PhD Student Robert Chafer Awarded for Outstanding PGR Community Impact

At the Sep 22 DMU Research Showcase event, MTI Research Group Doctoral student Robert Chafer was awarded the prize for Outstanding PGR Community Impact and a runner-up prize for Outstanding Contribution to Research Culture. This honours Rob's vision and work in launching the PhD Life initiative to build a sense of community and support amongst DMU's PhD students. PhD Life has now grown to have several people organising and sustaining the project. PhD Life runs one social each month, then various other activities - yoga and creative movement, weekly badminton, and monthly yoga and games nights online. There have been movie nights, Halloween nights and Leicester Tigers events. Chafer has said, "the sense of community and growth as individuals as part of a community is really rewarding."

Battey's 'Estuaries 4' to screen at Texas Inter-Media Experience (TIME Fest)

Prof Bret Battey's audiovisual composition 'Estuaries 4' has been selected to screen at the Texas Inter-Media Experience (TIME Fest), November 5-7, 2026, presented by Texas A&M University's Institute for Applied Creativity.

Battey's 'Estuaries 4' in João Pessoa, Brazil

Prof Bret Battey's audiovisual composition 'Estuaries 4' will screen in João Pessoa, Brazil, on September 25, 2026. The electroacoustic concert, entitled "There Isn't Time for Everything", is presented by the city's new Center for Experimentation in Musical Technologies.

John Young's work 'Flux' to premiere in China

John Young's acousmatic composition Flux will have its world premiere in China at Musicacoustica-Hangzhou in September.

Cristiana Palandri at the Auris Festival Manchester

Cristiana Palandri’s new sound installation Ouroboros will feature at the Auris Festival in Manchester in October.  Ouroboros is an interactive sculpture that explores the relationship between physical gesture, sound and space. The sculpture acts as a tangible interface for the real-time control of music, translating the visitor’s interaction with the object into sonic variations through digital signal processing and spatialisation.

Combining physical materiality with electronic sound, Ouroboros invites audiences to touch and interact with the sculpture as a physical object, creating a perception of being able to grab sound itself. The work encourages the public to engage with music not only through listening, but also through bodily interaction and spatial perception.

 

The sculpture will be presented as part of the Participatory Strand of Auris Festival, 9–11 October 2026, the first festival dedicated to sound art in Manchester.

 

 

Jake Parry to Join the Abandon Normal Research Centre Cohort

PhD candidate Jake Parry has been invited to join Unsecuring Infrastructures—the first cohort of the Abandon Normal Research Centre Workshop at the 2026 Abandon Normal Devices Festival, developed jointly by Lancaster University and Liverpool John Moores University. 

Jake will take part in a two-day festival workshop in Barnsley, joining a core interdisciplinary group with expertise in critical and responsible AI, digital materiality, surveillance, media archaeology, speculative fiction, planetary social thought, cultural policy, artistic research, publishing and experimental technology.    

The workshop will generate concepts, diagrams, scenarios and critical propositions. These will feed into a Festival Knowledge Synthesis publication, bringing together the concepts, diagrams, scenarios and critical propositions generated through the workshop.

 

Battey's 'Estuaries IV' in Cervantes Electroacústico Festival, Argentina

Prof Bret Battey's audiovisual composition 'Estuaries IV' will be screened as part of the Cervantes Electroacústico Festival Internacional, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Aug 28-30, 2026.