[ISEA2022] Paper: Ollie Bown, Kurt Mikolajzcyk, Sam Ferguson & Benedict Carey — Buildings as Audio Visual Synthesisers: Experiments Performing Live Music on Wirelessly Networked Multi-Speaker Media Architectures

Abstract

Full Paper. Session: Futures and Heritages / Sonic experimentations

Keywords: Media architecture, internet of sounds, spatial audio, live music technology

This paper presents an approach to expanding live music performance practices to encompass sonic media architectures. We demonstrate a method for creating a playable audio-visual synthesiser that incorporates the notion that the space itself is a medium for performance. We discuss the design concepts that inform this process, as well as detailing specific simulation tools and a creative workflow that facilitates development of performance experiments within architectural spaces.

  • Oliver Bown is an Associate Professor at the School of Art & Design, UNSW Sydney, AU, and co-director of their Interactive Media Lab. He researches creative technology practice and is an electronic music maker. He is the author of “Beyond the Creative Species: Making machines that make art and music” (MIT Press, 2021).
  • Kurt Mikolajczyk is a musician, composer, and creative coder currently undertaking a Ph.D. in interaction design at the University of Technology Sydney, AU. In 2019 he completed a Masters of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, developing software tools for composing polytemporal music and a portfolio of works for jazz ensemble and laptop.
  • Sam Ferguson is a Senior Lecturer within the School of Computer Science and co-director of the Creativity and Cognition Studios at the University of Technology Sydney (AU). He has a background in music performance, cognitive science, and psycho-acoustics and acoustics. He focuses on sound and music and their relationship with creativity and human experience, in contexts such as installation art, creative coding, and machine learning, as well as focusing on cognitive science. He has more than 80 publications in areas as diverse as spatial hearing and loudness research, data sonification, emotion, and tabletop computing.
  • Benedict Carey’s work branches aspects of computer science, musicology and cognitive science, focusing on analysis and creation of unique forms of music notation. Currently he teaches interactive media, rapid prototyping, music and sound production at the University of Technology Sydney and University of Sydney (AU), is a research assistant in the Interactive Media Lab at the University of New South Wales, and is completing a doctorate in musicology at the University of Music and Drama Hamburg.