recent book at the symposium in Videy on Saturday, May 23rd.
Raflost Festival [ May 22nd, 2020 ]
The Raflost experimental music festival in Reykjavik, Iceland, will be streaming a set by Eirikur Orri Olafsson (trumpet) and myself (threnoscope) from Mengi. Further information about the performance is on the Raflost Website.
I will also give a book talk about my recent book at the symposium in Videy on Saturday, May 23rd.
TENOR keynote [ May 13th, 2020 ]
I will be giving a keynote at the TENOR (Technologies for Musical Notation and Representation) conference in Hamburg. This is the 6th instance of this exciting conference. Info here.
TU guest professorship [ April 15th - July 15th 2020 ]
This summer term, I will be a guest professor at Technische Universitat, Berlin. I have accepted an invitation for the prestigious Edgard Varese Guest Professorship. At TU I will give two courses: one practical on new systems design as musical composition using SuperCollider and another theoretical where I introdoce concepts from my Sonic Writing book.
Organised Sound article [ March 7th, 2020 ]
Organised Sound just published an article I wrote with Koray Tarhiroglu, Iris Garrelfs, Atau Tanaka and Adam Parkinson. The article can be read on Organised Sound website, or as a pre-print on .
Love Creativity - Pecha Kucha [ February 20th, 2020 ]
Pecha Kucha Brighton is running an event called "Love Creativity" where I will present some of the AI research we are doing at the Emute Lab. Further information here.
City Residency and talk [ February 19th, 2020 ]
I will be a visiting researcher in the Music Department at City University in February 2020. On Feb 19th I will give a talk on my Sonic Writing book at their regular research seminars. Everyone is welcome!
ICLC in Limerick [ February 5th, 2020 ]
As part of our MIMIC project, Chris Kiefer, Francisco Bernardo and I will be giving a workshop, a paper presentation and a workshop on our Sema live coding environment at the 5th International Conference on Live Coding in Limerick, Ireland.
Best paper award! [ December 7th, 2019 ]
Our paper entitled "An AudioWorklet-based signal engine for a live coding language ecosystem" won a BEST PAPER AWARD at the Web Audio Conference in Trondheim, Norway. The paper introduces the Sema live coding environment for machine learning. The paper can be accessed here.
Sema at the Web Audio Conference [ December 4th, 2019 ]
We will perform music, present a paper and run a workshop at the Web Audio Conference in Trondheim, Norway. Our paper is on the new Sema live coding language design system for machine learning we are developing at Sussex. Our performance - Three Pidgins - will use three distinct live coding languages we have created for this performance.
Helsinki Concert [ November 15th, 2019 ]
Collaborating with Tommi Keranen at the concert for the Socio-Cultural Role of Technology in Digital Musical Interactions concert in Helsinki. Tommi will be playing guitar and I will play the Threnoscope.
Socio-Cultural Role of Technology in Digital Musical Interactions [ November 14th, 2019 ]
I will present research during the Socio-Cultural Role of Technology in Digital Musical Interactions symposium in Helsinki. I will talk about ethno-organology.
EmuteLab 4 [ July 25th, 2019 ]
As part of a workshop in live coding and machine learning we are running anEmuteLab gig in the Rose Hill. All welcome!
MIMIC workshop [ July 22-26th, 2019 ]
We are running an artist workshop in creating live coding languages for machine learning and machine listening. This EmuteLab workshop will take place in the Sussex Humanities Lab at Sussex.
AlgoMech Festival [ May 18th, 2019 ]
The fantastic Festival for Algorithmic and Mechancial Movement, or AlgoMech will take place in Sheffield, UK between May 17-19th. Collaborating with Helen Papaioannou, we will weave sonic textures designed chill out sweaty algoravers.
BEAST FEaST [ May 2nd, 2019 ]
The Brain Dead Ensemble, consisting of Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris on feedback bass, Alice Eldridge on feedback cello, Chris Kiefer on feedback cello and myself on the Threnoscope will perform at the Beast Festival in Birmingham in early May. I will also give a talk about my recent Sonic Writing book.
