Abstracts
Jim Denley - Budawangs
From the 18th of May till the 1st of June 2006 I spent 15 days walking and playing saxophone in the Budawang Mountains, a wilderness area in the Morton National Park, South West of Nowra on the east coast of Australia.
These mountains are full of dramatic and rugged rock formations - caves, crevices and a hidden valley - it is a wonderland of natural acoustics. Presumably people have been making playing and singing in these spaces for thousands of years, but it's probable that this is the first time they have heard a saxophone.
Much of the playing was recorded, often on two separate tape recorders which were later synched on computer. Out of these raw recordings has come a CD and two radio programs.
These recordings are part musical performances and part field recordings. I will discuss the implications of this work, in relation to music making in Australia and concepts of nature.
Andrew Johnston - Partial Reflections
In this presentation, I present a series of simple virtual musical instruments that use mass-spring physical models to mediate between the sound produced by an acoustic instrumentalist and computer-generated sound and video. The instruments, and the associated composition Partial Reflections, were the result of artistic collaboration with composer/trombonist Ben Marks.
To help explore the nature of these somewhat unusual 'virtual instruments', a number of expert musicians agreed to play them and provide detailed feedback on their experiences. These feedback sessions provided a number of insights into both the design of these specific instruments and the interaction strategies employed by the musicians. In particular, it was noticeable that musicians approached the virtual instruments in three ways: as instruments (as we expected), as effects or transformers of their acoustic sound, and as partners in a musical conversation.
In this presentation I will give a brief overview and demonstration of the virtual instruments themselves, along with video and transcripts from the feedback sessions illustrating the different approaches taken by the musicians.
Stephen Barrass - The Sonic Communications Research Group
This talk is an overview of the activities of the Sonic Communications Research Group (SCRG) a the University of Canberra, presented through past highlights, a preview of fresh research hot off the press, and a pointer to exciting new directions arising from an international collaboration on Sonic Interaction Design and the merger into a Faculty of Design and Creative Practice within the University of Canberra.
SCRG is an interdisciplinary group of researchers, educators, post-graduate and undergraduate students working on data sonification, product sound design, interactive art and music, and perceptual, cognitive, and emotional studies of sonic communications.
SCRG is a member of the Australian Research Council - Research Network on Human Communication Sciences, and the European Collaboration on Science and Technology initiative on Sonic Interaction Design.