Recent News: Leigh Landy visits China Conservatory of Music & Tianjin Conservatory of Music

In June 2015, Leigh Landy visited several institutions in China to discuss EARS2.  Two of the most significant venues – the China Conservatory of Music (CCM), based in Beijing, and the Tianjin Conservatory of Music (TJCM) – have featured information about these visits on their websites.

Translated from Chinese by MTI doctoral student Mungo Zhangruibo, these two news pieces can be found on the CHEARS (The Chinese ElectroAcoustic Resource Survey) website.

Leigh's lecture at CCM discussed the work of the Music Technology & Innovation Research Centre, within De Montfort University, alongside a broader discussion of music technology within the UK.
(Read more: Chinese/English).

At the Tianjin Conservatory, Leigh met first with Prof. Xu Changjun, the president of TJCM and Mrs. Wang Jianying, the secretary of the Composition Department. The subsequent lecture then saw Leigh talking about the the music technology subject area in the UK, followed more specifically by a discussion about the research areas of the MTI.  Key projects of the MTI were introduced, including the EARS projects.
(Read more: Chinese/English)

In both lectures, Compose with Sounds (CwS) was demonstrated in relation to the EARS2 project. CwS is available as a free download.

For more information about these lectures (in English) please visit the links below, via CHEARS:
The China Conservatory of Music: Link
Tianjin Conservatory of Music: Link

Pierre Couprie wins Max Mathews Quartz award for iAnalyse and EAnalysis

Pierre Couprie, software designer behind iAnalyse and EAnalysis, last night won the Max Mathews Prize at at the tenth 'Max Mathews Qwartz Music Awards' ceremony.

The development of EAnalysis initially took place as part of a research project entitled ‘New multimedia tools for electroacoustic music analysis’ at the MTI Research Centre of De Montfort University (Leicester, UK). This initial project was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) between 2010 and 2013.

EAnalysis is a sound-based music analysis tool, allowing users to visualise sonograms, work with multiple audio tracks and video and realise works visually with the software's analytical tools.

At the same event, Pierre Henry won a Qwartz award dedicated to his career as a composer and researcher.

A full programme for the event can be found by visiting the Qwartz website. An article (in French) can found by visiting http://qwartz.fr/category/qwartz-10/

MAKE||SOUND Symposium 'Making Sound in Public Space' tomorrow at Curve Theatre, Leicester

Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre & Faculty of Technology, Research Seminar Series

De Montfort University, Leicester

Venue: RR2, Curve Theatre
Date and time: 12.00-c.6.00pm, Friday 12 June

Symposium: Making Sound in Public Space
Make||Sound presents an afternoon of talks on the topic of sonic art and public engagement hosted in partnership with the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre - De Montfort University.

MTI members John Richards and Steve Jones are joined by guest speakers/keynotes Nye Parry, Nicola Dibben, Franz Rosati and Simonne Jones. Topics discussed include public engagement and accessibility in relation to sound art, commercial/experimental music crossovers, mobile media and portability, and community music-making with dirty electronics.

12.00: Peter Batchelor, Welcome
12.15: Nye Parry, Public Engagement, Private Divorce: Contexts and motivations in a Sonic Arts Practice13.00: Lunch
14.00: Nicola Dibben, Music-making for Mobile Devices: Björk's "Biophilia" App Album
14.40: Steve Jones, Roaming: mobility, media and the capture of (public) place
15.10: John Richards, Blood, Sweat and Music15.50: Break
16.00: Louise Rossiter & Jack Richardson, Networking the Arts: Introduction of the Art & Sound Symposium
16.20: Simonne Jones, The Secrets of the Universe
17.00: Franz Rosati, Contact; Shock: minimal and maximal approaches to electronic live music
17.45: Performance: Franz Rosati, Ruinsc.18.15: End

Full information, including abstracts, available here: http://makefestival.uk/talk

Tickets Free; Space Limited. Please book here: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/makesound-tickets-16923438460

Neal Spowage Fashion Film Prize + Recent Presentation at Haptic Narratives, Greenwich University

A radiophonic composition by postgraduate student Neal Spowage titled Dis-comforting has been used as a soundtrack for a fashion video short of the same name by Ania Sadkowska.

This video has just won the first prize POLIMODA & ASVOFF Video Contest For IFFTI2015 (International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institute) annual conference in Florence, Italy which is organised by the international fashion institute, Polimoda: MOMENTING THE MEMENTO.

The film explores older men's experience of fashion and clothing. The result to-date includes a set of themes capturing the richness of the male ageing phenomenon in relation to fashion and clothing, their writer interpretation and corresponding fashion artefacts and films.

Additionally, Neal recently presented his video New Track of Unknown Terra II to Haptic Narratives - Textural Exploration in Film at Greenwich University, UK, on 21st May 2015. This series of events focused on exploring and engaging with haptic sensations through tactile cues on film and the environments associated with moving images. It is organised by TiMaDi (Time, Materiality and the Digital Research Group).

Two MTI Students in Engine Room Installation until June 12

MTI doctoral students Francesc Martí and Virginie Viel have had work exhibited as part of the The Engine Room International Sound Art Competition. The event, which has been at the Morley Gallery in London, started on 12 May and runs through to 12 June 2015. 

