12-14 September
Wrexham Glyndŵr University (North Wales, UK)

Sound in Immersion and Emotion

Javascript must be enabled to continue!

Conference Programme

The conference is being held at Wrexham Glyndŵr University. Unless otherwise specified, the venue for keynotes and conference sessions is the Nick Whitehead Lecture Theatre (point 2 on the Campus Map), which is located near the main entrance to the University (off Mold Road).

Below is a Summary Programme along with a day-by-day programme, so you can jump to:

Wednesday 12th September 2018
Thursday 13th September 2018
Friday 14th September 2018

Please note: this programme is provisional and may be subject to change prior to commencement of the conference.


Conference Programme – Summary

 

Wednesday 12th September 2018
08:30 Registration Opens
09:20 Conference Official Opening
09:30 Keynote: Alexis Kirke
“Moved by” not “Surrounded by”: How Emotional Engagement is Real Immersion
10:30 Tea & Coffee Break
11:00 Full Papers: Solving Problems with Sound
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 Full Papers: Sound in Emotion
15:15 Tea & Coffee Break
15:45 Short Papers: Sound in Immersion
16:45 Inner Sound Book Presentation: Jonathan Weinel
17:15 Free Time
19:00 Social Event at Tŷ Pawb (Market St, Wrexham, LL13 8BB)
22:00 End of Day 1

 

Thursday 13th September 2018
08:30 Registration Opens
09:30 Keynote: Chris Pike
Dropping the radio in the bath – Immersion in broadcast sound
10:30 Tea & Coffee Break
11:00 Full Papers: Making Sound and Music
13:00 Lunch Break
13:45 Full Papers: Sonic Reflections and Enquiries
15:45 Poster Session & Artists’ Exhibition (inc. Tea & Coffee)
17:15 Free Time
18:00 Coaches depart for Conference Banquet from Sports Centre (point 10 on theCampus Map)
19:00 Medieval Banquet at Ruthin Castle
23:30 End of Day 2

 

Friday 14th September 2018
08:30 Registration Opens
09:00 Short Papers: Sonic Analysis and Transformations
10:45 Tea & Coffee Break
11:00 Full Papers: Music and Interaction
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 Workshops
17:00 Conference Closing Session
17:30 End of Day 3 and Conference
19:30 Audio Mostly 2018 Organisers’ Curry at Nag’s Head pub then Black Peppersrestaurant

 

Conference Programme – Day-by-day

 

