Creative Machines: Technology and Collaborative Practice in Contemporary Music

A free one-day symposium at Royal Holloway, University of London

7 June 2024

Keynote Speaker: Dr Luke Nickel (independent artist-researcher)

Registration closes 22 May 2024

As the integration of technology into contemporary music practice and research has become increasingly prevalent, new challenges and opportunities have emerged. What kinds of collaborative practice emerge from the creation of works integrating new technologies? What kinds of distributed and networked creative practices does technology facilitate? How do the methods and methodologies of collaboration figure when not all of the participants are human? What are the aesthetics and ethics of more-than-human, posthuman, or cyborg collaboration? How might such discourses affect our interactions with AI?

This symposium hosted by Cyborg Soloists will explore and reflect upon the role technologies play in collaborative practice within the field of contemporary music. It will be divided into four sections:

  • More-Than-Human Collaborators

  • Bodies, Voices, Choreography, Technology

  • Audiovisual Storytelling, and

  • Ludomusicology

The keynote speaker will be Dr Luke Nickel (independent artist-researcher), and the day will conclude with a wine reception and free concert by SONAMB (Vicky Clarke), performing her Cyborg Soloists-commissioned work NEURAL MATERIALS.

Schedule below - the full programme will be available to download soon.

Details and Registration

This is a free event. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
Date: 7 June 2024
Location: The Boilerhouse, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX [Map] [How to get to Royal Holloway]

Registration closes 22 May 2024

Schedule

Abstracts and biographies will be added soon.

9:00 – 10:00Welcome and Registration
10:00 – 11:30Session 1: More-Than-Human Collaborators

Nina Whiteman
Sonic gardening: Community workshops as a testbed for performative technologies

Ned Barker, Joana Burd, Nikolas Gomes and Jambu
Synthesizing vitalities, sonifying secrets

Leon Michener
Towards the LED: Didactic feedback loops as a generative musical function in bio-electronic collaborations
11:30 – 11:45Coffee Break
11:45 – 13:15Session 2: Bodies, Voices, Choreography, Technology

Amble Skuse, Bosko Begović
Interdependent intersections: Generative music using body sensors on a movement artist

Megan Steinberg
Ableism in Artificial Intelligence: By human design

Edmund Hunt
Practice-based collaborative research and the digital humanities
13:15 – 14:00Lunch
14:00 – 15:00Session 3: Audiovisual Storytelling

Tonia Ko and Adam Ganz
Felix's Room

An-Ting and Ian Gallagher
Bridging two worlds: Collaboration between live music performance and technology
15:00 – 15:15Coffee Break
15:15 – 16:15Session 4: Ludomusicology

Martin Suckling
Choice, collaboration and agency in Black Fell, a game-for-music

Jenn Kirby
Spiral: Two-player performance system
16:15 – 16:30Coffee Break
16:30 – 17:30Keynote Lecture: Dr Luke Nickel (independent artist-researcher)
Title TBC
17:30 – 18:00Wine Reception
18:00 – 18:30

Concert: SONAMB (Vicky Clarke)
NEURAL MATERIALS

Questions?

Please direct any questions to jonathan.packham@rhul.ac.uk and caitlin.rowley@rhul.ac.uk

Supported by

Two logos in a line: On the left is the logo for Royal Holloway, University of London, in orange, grey and white; on the right is the logo for UK Research and Innovation, in dark blue and white