Rewire Festival [ March 29th, 2019 ]
I will present the Sonic Writing book at the Rewire Festival in Den Haag, Holland. The presentation will be part of a symposium called Instrumental Shifts where some good people will appear, such as Mick Grierson, Anja Volk, Bob Sturm, and many more.
Sonic Writing Book Launch @ the SHL [ March 14th, 2019 ]
There will be a book launch event for the Sonic Writing book at the Sussex Humanities Lab. I will give a short introduction, Caroline Bassett will respond to the book with her "Notes on Sonic Writing" and there will be a sound installation in the space by Evelyn Ficarra. Alice Eldridge and Chris Kiefer will perform as Feedback Cell and Andrew Duff and Alex Peverett will investigate alien life in modular synthesisers.
York Research Seminar [ March 13th, 2019 ]
The Department of Music at York University has invited me to give a research seminar on Sonic Writing. This is part of their external lecture series, and the talk will be one hour long with a discussion afterwards.
The Book is Out! [ February 21st, 2019 ]
The Sonic Writing monograph has just been published with Bloomsbury Academic. There will be a launch party at the Sussex Humanities Lab on March 14th, with music by Feedback Cell, Alex Peverett and Andrew Duff, and Evelyn Ficarra. Further information about that on the EmuteLab website.
Digital Musical Interactions – London Workshop [ February 15th, 2019 ]
A workshop in Digital Music Interactions at Goldsmiths College. Organised by Koray Tahiroglu. The main purpose of the workshop is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among the participants, discussing the key features of musical culture in digital musical instrument (DMI) practices through research.
Time, History and Materials [ January 26th, 2019 ]
I will be presenting some ideas about ergodynamics, related to this recent TEMPO article at this highly interesting Time, History and Materials seminar organised by the Orpheus Institut.
Workshop and paper at ICLC [ January 16-18th, 2019 ]
The International Live Coding Conference will take place in Madrid this time. As part of the MIMIC team, I will co-present a paper and run a workshop on machine learning in music and live coding.
Echoes of Other Worlds (review) [ January 6th, 2019 ]
The Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media has just published a book review I wrote for Tom Garner's fascinating book "Echoes of Other Worlds" on sound in Virtual Reality. The book gives a good philosophical grounding for thinking about sound in future media and is published by Palgrave Studies in Sound.
Article in the Tempo Journal [ December 24th, 2018 ]
I've got an article in the Tempo Journal (A quarterly review of new music) called Ergodynamics and a Semiotics of Instrumental Composition. This is a final result of some studies I did on ergodynamics for my Sonic Writing book.
Sonic Writing talk and workshop in Linz [ November 15th, 2018 ]
I will be presenting the forthcoming Sonic Writing book at a research seminar at the Tangible Music Lab in Linz. After the talk, I will give a workshop on the use of the Ergodynamics concept in the design and analysis of new musical interfaces.
Visindavaka: European Researchers' Night [ September 28th, 2018 ]
Presenting work on new music and AI at the Visindavaka science night in Reykjavik. Also got a booth, and I look forward to meet people and talk about new music.
Media Sonorum [ September 8th, 2018 ]
I will be performing with Peter Herbert (AT)/Hannes Löschel (AT) at the Media Sonorum concert, which is part of this year's Ars Electronica. We will be performing the Fermata piece.
Ars Electronica Symposium [ September 8th, 2018 ]
Presenting recent research at the .. under control of music, music under control of ..; composing (in) digital worlds symposium at Ars Electronica.
Fort Process Dispersion [ September 6th, 2018 ]
The Brain Dead Ensemble (Alice Eldridge - feedback cello, Chris Kiefer - feedback cello, Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris - feedback bass, Thor Magnusson - threnoscope) will be playing at the Fort Process Dispersion gig at the Green Door Store in Brighton. Also on the bill will be Zeyn Mroueh and Rdyer.
Live Coding at Darmstadt [ July 22nd, 2018 ]
Together with my IRCAM collaborators, I will be presenting a Music Computing in Live Electronics and Improvisation at the Darmstadt Summer School.