Wednesday 12th September 2018
08:30 Registration Opens
09:20 Conference Official Opening: Prof. Maria Hinfelaar (Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, Wrexham Glyndwr University)
09:30 Keynote: Alexis Kirke (University of Plymouth, UK)
“Moved by” not “Surrounded by”: How Emotional Engagement is Real Immersion
We often hear the term immersion being used to refer to 3D sound environments, or full sensory experiences such as VR. However it is possible for our senses to be contained within an experience physically, without feeling truly immersed in it. Similarly, we can be immersed into audiobooks using a single earbud – or films on a mobile phone screen. In this talk I was discuss what I consider to be true immersive experiences, and give examples from my own research that attempt to investigate emotional immersion.
10:30 Tea & Coffee Break
11:00 Full Papers: Solving Problems with Sound
Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems: Will they affect the acceptance of electric vehicles?
(Johan Fagerlönn, Anna Sirkka, Stefan Lindberg and Roger Johnsson)
Exploring the Creation of Useful Interfaces for Music Therapists
(Leya Breanna Baltaxe-Admony, Tom Hope, Kentaro Watanabe, Mircea Teodorescu, Sri Kurniwan and Takuichi Nishimura)
A Prototype Mixer to Improve Cross-Modal Attention During Audio Mixing
(Josh Mycroft, Tony Stockman and Joshua Reiss)
Investigating Concurrent Speech-based Designs for Information Comprehension
(Muhammad Abu Ul Fazal, Sam Ferguson and Andrew Johnston)
The London Soundmap: Integrating sonic interaction design in the urban realm
(Sara Adhitya)
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 Full Papers: Sound in Emotion
Emotional Musification
(Andrew Godbout, Jeffrey Boyd and Iulius Popa)
The Emotion of Synthetic Audio – A Dataset and Perception Results
(Alice Baird, Emilia Parada-Cabaleiro, Cameron Fraser, Simone Hantke and Björn Schuller)
Evolving in-game mood-expressive music with MetaCompose
(Marco Scirea, Peter Eklund, Julian Togelius and Sebastian Risi)
15:15 Tea & Coffee Break
15:45 Short Papers: Sound in Immersion
My sound space: Using sound for immersion
(Martin Ljungdahl Eriksson, Lena Pareto, Ricardo Atienza and Kjetil Falkenberg Hansen)
An Immersive Approach to 3D Spatialized Music Composition: Tools and Pilot Survey
(David Ledoux and Robert Normandeau)
Muscle activity response of the audience during an experimental music performance
(Victor Gonzalez-Sanchez, Agata Żelechowska and Alexander Refsum Jensenius)
16:45 Inner Sound Book Presentation: Jonathan Weinel
At Audio Mostly 2018, author Jonathan Weinel will give a presentation introducing the main areas that are discussed in his recent book Inner Sound: Altered States of Consciousness in Electronic Music and Audio-Visual Media, published by Oxford University Press. In Inner Sound, Weinel traverses the creative influence of altered states of consciousness, from the synaesthetic assaults of neon raves to a mushroom trip in virtual reality. Beginning with a discussion of consciousness, the book explores how our subjective realities may change during states of dream, psychedelic experience, meditation and trance. Taking a broad view across a wide range of genres, Inner Sound draws connections between shamanic art and music, electronic dance music, film and virtual reality applications. Through the analysis of these examples, Weinel proposes a conceptual model for altered states of consciousness simulations. He also examines ethical issues regarding altered states of consciousness in electronic music and audio-visual media, ultimately allowing the reader not only to consider their design but also the implications of their use for digital society.
17:15 Free Time
19:00 Social Event – Held in The Peoples Square at Tŷ Pawb (Market St, Wrexham, LL13 8BB)
Antonio D’Amato – Béatitudes lysergiques

The idea behind the piece developed after reading an article I stumbled upon a 1966 copyof the Life magazine titled: New Experience That Bombardes the Senses. LSD Art. Thearticle reviewed an exposition at New York’s Riverside Museum created by a group calledUSCO (an abbreviation for ‘The Us Company’, or ‘The Company of Us’), a collective ofartists, filmmakers, engineers, and poets who presented, acid-inspired artworks.

With this piece I try to immerse the listener in a contemplative, mystical environment, where smooth and coarse textures appear unexpectedly and coalesce, assault and seduce – “They can be ecstatically beautiful – or terrifying.”