At the same event, noted sound artist Janek Schaefer will be presenting a newly commissioned installation Aerial Aria in the aviary.

Francesc and Virginie are two of the twenty-two selected works, ranging from  Singapore, Russia, Germany, Colombia, Italy, Canada, France, the United States and the United Kingdom.

More information on the event can be found by visiting Engine Room London.

Further information about the two selected works can be found below:

Virginie Viel 

Liberté chérie (2014) 

https://soundcloud.com/virginieviel/liberte-cherie 

- Who are you?

- You appeared to me in a place that doesn't exist, 

- Were you real? 

- You've never seen me and I've never seen you 

- How did I manage to talk to you? 

- I don't know... 

- Give me a clue! 

- I only remember... 

- Open the door! Open the door! I want to smell, to touch, to feel, to caress her... 

- Why? You might regret it! Many others were like you, burning with desire... But ultimately all of them gave up and turned away from her. 

- No, I won't… 

- It's too late anyway. Long gone are the days of lightness, love and happiness. Today no one knows, no one wants to remember... where she is gone 

- Why? 

- Hope disappeared a long time ago. Since that time, looking for Freedom, looking for that lady is meaningless. Without hope, be free has no sense anymore. 

Francesc Martí 

Speech 2 (2015) 

https://vimeo.com/119713106 

Speech 2 is an experimental audiovisual piece created from a series of old clips from the public affairs interview program The Open Mind. This piece would be a reflection on the action of communicating, highlighting his limitations, and can be labelled as “text-sound-art”, or “text-sound-composition” in an audio-visual framework. Technically, in this piece, the author has been experimenting how granular sound synthesis techniques, in particular synchronous granular synthesis, can be used for audiovisual creative works. All the piece sounds and images come from that series of clip, in other words, no other sound samples or images have been used to create the final result.

Chris Cree Brown: Seminar & Concert, 29 April 2015

Chris Cree Brown (University of Canterbury, NZ), will be visiting MTI on Wednesday the 29 April 2015 to deliver a seminar and concert of his work Pilgrimage to Gallipoli.

Chris Cree Brown's visit will have two parts:

13.00-14.30 – Gateway House Room GH3.54 : A talk on the origins and ideas behind the work

16.00-17.30 – PACE Building, Studio 1, Richmond Street : A performance of Pilgrimage to Gallipoli

Abstract

ANZAC (‘Australia and New Zealand Army Corps’) day is celebrated on the 25th April each year, the anniversary of the Gallipoli landings in 1915 during the First World War. This year is thus the centenary. In 2008 the New Zealand composer Chris Cree Brown completed a dramatic radiophonic work which bears witness to these events – it can be performed over a loudspeaker system in a concert hall as will be the case when the composer visits DMU on Wednesday 29th April. Pilgrimage to Gallipoli is an extensive radiophonic work of 85 minutes in two parts. It is the result of more than 14 years of research, audio recordings, and compilation. The work includes recordings Chris made during visits to ANZAC day commemorations at ANZAC cove in 1994 and 2000, along with interviews, site-specific recordings and historic sonic material. His sabbatical leave in 2008 allowed him sufficient space and time essential to compiling this creative response to one of this country’s defining events.
 
Bio-sketch 

Chris Cree Brown is an Associate Professor at the School of Music, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. His main interests include conventional instrumental composition, electroacoustic and computer music, and inter-media art. He has twice been awarded the Mozart Fellowship at the University of Otago, has twice been appointed Composer-in-Schools and has written a number of film scores. Along with Icescape, for orchestra, is an electro-acoustic work, Under Erebus that were a result of his trip to Antarctica under the Artists to Antarctica programme run under the auspices of Antarctic New Zealand and with the assistance of Creative New Zealand. He has a strong interest in musical sculptures, and his Aeolian harps were exhibited in 2002 in the Christchurch Botanical gardens as part of the Art and Industry Scape Biennale. Chris was awarded the KBB/CANZ citation for services to New Zealand Music in 2010. His work has been performed in many countries, including Australia, UK, Finland, Hungary, France, Germany, Canada, Portugal, Russia, USA.

Visible Bits, Audible Bytes set to return to Phoenix Square this April!

See and hear artworks that redefine the potential of sound and image in the 21st century, as well as groundbreaking explorations from the not-so-distant past. Presented by DMU’s Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre.

This year’s lineup:
- Aristedes García (Germany) Hexagrama
- Clive Walley (UK) Divertimenti
- Henry Chomette (France) & Todor Todoroff (Belgium) Jeux des Reflets et de la Vitesse
- Jaroslaw Kapuscinski (USA) United
- Raven Kwok (China) 1194D
- Bonnie Mitchell & Elainie Lillios (USA) Sweeping Memories
- Mark Cheung (Singapore) i!
- Max Hattler (Hong Kong) & Eduardo Noya Schreus (Canada) X
- Francesc Marti (Spain) Speech 2
- Linda Antas (USA) All That Glitters and Goes Bump in the Nigh

All welcome! Entry Free!

Location:
Wednesday April 22nd, 2015
6.30pm
Phoenix
4 Midland Street
Leicester
LE1 1TG
Screen 2, FREE

Watch this space for our continuing MTI events series: http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/must/