Critical Media in the Arts [ June 19th, 2018 ]
I am presenting some ideas about the gameplay of musical instruments Critical Media in the Arts: Time, Materiality, Ecology symposium in Birmingham University.
Live Interfaces Conference [ June 14-16th, 2018 ]
The Brain Dead Ensemble (Alice Eldridge, Chris Kiefer, Thanos Polymeneas-Liontiris and myself) will play at the ICLI conference: Live Interfaces in Porto. I will also present a paper and am chairing the doctoral colloquium.
Sonido y Acción Sympsoium [ April 12th, 2018 ]
I am presenting new research that resulted from the work on the Sonic Writing book, at the Sonido y Acción Symposium at Bilbao University.
Performing with Patterns of Time [ February, 2018 ]
A chapter co-authored by Alex McLean on pattern languages in live coding has appeared in the Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music and our chapter is available here.
Residency at Queen Mary [ November, 2017 ]
In November 2017 I will be spending a week at the Augmented Instruments Lab at the Centre for Digital Music at the Queen Mary University in London. Looking forward to some exciting activities there. I will give a presentation on my Musical Organics work, and we are running a PhD symposium afterwards.
Touching Sound Symposium [ September 22nd-23rd 2017 ]
Presenting research at a City University. The Touching Sound Symposium is a two-day symposium which "brings together researchers and practitioners from both a musical (composition, sound art, performance, improvisation) and non-musical background (landscape architecture, dance, computer science, visual arts) in order to develop this field of research, which remains underrepresented in the study of music and sound art practices".
During the symposium I also performed with classical guitarist Petur Jonasson.
Article in the Journal of New Music Research [ September 8th 2017 ]
An article on Musical Organics, an organological study on the classification on new digital musical instruments has been published in the Journal of New Music Research. I will put a copy on this website in due time..
Writer's Residency at Foundation Jan Michalski [ September 8th 2017 ]
I have been invited for a writer's residency at the Foundation Jan Michalski in Switzerland. I will be working on the Sonic Writing book, along with some very interesting residency writers.
Musical Organics at DPASSH [ June 14-15th 2017 ]
New research from the Sonic Writing project will be presented at the DPASSH conference (Digital Preservation for Social Sciences and Humanities) held at the University of Sussex in June. My presentation will be on the concept of Musical Organics as a system for engaging with the organology of digital instruments.
NIME in Copenhagen [ May 14-20th 2017 ]
I will be presenting a paper called "Contextualising Musical Organics: Ad-hoc Organological Classification Approach" at the NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) Conference at Aalborg University, Copenhagen. During the conference I will also perform on the Threnoscope with Alice Eldridge and Chris Kiefer on feedback cellos. The Sussex Experimental Music Technologies Lab will have a good presence at NIME this year.
Residencies in the US [ April-May 2017 ]
As part of the Sonic Writing research I will be doing two residencies in the US, exploring archives, interviewing people, giving workshops, organising symposia and more. The first residency is at CNMAT (Center for New Music and Audio Technologies) at UC Berkeley, CA and the second residency will be at CMC (Computer Music Center) at Columbia University, New York.
Sonic Writing workshop at Lydgalleriet [ March 8th-12th 2017 ]
Before the Borealis festival in Bergen, I will be working with author Bergsveinn Birgisson on a Sonic Writing workshop at Lydgalleriet that focusses on topics related to this research. The workshop is offered to students at KIB (Kunst- og designhøgskolen i Bergen), Architecture, Creative writing (Skrivekunstakademiet i Hordaland) and The Grieg Academy (Griegakademiet). The workshop will explore the way we write with particular focus on sound. Abstract poetry like sound-poetry or after-language poetry, textual musical notation, algorithmic notation, secondary musical notation, sound poetry, concrete poetry, and graphic notation are all forms of writing that we will engage with during the workshop. We will make musical instruments, considering how their design is a process of writing. The workshop will be highly interdisciplinary - with participants from institutions of divergent practices - and we will consider approaches in thinking about writing sound, about composing instruments, writing algorithms, speaking notes, drawing sound.