Dirk Stromberg – Endeavours of Ascension
Dirk’s work with ascension was created originally to continue a discussion about the rarity of works that ascend in pitch material – the overwhelming majority of works composed in the world descend – that was had between Dirk Stromberg and Robert Reigle in winter of 2016. His explorations have included a series of videos with director Clare Chong as well as a VR implementation of the work. Currently, Dirk is exploring Endeavours of Ascension as an improvisation concept to explore the possibilities of his instrument, the Phallophone
Soundcat – Breakbeat DJ/VJ set Exploring Psychedelia
Soundcat performs a breakbeat DJ/VJ set of music from the 90s rave era and beyond. This is set to original visuals created by Soundcat, which explore psychedelia, referencing demoscene graphics and high-tech surrealism through an irreverent mix of hand-painted 8mm film and computer animations.
22:00 End of Day 1
Thursday 13th September 2018
08:30 Registration Opens
09:30 Keynote: Chris Pike (BBC Research and Development)
Dropping the radio in the bath – Immersion in broadcast sound
Immersive audio is often used to describe sound systems that aim to provide a realistic spatial impression. But many of us have been totally immersed in a story being told from a tinny kitchen radio. What do we really mean when we talk about immersive audio and how might new technology be used to achieve it?In this talk, I’ll take you on our journey so far in using “immersive” or spatial audio at the BBC. We’ve worked with some of our most popular programmes, like the Proms, Planet Earth and Doctor Who, and in a variety of formats, from 22.2-channel surround in theatres to binaural podcasts and virtual reality. But there are still big challenges to applying these new formats in the broadcast industry at scale. We’re working to make spatial audio better and more practical for broadcasters. For our audiences, we’re still exploring where it can add real value. I’ll discuss our understanding of the quality of listening experiences, and which aspects spatial audio technology might influence. Better knowing what we want to achieve for the listener will focus development of technology and content on the most important factors. When it comes to immersion, we think technology can help, but most important is a good story.
10:30 Tea & Coffee Break
11:00 Full Papers: Making Sound and Music
A Web-based Real-Time Kinect Application for Gestural Interaction with Virtual Musical Instruments
(Athanasia Zlatintsi, Panagiotis P. Filntisis, Christos Garoufis, Antigoni Tsiami, Kosmas Kritsis, Maximos Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, Aggelos Gkiokas, Vassilis Katsouros and Petros Maragos)
Smart Mandolin: autobiographical design, implementation, use cases, and lessons learned
(Luca Turchet)
Under Construction – Contemporary Opera in the Crossroads Between New Aesthetics, Techniques, and Technologies
(Maria Kallionpää, Alan Chamberlain and Hans-Peter Gasselseder)
Playing the Body: Making Music through Various Body Movements
(Junko Ichino and Hayato Nao)
Procedurally-Generated Audio for Soft-Body Animations
(Feng Su and Chris Joslin)
13:00 Lunch Break
13:45 Full Papers: Sonic Reflections and Enquiries
Some reflections on the relation between augmented and smart musical instruments
(Luca Turchet)
Meico: A Converter Framework for Bridging the Gap between Digital Music Editions and its Applications
(Axel Berndt, Simon Waloschek and Aristotelis Hadjakos)
Tamaglitchi: A Pilot Study of Anthropomorphism and Non- Verbal Sound
(Karen Collins and Ruth Dockwray)
Living in, through, and with music: Investigating metaphors of musical involvement
(Oskari Koskela and Kai Tuuri)
15:45 Poster Session & Artists’ Exhibition (including Tea & Coffee)
Poster Presentations (main foyer)
Activating Archives: Combining Elements of Japanese Culture to Create a New and Playful Musical Experience
(Oliver Halstead, Jack Davenport and Ruben Dejaegere)
Surfing with Sound: An Ethnography of the Art of No-Input Mixing
(Alan Chamberlain)
Collaborative Artificial Intelligence in Music Production
(Steve Nicholls and Stuart Cunningham)
Subjective Evaluation of a Speech Emotion Recognition Interaction Framework
(Nikolaos Vryzas, Maria Matsiola, Rigas Kotsakis, Charalampos Dimoulas and George Kalliris)
Realtime Pattern Based Melodic Query for Music Continuation System
(Sanjay Majumder and Benjamin D. Smith)
A Method for Virtual Acoustic Auralisation in VR
(Callum Forsyth)
High-Level Analysis of Audio Features for Identifying Emotional Valence in Human Singing
