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  2. Architexture IV: Creating new audience-centric musical performance through virtual acoustic technology

Architexture IV: Creating new audience-centric musical performance through virtual acoustic technology

Architecture IV is a musical performance where the audience is in control! https://architextureimmersive.wordpress.com/about/ 

Live-streaming of concerts has become commonplace during Covid-19 but has tended to focus on the recreation of the live performance experience over the internet. The Architexture team is looking at how to exploit web-based interactive technology in new ways, potentially opening up musical performances for entirely new audiences and breaking down the barriers of geography, social and cultural norms, economics and access.

The Architexture project is a collaboration between the departments of Electronic Engineering and Music. The team has developed a prototype app for live performance that allows the user to change the acoustic environment they hear the performance in. You can hear an example of an earlier version here: https://youtu.be/KZWeDSgkPDg 

You would be working to adapt the prototype (created in MAX MSp) to a standalone application that runs in a web-browser, which could be accessed virtually from any location.  The app will allow the listener to mix their own auditory experience of a musical performance, controlling the virtual acoustic and performance tempo to explore their own experiential preferences. As the user listens to the vocal ensemble they can interact via computer or mobile device, to choose virtual acoustic spaces in realtime and then shift the speed of the performance to suit their chosen space.

User interaction data will be collected through the app to feed future developments of the project and further gamify experiences of listening to music.  This would also inform future research on the relationship between acoustic spaces and musical performance.

Required Skills

Across the team of 2 internship students we would like to cover the following skill set:

  • Spatial Audio and Virtual Acoustics
  • Interactive audio programming/coding
  • Web app development
  • Machine Learning (desirable)
  • Knowledge and understanding of HCI concepts
  • Experience of working with Max, Pure Data, Java or Python 
  • Familiarity with Javascript, HTML, CSS or node.js

How to Apply

For more details on the summer school application process (including eligibility and funding) please go here: https://digitalcreativity.ac.uk/news/dc-labs-summer-school-2021  

If you would like to ask any informal questions about the research project, please contact Dr Helena Daffern helena.daffern@york.ac.uk or Dr Jude Brereton jude.brereton@york.ac.uk

For questions about the programme, logistics etc, please contact Ella Eyre, DC Labs Administrator, at enquiries@digitalcreativity.ac.uk  

Supervisors

Further Reading

Architexture II (2015) (extracts, edit). Performed by The Ebor Singers, dir. Paul Gameson. https://youtu.be/KZWeDSgkPDg 

Block, F., Hodge, V., Hobson, S., Sephton, N., Devlin, S., Ursu, M. F., ... & Cowling, P. I. (2018, June). Narrative bytes: Data-driven content production in esports. In Proceedings of the 2018 ACM international conference on interactive experiences for TV and online video (pp. 29-41). http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/132551/

D.T. Murphy, S. Shelley, A. Foteinou, J.S. Brereton, & H. Daffern, (2017). Acoustic Heritage and Audio Creativity: the Creative Application of Sound in the Representation, Understanding and Experience of Past Environments, Internet Archeology, https://wlv.openrepository.com/handle/2436/620678