Research
The Electronic Music Studios hosts and develops a vibrant range of research activities, forging links with both other Goldsmiths departments, and externally with a range of organisations, such as Sonic Arts Network, the UK & Ireland Soundscape Community, Laban Contemporary Dance, the Live Art Garden Initiative. We have an active body of students involved in MPhil & PhD Music studies, with research strengths including live electronics and acoustic ecology.
The Unit for Sound Practice Research (SPR) is a new research group that integrates and advances the innovative activities of EMS composers and researchers. It functions as a nexus for a diverse range of creative and theoretical research linked by a common commitment to rigorous, thoughtful and convincing practice. This is enabled by expertise at the forefront of music computing and audio technologies, field studies and reflection on pressing social, cultural, commercial and environmental issues; and inspired by investigation into and archiving of historical precedents.
Staff Research
Dr. John Drever
Dr John
Levack Drever, Lecturer, studied Music at the University of Wales,
Bangor, followed by a Master study in Electroacoustic Music Composition
at the University of East Anglia. In 2001 he was awarded a PhD from
Dartington College of Arts, titled 'Phonographies: Practical and
Theoretical Explorations into Composing with Disembodied Sound'.
He
is a co-founder and director of the UK and Ireland Soundscape Community
(affiliated to the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology), for whom he
chaired Sound Practice: the 1st UKISC Conference on sound, culture and
environments, and is an elected director of Sonic Arts Network.
He regularly presents his work internationally in a wide range of
contexts including concert hall, radio, Internet, cathedral, catwalk,
ice cream van, classroom, fine art gallery, theatre, dance, video and
for specific sites. Much of his work is collaborative working with
Alice Oswald, Alaric Sumner, Lawrence Upton, Louise K. Wilson, Tony
Lopez, Tony Whitehead and Blind Ditch, and has a special interest in
human utterance and environmental sound. He has twice won a prize in
the annual Musica Nova competition, Prague.
[ research profile ]
Dr. Michael Young
Dr
Michael Young, Lecturer, read music at Oxford University and studied
composition with John Casken at Durham University, completing a PhD in
1995. Before joining Goldsmiths he lectured at the University of Wales,
Bangor and Oxford Brookes University.
His music explores a variety
of live and electroacoustic resources, and has reflected his interests
in jazz and collaborative/interdisciplinary practice. His current
research interests focus on interactive live electronics and
improvisation.
He is co-investigator with Tim Blackwell, Department of Computing, for the Live Algorithms for Music research network (funded through the EPSRC Culture and Creativity programme).
[ research profile ]
Research Fellowship
Dr. Mick Grierson joined the EMS 2006 for three years on an AHRC Fellowship in the Creative and Performing Arts. His research focusses on "Cognitive and Structural Approaches to Contemporary Audiovisual Computer Aided Composition". [ mick grierson homepage ]
Daphne Oram Collection
Daphne Oram (1925 - 2003) is one of the central figures in the development of British experimental electronic music.
Daphne died in 2003 and her life’s work passed into the care of Hugh Davies who knew Daphne and her work better than anyone in the UK. Following Hugh’s death in January 2005, Sonic Arts Network
was asked by Daphne’s family to become custodians of her collected
papers, recordings and other items. It was with experimental electronic
music practice in mind that Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios have
collaborated with the Sonic Arts Network to bring this collection into
the academic community where it can be properly studied and developed.
The collection houses a number of important recordings, including some of her key works such as Pulse Persephone (1965), Bird of Parallax (1972), Rockets in Ursa Major (1962), Broceliande (1969-70), and the soundtrack to the feature film The Innocents (1961).
[ find out more ]
Live Algorithms for Music
The Electronic Music Studios is a member of the Live Algorithms for Music Network (LAM),
an EPSRC Culture and Creativity Research Network.
The Live Algorithms for Music research network is headed by Dr. Tim Blackwell (Department of Computing) and Dr. Michael Young
(Department of Music) at Goldsmiths, and is a network of musicians,
computer and cognitive scientists in search of live algorithms within a
musical context. Live algorithms are computer applications that
interact creatively with human performers.
Recent Conferences
LAM Network Conference (December 2006)
Key note talk : Prof. George Lewis (Edwin H. Case Professor of Music, Columbia University, NY)
Cornelius Cardew Conference (November 2006)
A conference and concert to celebrate the composer's life and work on
the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his death and what would have
been his 70th-birthday year.
Sound Practice (February 2006)
Organised by the Music Department, Goldsmiths and the UK and Ireland
Soundscape Community. Chaired by John Levack Drever
Sonic Interactions (February 2005)
A
two-day postgraduate conference on interactivity and sonic art. Keynote
presentations: Alejandro Vinão and Lawrence Casserley.
Sonic Subjects & Acoustic Objects (May 2004)
A one day Goldsmiths inter-departmental symposium for all those with a
research, teaching or learning interest in sound. Curated by: John
Drever (Music), Julian Henriques (Media & Comms), and Tom Rice
(Anthropology). Organised by the Screen School & the Electronic Music Studios. Keynote guest speaker Professor John Hull.
Artist Review Series: Immersivity, Art, Architecture, Sound and Ecology
Monthly transdisciplinary presentations
September 2006 - February 2007
Supported by the Networking Artists’ Networks Initiative (NAN) through a-n The Artist Information Company.
Co-organised by the Live Art Garden Initiative and Electronic Music Studios, Goldsmiths College
Facilitating critical exchange, discussion and review through an
informal and supportive atmosphere; and guided by specific research
interests. The general focus areas are: live art and mixed media
performance; landscape & interactive architecture and
sustainability; critical studies and philosophy; biophysics, acoustics,
ecology and sound art. The guest review presenters invited are drawn
from these backgrounds and disciplines. The aims of the artist review
meetings are both to support the development of researchers or
practitioners, through the sharing and review of recent practice
including work-in-progress, and the Live Art Garden Initiative, an art,
architecture and ecology project.
Dates and presenters :
Wednesday 20 September 2006
Bill Aitchison, Tsai-Wei Chen, Lauren Goode, Dr Mae-Wan Ho
Saturday 21 October 2006
Ayssar Arida, Mark Fisher, Brandon Labelle, John Lely, Carla Vendramin
Saturday 18 November 2006
Professor John Gruzelier, Christina Kubisch, Jockel Liess, Fabrizio Manco, Lawrence Upton
Saturday 9 December 2006
Jem Finer, Ruairi Glynn, Honor Harger, Mick Grierson, Thor McB
Saturday 20 January 2007
Ajaykumar, Charlotte Bernstein, Sebastian Lexer & Emmanuelle
Waeckerle, Maria Llanderas, John Levack Drever & Lawrence Upton
Wednesday 14 February 2007
Robert Davis, Professor Johnny Golding, Helen Palmer, Dr. Aura Satz, Jon Thomson & Alison Craighead
For all further information please visit
www.liveartgardeninitiative.org.uk/events.html
Co-chairs: Dr John Drever, Lauren Goode, Ian Stonehouse
About the Live Art Garden Initiative
The Initiative is to conceive of, set-up and develop an art,
architecture and ecology project. The project will involve the creation
of new garden environments in which site-specific live arts will be
created and receive an audience. The research and practice directions
of the Initiative are guided by trans-interdisciplinary research. www.liveartgardeninitiative.org.uk