(Stuart Cunningham, Jonathan Weinel and Rich Picking)
Immersive VisualAudio: Spectral Editing in VR
(Lars Engeln, Natalie Hube and Rainer Groh)
Music Exhibition (in main foyer)
Béatitudes lysergiques
(Antonio D’Amato)
Artist’s Talk (16:30 in Nick Whithead Lecture Theatre)
Approaches to Modes of Interaction
(Dirk Stromberg)
17:15 Free Time
18:00 Coaches depart for Conference Banquet from the Sports Centre (point 10 on the Campus Map)
19:00 Medieval Banquet at Ruthin Castle
23:30 End of Day 2
Friday 14th September 2018
08:30 Registration Opens
09:00 Short Papers: Sonic Analysis and Transformations
Staging sonic atmospheres as the new aesthetic work
(Elio Toppano and Alessandro Toppano)
Music Genre Classification: Genre-Specific Characterization and Pairwise Evaluation
(Adam Lefaivre and John Z. Zhang)
On Transformations between Paradigms in Audio Programming
(Robert Krämer and Cornelius Pöpel)
Returning to the Fundamentals on Temperament (in digital systems)
(Nathan Renney, Benedict R. Gaster and Tom Mitchell)
Auditory Masking and the Precedence Effect in Studies of Musical Timekeeping
(Steffan Owens and Stuart Cunningham)
10:30 Tea & Coffee Break
11:00 Full Papers: Music and Interaction
Symbolic Music Similarity through a Graph-Based Representation
(Federico Simonetta, Filippo Carnovalini, Nicola Orio and Antonio Rodà)
Music retiler: Using NMF2D source separation for audio mosaicing
(Hadrien Foroughmand Aarabi and Geoffroy Peeters)
Designing Musical Soundtracks for Brain Controlled Interface (BCI) Systems
(Richard Ramchurn, Alan Chamberlain and Steve Benford)
Interactive Control of Explicit Musical Features in Generative LSTM-based Systems
(Maximos Kaliakatsos-Papakostas, Aggelos Gkiokas and Vassilis Katsouros)
Jam with Jamendo: Querying a Large Music Collection by Chords from a Learner’s Perspective
(Anna Xambó, Johan Pauwels, Gerard Roma, Mathieu Barthet and György Fazekas)
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 Workshops
Delegates have a choice of attending one of two conference workshops and should indicate their workshop preference by following this link.
The Design of Future Music Technologies: ‘Sounding Out’ AI, Immersive Experiences & Brain Controlled Interfaces (Room: Nick Whitehead Lecture Theatre)
(Workshop Chairs: Alan Chamberlain, Mads Bodker, Maria Kallionpää, Richard Ramchurn, David De Roure, Steve Benford, and Alan Dix)
This workshop examines the interplay between people, musical instruments, performance and technology. Now, more than ever technology is enabling us to augment the body, develop new ways to play and perform, and augment existing instruments that can span the physical and digital realms. By bringing together performers, artists, designers and researchers we aim to develop new understandings how we might design new performance technologies.Participants will be actively encouraged to participant, engaging with other workshop attendees to explore concepts such as; immersion, augmentation, emotion, physicality, data, improvisation, provenance, curation, context and temporality, and the ways that these might be employed and unpacked in respect to both performing and understanding interaction with new performance-based technologies that relate to the core themes of immersion and emotion.A web site with more information about the workshop can be found here (http://futuremusicdesign.tumblr.com).
MozziByte Workshop : Making Things Purr Growl and Sing (Room: B07)
(Workshop Chair: Stephen Barrass)
Make a tiny interactive synthesiser using the MozziByte, so you can embed sounds in almost anything, like sonic ceramics – stephenbarrass.comMozziByte allows designers, artists, musicians and students to rapidly prototype and create imaginative sonic products, interactive sonifications, sound art installations and boutique synthesisers by providing the core audio components needed in every project.The workshop involves coding on Arduino, sound synthesis with the Mozzi library, and soldering interactive sensors.
17:00 Conference Closing Session
17:30 End of Day 3 & Conference
19:30 – ????
Audio Mostly 2018 Organisers’ Curry
Informal drinks and meal with the AM’18 organising committee – all welcome!
For those of you not in a hurry to depart, this is a chance to unwind and have a relaxed evening of reflection and friendship with the Audio Mostly 2018 team. No fixed agenda, but almost certainly meeting in the Nag’s Head pub for some drinks and then moving to Black Peppers Indian restaurant for food around 20:30. Please note: the cost of the meal and drinks are not part of the conference registration fee.