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This case study articulates impacts arising from Lyons' research into how creative application of developing accessible technologies can facilitate and enhance inclusive participation in music making (composition and performance) for artists with disabilities. These impacts have been felt in developments in disabled musicians' creative practice, in the resulting increased levels of personal artistic expression and professional development, and, in turn, in the influence of both of these on understanding and appreciation of disabled musicians' creative output in the mainstream music world, the wider public consciousness, and public policy.
Since 2006 Professor Christopher Fox has been engaged in a series of linked projects which explore ways in which the engagement of performers and listeners in texted music for vocal ensemble can be enhanced. The research was initially based on received understandings of the perceptible relationship between music and text but, as the project and its impact have developed, the research has extended into a collaborative scientific study of this relationship, funded by two successive awards from the Wellcome Trust. Each stage of the research has been extensively disseminated through public performance, broadcast, recording, print and on-line media and the impact of the research now reaches into a wide range of communities of interest and the general public.
This case study demonstrates the application of Joe Bennett's research into strategies for quantifying, observing and analysing creative processes used by songwriters. Impact has been achieved through three researcher-practitioners at the University — Bennett himself, plus Davey Ray Moor and Richard Parfitt. The research has been disseminated outside of academia through the publicly accessible workshops at the UK Songwriting Festival and Burnsong, which have received national media coverage (BBC, Sunday Times) and attracted participants from all over the world. The research has also had an impact in the commercial music industry through Bennett's forensic musicology songwriting consultancy reports, which have been used by music publishers and law courts in the settlement of songwriter copyright disputes. Summaries of the research have been presented to a non-academic music audience via international print publication (Total Guitar Magazine). Practitioners connected with the research (Moor and Parfitt) have achieved top 10 hits and international music publication for non-academic audiences.
Live Music Exchange (LMX) is a resource used by the UK live music sector. It is underpinned by research findings from an AHRC funded project directed by Simon Frith (Edinburgh University) and Martin Cloonan (Glasgow University), which documented shortcomings in the UK's music policy-making process. LMX has had an impact on such policy making through the provision of relevant data and data analysis and by improving communication between the sector's stakeholders. It has had an impact at both the local and national level, improving the quality and reach of policy discussion. By August 2013 its online hub had 2177 hits/month, and in 2012/3 it organized 4 policy events across the UK with 180 participants.
Dr David Ryan's research at Anglia Ruskin University has achieved impact in the areas of cross-disciplinary events and visual art and music. These include:
Dr Slater researches processes of musical creativity that involve technology. Music from two distinct projects reaches a public beyond academia via radio broadcasts, DJ and club culture, the commercial mechanisms of the music industry and more localised community pedagogy. His work contributes to an international audio culture that draws upon jazz, dance, electronica and orchestral music. Such resources provide rich material for education projects that offer young musicians and sound engineers an insight into the technical, social and musical processes of music production, composition and performance. Broadcast and pedagogy represent the two main routes through which his work has a wider impact. This case study documents impact on quality of life, cultural life and on pedagogy.
We have worked with over 100 music and radio organisations to help them meet the challenges which have arisen due to innovations in distribution consumption and interaction technologies. Our impact has concentrated on responding to transformations in music consumption culture and has contributed to the enhancement of economic prosperity, public service and cultural life. Our work has been central to fundamental changes in the activities of several radio and music organisations, either significantly improving their economic position or changing the way they interact with their audiences. We have had further non-economic impacts through a contribution to grassroots music organisations worldwide.
Music reflects and frequently empowers its listeners. Freedom of artistic expression is a right enshrined in international conventions which is under threat in many countries across the world. Research undertaken at the University of Glasgow (UoG) by Martin Cloonan in the censorship, regulation and legislation of music has informed and had a direct impact on a number of different anti-censorship campaigns at both national and international levels. In the UK his work has informed policy changes, specifically in relation to the licensing of smaller live venues; and, internationally his expertise has supported the establishment of key bodies such as Freemuse, the World Forum on Music and Censorship, which lobbies against the imprisonment and censorship of musicians.
The research community that has grown up around the Art of Record Production project is inextricably entwined with the professional and creative communities of record production practitioners and therefore the research permeates the practice and vice versa. The London College of Music (LCM) — University of West London (UWL), is at the heart of both of these communities, with staff immersed in both research and professional practice and is also engaging with the professional recording community through the Audio Engineering Society (AES). The highly vocational nature of the academic subject and the fact that research underpins the pedagogy means that LCM's research has a profound impact on professional practice. This comes from two directions. Firstly, this research has become central to pedagogy on record production in higher education around the world and is thus helping to shape the mind-set of the new wave of professional practitioners who are graduating from these courses. Secondly, the high level of engagement with the Art of Record Production projects by existing professionals, many of whom are now developing dual careers in academia, and their trade organisations means that they are engaging with, and even helping to shape, the research.
Peter Sheppard Skaerved's research focuses on the ways in which interrelations between composers, performers, instruments and their makers, and music-related artefacts can bring new insights to musical creativity. As a violinist, curator, public speaker and author, Sheppard Skaerved communicates this research to the public through his passionate engagement with performance traditions, new music, and the cultural contexts for music making in the West. His collaborative projects with leading museums in the UK, Europe and the USA have led to enhanced public awareness and understanding of the complexity and diversity of musical creativity.