Völuspá/Fermata at the Borealis Festival [ Januar 26th 2017 ]
Together with Sofia Jernberg, Bergsveinn Birgisson, and Michal Matejka we will perform a piece called Völuspá/Fermata at the Borealis Festival. On the Sunday I will aslo be performing with ixi lang. Programme here.
Experimental Music Lab Presentation [ Januar 26th 2017 ]
Chris Kiefer, Andrew Duff and I presented the Experimental Music Technologies Lab at the Brighton: Music City/Digital City event hosted by the Digital Catapult Centre. We talked about and demonstrated some live coding, feedback cellos and modular synths.
Live Coding journal issue [ December 7th 2016 ]
The special issue on Live Coding has been published in the International Journal on Performance Arts and Digital Media. The issue was edited by Kate Sicchio and myself and our editorial is available here.
New Notations Videos [ December 1st 2016 ]
The video documentation from the New Notations Symposium at IRCAM in September are now online on the symposium website under the "Videos" link. I also wrote a blog post about the event.
Threnoscope & voice [ November 25th 2016 ]
A collaboration with Sofia Jernberg, Robert Kolář and Michal Matejka at the Next Festival in Bratislava. I will be live coding with the Threnoscope.
Sound Work: Composition as Critical Technical Practice [ November 21st-23rd 2016 ]
I will be giving a talk called "How I wrote one of my pieces", with a focus on the Threnoscope at the Sound Work research seminar at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent, Belgium.
Festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement [ November 12th-20th 2016 ]
Members of the Emute Lab at Sussex are organising a research strand at the Festival of Algorithmic and Mechanical Movement. The call for proposals can be found here, and registration is on Eventbrite.
Designing Interfaces for Creativity Symposium [ November 3rd-4th 2016 ]
I will be participating in a panel on virtuosity at the Designing Interfaces for Creativity Symposium held in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Other panel members are Pollie Barden, Miha Ciglar, and Ben Roberts.
Musical Instruments in the 21st Century [ October 14th-15th 2016 ]
Our good friends in the 3DMIN project are working on a Symposium on Musical Instruments in the 21st Century. The symposium will be held in Designtransfer Berlin and present work that is part of a forthcoming Springer book publication. I will give a talk on visual desing in live coding programming languages.
DiDIY Maker Workshop [ October 6th 2016 ]
We are organising a DiDIY Maker Workshop at the University of Sussex. The workshop is part of the DiDIY research project into maker culture and digital do it yourself (DiDIY). The event is free, but requires registration at the above link, since spaces are limited.
IRCAM residency [ September 2016 ]
The Sonic Wring project involves a residency at IRCAM in Paris. This residency is by invitation of the ISMM team. During this residency, I'm organising a symposium and a workshop called New Notations.
IASPM Roundtable on Machine Creativity [ September 10th, 2016 ]
Thor Magnusson will be chairing a roundtable on machine creativity at the IASPM conference held at the University of Sussex in September, 2016. Panel members are: Elaine Chew, Rebecca Fiebrink, Andrew McPherson, and Bob Sturm.
2nd Make, Do and Bend Day [ July 14th 2016 ]
A group of us at the last Make, Do and Bend Lab got some funding to develop our ideas further. We will be demonstrating them at the next Make, Do and Bend event at Central St. Martin's in London. Further info here
International Conference on Live Interfaces [ June 29th 2016 ]
The 3rd International Conference on Live Interfaces was held at the University of Sussex's Attenborough Centre between June 28th - July 3rd. The conference focusses on the role of the live interface in the performing arts. The keynotes this year were magician Stuart Nolan, instrument maker Kristina Andersen, and puppeteer Roman Paska.
Make, Do and Bend [ June 7th 2016 ]
The London Sinfonietta is partnering with the hub to produce Make, Do and Bend - Ideas Lab - a project bringing together musicians, composers and creative technologists to explore how digital technology can open up new forms of interaction.
Live coding at Medialab-Prado [ June 3rd 2016 ]
Medialab-Prado in Madrid is organising a series of live coding events in June. Thor Magnusson will present his work on June 3rd, Alexandra Cardenas will give a workshop on SuperCollider and ixi lang, and Ganzfeld will perform.
