Digital Arts Week Now

2002

Music Technology Project Descriptions

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Sarah Blake A native of Limerick, Sarah graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 2001 with a degree in music.  Her interest in creative musical activities through the medium of digital technology led her to study Music Technology and the University of Limerick.  Sarah is currently working part-time with Lyric FM and would hope to pursue a career in the area of broadcasting.  Taking Stock is an electroacoustic composition based on three stages in life: childhood, teenage years and early adulthood.  Various aspects of these different stages are explored, but the main thread that runs through the piece examines how the composer's musical taste has evolved through her life thus far.

Jason E. Geistweidt, BMus 21256 Salt Branch Loop Doss, Texas 78618 Email: jason@geistweidt.com www.geistweidt.com A Texas native, Mr. Geistweidt has worked to blend the disciplines of composition, design, electronics and language into a narrative performance format. As resident composer with The Anatomical Theatre, he has created over 8 major works including Fig. 3-d (1999), which the Toronto Star described as "a rich commentary on an electronic age of competing signals, . . . as fascinating visually as it is aurally and kinetically." The composer presently sits as interim president of the company and looks forward to working with the Theatre in the near future. Additionally, Geistweidt has collaborated with Steppenwolf Theatre and Lyric Opera Chicago. In 1998 he created E-studios, a project studio dedicated to sound for theatre, dance, installation and film. More information may be found at the above website. The Ouroborus Cycle is a multi-movement electroacoustic composition for live voice, electronics and tape. The Ouroborus, an ancient spiritual symbol depicted as a serpent consuming its own tail, represents a complete, self-sustaining system in which the end is the beginning and the beginning is the end. Utilizing his voice as the sole source for all compositional material, the composer is faced with his own utterance, a situation that heightens the intra-referential context of the composition and the performance event.

Sinead Healy BCL Email: sineadhealy69@hotmail.com Sinead began her university education at UCC with an undergraduate in law "However, the promise of a legal career in no way distracted her from furthering her musical development" Throughout college she continued performing her compositions for piano and voice as well as playing violin for the masses in Bunratty Castle. After a year’s soul searching in San Francisco, the inevitable could no longer be avoided and the MA in Music Technology was pursued as a step towards fulfilling her aspirations of performance and composition. fffemale is an electro-acoustic composition that explores aspects of femininity. As well as comprising a futuristic perspective on the potential dominance of the female, the piece explores the more inherent characteristics of nurture and the expression of emotion. Synthesised mainly from violin and voice, it is a work of contrast where the real and the virtual collide.

John Hough Banagher, Offaly. johnhough@eircom.net John has long been a fan of Music and Technology and decided to apply the theory of “Synergy” in completing the MSc here at the University of Limerick. An honours graduate from the BSc Information Technology at N.U.I Galway, John plans to use the skills he has learned this year to fashion a career in the industry while exploring new ways of using technology for enhancing stage performances. He has spent summers working with eircom and the University of San Diego implementing IT solutions and as a manager in his family pub, ”JJ Hough’s Singing Pub”. He is also an advocate of the portable studio revolution. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find relevant material among the massive libraries of sounds. The problem of indexing audio data can now be tackled using technology that allows us to analyse and extract information about the content of the audio, thus making it less opaque. Under this context the Web Based Audio Brower is proposed for the management, searching and browsing of audio resources. The prototype will allow multiple users to search, browse and share audio files over the Internet. The project will be implemented using Java Servlets and the Virtual Reality Modelling Language.

Alan Keenan Co. Tipperary Email: alangkeenan@hotmail.com Alan is a 22 yr old IT graduate. Originally hailing from Co. Tipperary, this is his fifth year at the University of Limerick having completed his undergraduate degree here. He enjoys all aspects of music, including playing, recording, producing and most importantly, listening. He also enjoys the technological side of life and music, and hopes to combine these interests over the next few years. His project was undertaken as part of the SOb initiative that the IDC is playing an important role. It involves the conceiving of a physics-based conceptual model that mimics what occurs during the tearing of a piece of paper. The project centers around creating a life-like simulation of the acoustic emissions generated when a piece of paper is torn.

