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The impact of the research by the Echochroma New Music Research Group at Leeds Metropolitan University relates to new approaches to interactivity in music performance and composition. The group has produced internationally recognised creative works as well as outputs that discuss and establish theoretical models and approaches within contemporary composition, new media and entertainment. These works have been presented internationally to both professionals and the wider public, gaining recognition for outstanding work through international prizes, and influencing practice in the areas of education, entertainment and composition at local, national and international level.
Professor Phil Ellis' research is focused on developing therapies for children with special needs (including autism), and the elderly in residential homes, sheltered accommodation and day care. He has been involved in establishing iMUSE rooms in a range of institutions, such as special schools, specialist institutions for autism, day care centres, and an NHS intensive care centre. His work has also involved knowledge transfer to enable partner organizations to use the techniques he has developed, along with appropriate supporting technology.
The Research Centre for Creative Research in Sound Arts Practice (CRiSAP) works to develop, extend and support the emerging disciplinary field of sound arts, and has played a role in defining, scoping and shaping contemporary sound arts practice. This case study demonstrates impact on the creative community, museums and galleries, and the general public, with work reaching a wide audience and developing a greater recognition and understanding of sound and sound arts.
The University of York's research in surround sound production, conducted over twenty years, has in recent years been implemented and further developed in The Morning Line, a huge, transportable sculpture by Matthew Ritchie, produced by Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (T-B A21). T-B A21 have to date commissioned thirty professional composers and sound artists of international standing to create new works of sound art for the structure, all realised with software systems developed at York. The installation has been exhibited in large public outdoor spaces in European cities between 2008 and 2012. The Morning Line (TML) integrates into contemporary artistic practice the long-term, York-based research uniting sound reproduction technologies and human spatial perception. The research has, in this way, generated new forms of creative practice, transforming the work of a large number of sound artists and, through repeated, open, long-term public exhibition, contributed to public experience and understanding of sound art and audio perception.
Plenum is an algorithmic work composed by Rob Godman in 2010 as part of a collaborative art-music installation. It was performed six times between 2010 and 2013 at sound and light festivals in Poland, Estonia and the UK, at the Cambridge Music Festival, and at an Australian contemporary arts venue. Audiences totalling over 240,000 heard the work, with website visitors extending its reach to over 300,000; the Durham Lumiere alone, of which Plenum formed an integral element, created an estimated £4.3 million for the local economy. Festival and arts curators have described Plenum as `thought provoking' and `inspiring'.
Baysted's creative research practice in composition and sound design culminated in a critically acclaimed and globally distributed commercial racing simulation game. The impacts of this research are worldwide commercial success, enhancement of the user (gamer) experience and the stimulation of public debate and discourse. Evidence is provided in terms of computer games sales, professional and amateur review.
Research (2003-12) by Osborne at the Reid School of Music (RSM) revealed a need for a new musical instrument for disabled users. Under the direction of Osborne, between 2006-8 an interdisciplinary team across Music, Psychology and Physics, including RSM-based Schögler, developed a new musical `object', the Skoog, which allowed people with a wide range of disabilities accessible expressive control of sound. A spin-off company, Skoog Music, was formed in 2010, which now employs six staff, and has sold more than 1,000 units in 16 countries, generating an income of around £600k. The Skoog is widely used by schools and education services and in clinical music therapy by institutions such as Drake Music. It featured in the Best of the Best 2010 in Able Magazine. It was one of three instruments to inspire the composition Technophonia by Oliver Searle, performed at the South Bank as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and short-listed for a 2013 British Composer Award.
This case study describes the impact of the on-going practice-based research undertaken by Matthew Fairclough, started in 2003, into new ways of working with percussion and electronics. It has resulted in wide ranging cultural and economic benefits, including impact on individuals and organisations in the private sector. More specifically, the research has resulted in:
A major output from the AHRC Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music, the CHARM website—conceived, created and supported at King's—reports research, and provides tools and materials both supporting new research and of value and interest to a wide community of music listeners. These are extensively used by professional and amateur researchers and enthusiasts. Contents include an online discography, a library of historic recordings, studies of the history of recording, an eBook introducing ways of studying recorded performances, papers from CHARM symposia, data derived from recordings, and performance analysis software that has become internationally standard.
Sound Diaries impacts through expanding awareness of the roles of sound and listening in daily life. The Sound Diaries website acts as a repository, sketchpad and sandpit for research promoting a principally auditory investigation of the world we live in. Exploring the cultural and communal significance of sounds, Sound Diaries forms a research basis for projects executed both locally and Internationally, in Beijing, Brussels, Tallinn, rural Estonia and Cumbria; within local institutions in Oxford including Schools; and within cultural organisations such as Sound and Music, BBC Radio, Boring 2011 and MoDA (Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture).