This is an Organised Sound (Open Access) publication by Andrew McPherson and Koray Tahiroğlu. In this article we examine the ways in which computer music languages might similarly influence the aesthetic decisions of the digital music practitioner, even when those languages are designed for generality and theoretically capable of implementing any sound-producing process. Link to the Publication
InSpace with the Otherness is a co-located collaboration with a deep learning algorithm. It provides embodied and spatial opportunities to exhibition visitors for musical exploration. http://sopi.aalto.fi/inspace/
The symposium, Socio-Cultural Role of Technology in Digital Musical Interactions, discussed critically our relationships with music and digital musical instruments, exploring how these new relationships build embodied behaviours, expectations, beliefs, interpretations and actions in various ways we practice and act on music through digital technologies. This symposium brought together expert scholars, artists and practitioners from the musicology, music performance, new interfaces for musical expression, sound and music computing and postphenomenology studies. The participants were; Don Ihde, Stony Brook University, Marc Leman, University of Ghent – Tarja Rautiainen, University of Tampere Finland – Taina Riikonen, University of Tampere Finland – Thor Magnusson, University of Sussex and Simon Waters, The Queens University Belfast.http://dmi.aalto.fi/symposium19/index.html
In this talk Koray Tahiroğlu introduced our current research on digital musical instruments (DMIs) in which autonomous and intelligent computational features are applied to music generation with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tools. https://www.aalto.fi/en/events/sustainable-transformations
Koray Tahiroğlu was invited to give a talk in AIxMusic Festival at Ars electronica on “Intelligent Sonic Agents: Otherness of Digital Musical Instruments” and a workshop on “Digital Musical Interactions” and also presented our NOISA project in AIxMusic exhibition.
The main purpose of the workshop is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge among the participants, discussing the key features of musical culture in digital musical instrument (DMI) practices through our own research. The workshop will result in a set of viewpoints, identifying and exploring the workshop’s main question:
How culturally contextualised experience and technological aspects set conditions for us, for the interactions we develop and for the musical experience we create with digital musical instruments (DMIs)? https://sopi.aalto.fi/dmiip/londonws/
A new Academy of Finland Project started in September 2018, Digital Musical Interactions – Instruments – Performances is looking into socio-cultural role of digital musical instruments and our current relationship with with them. http://dmi.aalto.fi
Open position (Research Assistant in Soundform Project), DL 28.12.2018
We are hiring 1 full time or 2 part time student assistants – visual communication designers / programmers / sound designers / musicians – to help us to create a visual soundforming interface!
Soundform is a practice-based inclusive design project aiming to make sound, music and performance more accessible to people with disabilities and anyone who would love to become active in this field. It is initiated by the Eucrea e.V. association for arts and disability in Hamburg, Germany and run at Aalto by Prof. Julia Lohmann of MA Contemporary Design and Academy Research Fellow Koray Tahiroglu of Department of Media at Aalto University, as well as the communication designer Gero Grundmann.
As part of the Soundform, Prof. Lohmann and students of the University of Visual Arts in Hamburg (HFBK) collaborated with musicians and performers from the Barner16 centre for arts and disability, London-based Drake Music and other experts. Participants researched, redesigned and invented instruments based on their experiences. The outcomes were presented and performed at the HFBK summer show. Soundform will continue with a symposium and inclusive, collaborative music/sound performances in the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie (TBC) in 2019.
The Soundform project team are now seeking to hire an Aalto student or students (with Hands-on programming skills in Swift and/or Objective-C or openFrameworks (OF iOS apps), Experience in Sound in New Media, Basic Knowledge in Digital Audio, Experience in User Interface Design and a great interest in New Interfaces for Musical Expression) to help us develop and program an inclusive, visual/sound interface for iOS tablet use, enabling access to sound experimentation, editing, learning and performance by connecting digital visual arts tools with sound making.
The position is fixed-term for two and a half months, expected starting day is 7.1.2019.
If you are interested, please contact Prof. Julia Lohmann (julia.lohmann@aalto.fi) and Koray Tahiroglu (koray.tahiroglu@aalto.fi) for more information. Deadline for contacting them is Friday 28 December 2018.
We will have 2 new projects starting in January 2018, Vibrating Instruments in Virtual Reality (VIVR): Creative Content Production in VR with Cohesive Sense of Reality and Laser String Kantele, more info in the project section.
We will attend NIME’16 conference in Brisbane between 11 – 15 July, presenting; our paper “Non-intrusive Counter-actions: Maintaining Progressively Engaging Interactions for Music Performance”, music performance of the composition “KET Conversations” and poster on “Materiality for Musical Expressions: an Approach to Interdisciplinary Syllabus Development for NIME”. We also have been contributing the NIME book which will be launched at NIME’16 conference. Looking forward to all that!!