Marie C. King Bmus Buncrussia St., Freshford, Co. Kilkenny. Email: marie_christine_king@hotmail.com Marie (23) is an Irish flautist who has completed a bachelor of music degree in University College Cork, 2001. She produced and performed with the Celtic music and dance group ‘Siamsoiri Eireann’ for four years, undertaking many European and American tours. At the weekends she plays in a band with her sister in a variety of venues. She wishes to pursue a career as a Music Producer. “To The Eye” is an electroacoustic composition based on the theme of stress and its similarities with a hurricane. It explores an individual’s reaction to stress, their experience of it and how they try to overcome it. The piece contains a mixture of ‘real’ and ‘abstract’ sounds that were recorded or programmed throughout the year. “To The Eye” is a journey to calm, a journey to the eye of the storm.

Mark Lavan Derrykinlough Co. Mayo home phone: 094 81461 mobile: 085 7287156 e-mail: m_lavan@hotmail.com Mark Lavan was born on the 4^th of April 1980 in Limerick but moved shortly after to the town of Kiltimagh in East Mayo. His main interests have always been in the area of music and film, and he undertook the MSc in Music Technology to try and develop a future in these areas. Before 2002, he studied a four-year degree course in Electronic Systems in the University of Limerick beginning in 1997 and graduated with a Btech in 2001. Interactive virtual audio mixing room The goal of this project is to create an application, which enables a user to develop a final mix of their chosen audio tracks in a 3d virtual environment, where the audio output depends solely on the location of ‘each virtual audio source’ relative to the location of the ‘virtual listener’ in the environment. The interactive virtual audio mixing room is a different approach to the area of ‘mixing’ which in the current day is entirely 2-dimensional. The intention of this project is to investigate and explore the possibility of combining the area of virtual reality with the area of mixing, and whether or not there is a possible future to these types of applications. The application developed is a prototype of a possible third screen for a user to view along with the edit, and mix screen while in a recording studio.

Phil Manzor Co. Offaly Graduated from U.L with a degree in Information Technology and Telecommunications in 2001. Has continued his education in U.L with a Masters Degree in music Technology to facilitate his ardour for music and technology. Looking to pursue a career in the area of music technology or win the Lotto. Music Information Retrieval via Sound Cues examines the active area of music information retrieval. The goal of the project is to allow a user to whistle a familiar melody, which is captured and analysed, with the end result being the retrieval of a set of similar songs from a music database based on the whistled melody.

Carmel Meehan, B Mus Hons, G.D.E.M, Dunkineely, Co Donegal A native of Dunkineely, Co Donegal, the composer began her professional musical career at the school of media and performing arts at the University of Ulster Jordanstown, graduating, with an honours Bachelor of Music degree in 1998. The following year she completed a graduate diploma in education with music at the University of Limerick. Having spent two and a half years working as a secondary school teacher in Derry, Carmel returned once more to the University of Limerick to pursue the MA in Music Technology. She is presently employed at St Michael’s College, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh as a music teacher. Her composition Pulp Evolution is a three movement electroacoustic piece based on the transformation of a tree into paper before being discarded as waste.

Hugh McCarty Inchamore, Bellebue Park, St Lukes, Cork. Hugh McCarthy holds a degree in music from the Cork School of Music, where he studied cello with Gerry Kelly. Hugh holds many prizes for solo cello performance, but ensemble playing remains his passion. He has been a member of several chamber groups and orchestras, touring the east coast of the States and many European countries with these groups. Hugh was a member of the Quay Quintet, winners of the RTE Millennium Musician of the Future ensemble prize, and a member of the CSM Trio, finalists in the same competition. He is currently a freelance chamber musician and is being enticed into the mysterious world of Tango. Some cellists suffer from performance/practice related injuries. In seeking a solution to some of these problems it was concluded that progress is being made in musical innovations, but it is either painstakingly slow (analysis, computer models, etc), or too fast for the audience to comprehend (electro-acoustic composition, modern performance), or it is being presented very poorly to the general musical community and its audience. The Stringless Cello project attempts to enhance the cello playing experience by introduction of an acceptable integration of common cellistic technique and idealism of a western art musician, with the technological advances and capabilities of electronic interfaces. This paper is written to be accessible to persons from both fields of expertise.

