Transforming HASS Research

Just back from a trip to (freezing) Canberra. 

Here, the Australian government is undertaking a review of the National Collaborative Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) Roadmap, and which has generated a proposal for a new research capability in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS), titled ‘Transforming HASS Research’. [see The Australian /Higher Education article 20 August 2008, 'Research to cut through cackle']

The details of this proposal were included in the recently released Exposure Draft of 2008 Strategic Roadmap for Australian Research Infrastructure. As a result, the Expert Working Group for HASS which produced this proposal met in a one day workshop to assist with this process at Old Canberra House, the ANU.

From the Arts perspective (the 'A' in HASS), this means: how might eResearch in sectors such as Film, Animation, Art & Design, Music and Sound, Theatre & Dance - benefit from $.5 bil. of ICT network and grid computing research infrastructure? For example: greater interdisciplinary collaboration; curated media archives as 'data sets' to promote and drive new research questions and outputs; grid computing which has the capacity to drive (real) time-based works, nationally & internationally. 

Among the discussions and break out panels for Humanites, the Creative & Performing Arts and Social Sciences representatives, an international guest speaker, Chad Kainz (Senior Director for Academic Technologies, University of Chicago) gave an enthralling presentation.

Chad is one of the program directors for the Mellon Foundation’s ‘Bamboo Project’ -- a planning project aimed at developing shared technology services for research in the arts and humanities in the US, with important parallels to the Australian HASS-NCRIS developments.

This is a significant development, but one that requires more discussion and consultation within the relevant sectors before planning proceeds much further. Next, there will be a widening of the steering group and reference group(s) to include greater representation from Art & Design, Theatre & Dance, Music & Sound, Film & Animation. Looking forward to more & seeing what comes next . . .

Melbourne - NMIT

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of visiting and presenting a masterclass at the North Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT). A terrific heritage set of building located in the north of Melbourne, in Fairfield.


NMIT have a range of music courses there : from music industry, to sound production, to a Bachelor of Australian Popular Music. They also have a range of other programs in media broadcast, theatre and television. I had the chance to tour around and see their recording studios and labs, and also had a chance to present to many students and staff from these programs in their concert hall.

I presented a piece entitled 'Music, Technology and the Future' as part of one of their courses, Online Music Distribution. In this, I talked about the history of music technology, as a way of 'looking back', perhaps 'to see forward', based on a recent paper, Audio files, audiophiles and the reflective musician.

Looking forward to seeing some NMIT graduates here at he Con in the near future. And, many thanks to Glenn & Fiona Blair for their wonderful hospitality at NMIT. 

Music for the banal . .

Great to be back in Brisbane, and back in the recording studio (IMERSD) once again, following the first half of the year writing, teaching & travelling. This time, working with Con resident percussionist and musician extraodinaire, Dr Vanessa Tomlinson.

These studio sessions were originally intended to be somewhat of a 'warm up' for an album and a concert in September with Vanessa's pianist/composer partner Erik Griswold in their Clocked Out Duo. However, they've now taken on a life of their own, with some stunning improvisations from Vanessa. Look out for a new solo album in the near future, perhaps a parallel SAC-D release because this stuff is just made for surround.

The major work is  a 40-odd minute piece that features Vanessa using all kinds of 'ordinary objects' to make the most extraordinary sounds, rhythms and timbres. Entitled Music for the Banal, the Obvious, the Everyday, this piece moves in and out of all kinds of perspectives and harmonics - sandpaper, kitchen bowls, clay tiles, rice and bottlers, all played with a variety of sticks, mallets and techniques.

On a second, as yet untitled piece, Vanessa goes to work with water and percussion.

When we started, there were all kinds of ideas for post-production and re-interpretation in the mix. However, now its seems more like Vanessa borrows much from the electro-acoustic tradition yet performs this live. Therefore we've mic'd and recorded from a whole range of perspectives and sense that the final mix will involve more about changing perspectives in the performer's mind, and in re-interpreting this in a 'performance mix' of the piece.

Here's a few teasers. First , a section from a performance on everyday metal kitchen bowls (good for beating eggs, but also, for great percussion . . .)

Then there's playing on a whole range of trinkets: tiles, clay pot, bottles:

And finally, a small gong played in a tub of water:

Also great to see a number of student friends here: thanks to James Tonkin who has been working with us in terms of tracking the work as an ethnographic exercise. See if we can't understand a little more about the studio creative process and evolution. Also thanks to (recent PhD completion!) David Carter, who's ears and ideas are just outstanding.

ISME @ Bologna - Part 2

More posts and notes from Bologna. All of the photos from the ISME conference and around Bologna can be viewed at my MobileMe Photo Gallery or via RSS feed. Here, there's a small selection: 

Don Lebler caught up with Prof Göran Folkestad (Malmö University, Sweden) at the courtyard of one of the conference venues, the Accademia Belle Arti:

Followed by a presentation by Don Lebler (Qld Con) and Rosie Burt-Perkins (RCM) entitled 'What the students bring: Examining the attributes of commencing conservatoire students' (check out the venue):

Another beautiful location was the Palazzo-Malverzzi:


Here, the Qld Con's Stephen Emmerson presented some of his multmedia-based research on 'Around a Rondo' to a fascinated audience:


Don Lebler and myself presented on a Symposia panel with Bo Nilsson and Anna-Rita Addessi, chaired by Göran Folkestad & entitled 'Music Education 2.0: How refelctive practice, peer-review and a participatory culture is enabled in the new curricula'. 


This symposium examined the idea of Music Education 2.0 in response to transformed notions of music-making enabled by 21st century culture and associated web 2.0 practices. Through the lens of new formations in university music curricula from around the world, the symposium examined i) the nature of both personal and distributed technologies and their effects on innovation in teaching, learning and music-making; ii) the advent and impact of the Internet on cultural value systems; and iii) a higher education imperative to embed judgement, negotiation, reflective practice and peer review into learning practices which enable the kinds of literacies required for new careers in global knowledge economies.

Don and myself presented work from the Qld Con Popular Music and Music Technology programs, while Bo and Anna-Rita showed us some wonderful work in early childhood education, in particular, the amazing interactive software called 'The Continuator' from the Sony Computed Science Laboratory in Paris.

We also caught up with Frank Millward (Kingston University, UK), Heather Keens (Surrey University, UK) and Miikka Salavuo (Sibelius Academy, Finland) who is doing some wonderful work in music technology and web 2.0. Hope to see Miikka in Australia in the near future!

I also presented a paper, co-authored with Qld Con Matt Hitchcock, entitled 'The hidden music curriculum: Utilising blended learning to enable a participatory culture'.

Meanwhile, Qld Con's Huib Schippers chaired an engaging panel in the symposium 'Embracing diversity: A new ISME policy on world music in education':


And finally, many thanks for Qld Con's Scott Harrison for hosting a terrific get-together and final drinks in his spectacular apartment at the top of the old city:


Thanks to everyone for making this a memorable conference.