TENOR conference [ May 27th 2016 ]
Enrike Hurtado and Thor Magnusson have written a paper on the notational aspects of txalaparta practice for the TENOR conference on technologies for music notation and representation. Our paper on the digital txalaparta will be available after the conference.
Interfacing Sound: Visual Representation of Sound in Software [ May 25th 2016 ]
I will present some of my visual design and notation experiments in the area of sound software at the monthly Open Sound Collective events in Brighton's Kemptown. The OSC have a monthly meetup for electronic musicians and more info can be found on their excellent webpage.
Designing Interfaces for Creativity [ May 13th 2016 ]
Performance and panel discussion at the Designing Interfaces for Creativity event at the Sussex Humanities Lab. I will be performing on the threnoscope with Thanos Polymeneas Liontiris (double bass) and Alice Eldridge (cello). The lab is in the Silverstone Building, and the event starts at 6.30pm, with the usual beer, wine, etc.
Musical Organics at STEIM in Amsterdam [ May 5th 2016 ]
The Sonic Writing project team is organising a symposium on musical instruments design at the central studio for the study of electronic instruments, STEIM in Amsterdam. The symposium includes 12 key presentations, 6 musical performances and plenty of discussions about musical instrument design. Find information about the Musical Organics symposium on the website, and you are welcome to register and join us during the day. The symposium is followed by workshops the next day.
Talk at the Institute of Sonology [ May 2nd 2016 ]
I'll be giving a talk at the Institute of Sonology Den Haag. The presentation is entitled "Interfacing Sound: Visual Representation of Sound in Musical Software Instruments," where I travel through graphical design in both notation and software and the latent continuity to be found.
Alternative Histories of Electronic Music [ April 14th - 16th 2016 ]
I will be presenting a paper on generative music at the Alternative Histories of Electronic Music conference. The conference is organised by James Mooney, in relation to the Hugh Davis research project. See the conference programme for what looks like an excellent event.
Embodied Intelligence in Music – Live [ April 4th - 5th 2016 ]
Asked to write a provocation for the Embodied Intelligence in Music – Live (or EIM-Live) network in Leicester. My talk will discuss changes in music consumption, hopefully with some critical responses. This is my provocation:
Music is moving to the periphery of cultural experience. Unlike a few decades ago where music was a central cultural reference for young people, a source for identity and ideology, the focus has now shifted to more sense intensive media, where AI, immersiveness, collaborating crowds, and other new forms of cultural experiences are taking over. What we called music and released on media formats such as LPs and CDs is disappearing, rendering the rock-gig with the same cultural status as the opera (a dead art form to be preserved in bespoke museums). In this provocation I will describe how this is happening, and in so doing I hope to provoke and make people angry, skeptical, and reject my arguments. I might reject them myself.
New Frontiers in Music Technology [ March 7th 2016 ]
The Berlin-based music software developer Ableton ran a very interesting summit called Loop . I gave a presentation called "Sight and sound: visualizing music in software instruments" and the talk was discussed in an Ableton news article called New Frontiers of Music Tech .
Threnoscope Performance [ February 18th 2016 ]
Thor Magnusson will be live coding using Thrensocope at a concert in Brighton organised by Aural Detrius. The Threnoscope will be released soon and composers are invited to be early user testers for this software. Please contact Thor Magnusson if you are interested.
Interagency in Technologically-Mediated Performance [ January 29th 2016 ]
The Sonic Writing research project started by participating in a wonderful symposium at Bournemouth University on the philosophy of technology in the domain of musical performance, called Interagency in Technologically-Mediated Performance. I presented a paper on questioning music technology and how technology should be seen as something we do, rather than something we buy.
The symposium will be recorded and eventually uploaded onto the Translating Improvisation project website.
LCRN Day in Somerset House [ January 28th 2016 ]
The last event organised under the two-year AHRC funded Live Code Research Network took place in the Somerset House in London. The day set out to plan the future of the network, which includes this year's ICLC, which will be in Hamilton, Canada in October.
The Sound and Music organisation for new music then hosted a Creative Data Club, where we presented some live coding projects. The day ended with two live coding performances as part of the Big Bang Data exhibition.