William Murphy BA (Mus) Drimmagh, Rosslare, Co. Wexford, Ireland. 085-7209194 Email: williammurphyie@yahoo.co.uk Last year William (23) completed a BA (Mus) in the Waterford Institute Of Technology. He additionally received The Bridget Doolan Award for performance and contribution towards the musical life of W.I.T. William is an established pianist and organist, having performed throughout Ireland and abroad. He is also an avid composer in numerous genres. ‘Affinity’s Width’ is an electroacoustic work based on sleep perception. Its narrative is highly ambiguous, being in accordance with the predominantly vague perceptions experienced during sleep. The structure of the piece is based upon the progression of sleep through its according stages.

Floraí Neff Cork email: fneff@netscape.net Having attained his Honours Music degree at University College Cork he has now completed a Master of Science degree in Music Technology at University of Limerick. His MSc project is the signal analysis and resynthesis of two major components of the uilleann pipes - the regulators and drones. This project is the first step in creating realistic synthetic regulators and drones that will not only help pipers in terms of tuning this complex and often temperamental instrument, but will also add another dimension to the playing of uilleann pipes in the future.

Barry Reid B.A, M.Sc. "Ashroe", Coast Road, Malahide, Co. Dublin. email: reid_barry@hotmail.com Barry graduated from NUI Maynooth in September 2001 with a B.A in Sociology and Economics. During his studies as an undergraduate however, he also studied music privately on both a formal and informal basis. Over the last two years, Barry also has gained some valuable experience as an assistant recording engineer at the Mill Recording Studio, Swords, Co. Dublin. After enjoying 12 months study and research in the broad discipline of Music Technology, Barry’s specialized areas are Audio/MIDI programming and sound design in the studio environment. For his Masters project, Barry undertook research in analog audio and synthesis, along with DSP related subjects, for the development of a fully interactive Analog-modeling software synthesizer. This virtual instrument was designed and developed in the MAX/MSP audio and interactive MIDI programming environment and controlled by a MIDI keyboard and various other outboard MIDI controllers for real-time manipulation of synthesis parameters. After exploring the deep waters of computer technology as applied to music production, engineering and programming, Barry intends to gain employment as an interactive systems programmer and studio engineer, where his interests in music and technology can be honed to a further creative and practical degree.

Conor Roche Clontarf Dublin Conor is a lovely lad from Dublin; he has a warm and friendly demeanor. His interests include fishing and helping the elderly. He loves the quite life and loves nothing more then sipping hot co-co listening to the futuristic sounds of Duran Duran. His life ambition is to represent Ireland as the first electro-acoustician in the Eurovision song contest. His project has something to do with wind. The project is part of the Sounding Object initiative and studies the sound generated by airflow past a cylinder.

Sue Targett BA (Music). MRD Ballinacarra Kilfenora Co. Clare Mobile: 086-855 6611 Email: sue.targett@eiri.org Sue grew up in England and lived in America before coming to Ireland. She works in rural areas supporting different approaches to enterprise development; her particular interest is in developing the social economy. The other focus of her work is with groups of people that society finds difficult to cope with, for example, young people at risk of early school leaving, people with disabilities, and older people. This work involves trying to change the way people understand the concept of equality in our society. Audio Games: Fun for All? All for Fun? Do computer games have to rely on visual feedback? Is it possible to create entertaining games that use only non-speech sounds? Could these games enable sighted people to develop ‘aural dexterity’ or other skills? Could audio games contribute anything worthwhile to the partially sighted and blind communities? This project creates two computer games, Os & Xs (Tic Tac Toe) and Mastermind, which use only non-speech audio feedback. These games are then used in tests, which start answering the above questions.

Riana Walsh Tuam Co. Galway Email: flamelilly@eircom.net Riana Walsh graduated with a B.Sc. in Applied Physics and Instrumentation in 1998 from Cork Institute of Technology. She then worked as a Control Systems Engineer with ProsCon Limited for three years. She is currently finishing the M.Sc. in Music Technology at the University of Limerick. Her final project is an investigation into the physical attributes of sound that contributes to the perception of timbre.