Technology and Contemporary Classical Music: Methodologies in Practice-Based Research
This was the first major meeting of researchers in the UK discussing practice research in music around new technologies. Led by Dr Zubin Kanga, it gathered many of the leading researchers in the field, who discussed and mapped out the unique and significant aspects of this emerging area of research.
There were many diverse viewpoints discussed, but a number of common challenges were identified, such as research rigour, positionality and its relationship to autoethnographic methods, how technology enables critical engagement with artistic practice, the agency of instruments, impacts on audiences, researchers, artists and industry, and cross-disciplinary research methods.
There were also a number of common issues in the field identified, including the creative use of AI, the role of voice and vocality, the development of sensor-based instruments and devices.
The Innovation Forum was held at Royal Holloway, University of London on 15 June 2023, as part of Cyborg Soloists, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship research project. It was a successful event with leading researchers in the field from across the UK, as well as Germany, all engaging in a series of lively discussions across a range of topics and technologies. Many future research initiatives and outputs were discussed, and all attendees agreed to contribute to a position paper.
Outputs
Concert series
In May 2024, Zubin and his collaborators hosted a concert series, Music We'd Like to Hear, which celebrated the launch of Scott McLaughlin's album we are environments for each other. Eighty-three people attended the concert where their album was launched. View the programme.
The album is a product of many years of research collaboration by the three collaborators of this Innovation Forum. The central piece explores an entangled human-technology system: Mira Benjamin's electric violin feeds into an electromagnet, which Zubin uses to play the inside of the piano. The project combines research from Zubin’s Future Leaders Fellow project, Cyborg Soloists, and Scott McLaughlin's AHRC fellowship project, Garden of Forking Paths. Listen to samples of the music using the audio player below.
Music Ex Machina symposium
The initial findings of the Forum were discussed and presented to a wider audience during the team's symposium, Music Ex Machina: Methods and Methodologies for Technology-centred Practice-Based Research in Contemporary Music, on 16 June 2023. This led into the keynote presentation by one of the Forum researchers, Dr Scott McLaughlin. As a practice-based demonstration of the theoretical ideas discussed in the Forum, two forum members (Dr Zubin Kanga and Dr Mira Benjamin) presented the premiere of Scott McLaughlin’s new work, We are environments for each other (2023).
Position paper
The Cyborg Soloists team worked with the forum researchers to co-author a position paper covering the topics discussed at the Innovation Forum. This position paper discusses the current state of the field of practice research integrating new technologies. All members of the forum contributed sections to this report, with a diverse range of disciplinary approaches and focal points within the field represented.
Book written with collaborators
Dr Kanga and the Cyborg Soloists team are in the planning stages for a book, which will include researchers from both the Forum and the conference, as well as other artists and researchers associated with Cyborg Soloists.