Musical Multimedia

The Musical Multimedia project unites research interests that involve sound-led film and visual art, as well as the composition of soundtracks and sound design for film, video, and video-games. The project embraces practice-led research into the sonic arts as they relate to the still, algorithmic, or performed visual artefact.

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Introduction

Musical Multimedia research at CeReNeM spans creative and commercial work in the intersection of sound, image, and space. Through cutting edge practice and technology, CeReNeM’s staff and student activity in this area includes work in experimental film and multimedia, sonic arts and installation, projection mapping, documentary audio, and music for commercial applications.

CeReNeM’s work in musical multimedia is characterised by an ability to pivot between innovative experimental practice and similarly innovative developments in the service of real-world projects for the consumption of the general public. Notable examples include Julio d’Escriván’s work creating film music trailer cues for Los Angeles-based Sencit Music, which combines CeReNeM’s focus on creative composition and technology with practical, industry-driven needs.

 

Facilities

Industry standard facilities for audiovisual work within the already generous provision of recording studios at the University include five 5.1 double monitor composition and editing studios. The complete Vienna Symphonic library is available as well as choice virtual instruments from Spitfire Audio, including the Hans Zimmer Percussion library.

There are additional production and performance facilities for playing to picture from within recording rooms, as well as a comprehensive equipment provision for live sound and video capture. The latter include Canon EOS C100 (with fixed macro lens options), XA20, and XF100, Nikon D3300 kit, Panasonic HC-X920 and HDC-TM900, Zoom cameras, GoPro Hero 4, numerous tripods and lens collections. For audio capture, there are high-quality portable recorders like the Sound Devices 744T and 788T, as well as accessories including boom mics and lighter auxiliary portable equipment, in addition to the department’s full collection of industry leading microphones and recording facilities, including a recording studio with 24-channel SSL digital mixing desk. There are also a number of Fastfold screens and HD projectors for installation or projection of cinematic material. All of this is complemented by the 50-channel, 60-loudspeaker Huddersfield Interactive Sound System (HISS), which is used regularly to present experimental multimedia work, including at the annual Electric Spring festival.

 

The Musical Multimedia project explores:

Music for film and visual media
Music and audio for video games
Music for documentary film
Live audio-visual performance
Composition for projection mapping and live cinema
New performance interfaces and gestural control
Sound sculpture and sonic art installation practice
Sound painting for conducted, guided improvisation
Web-based application development for collaborative music composition

 

Recent Projects

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Empire

Prof Monty Adkins. Commissioned by the Yorkshire Silent Film Festival 2018, Empire is a live soundtrack to Andy Warhols renowned silent film.

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The Man with No Place

Dr Geoffrey Cox. A video poem based the work of Ian Walker, 'The Man with No Place' is part of an on-going project working with poetry and poets either in fixed media or live interactive audiovisual formats.

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Industry Soundtrack and Sound Design

Dr Julio d'Escrivan. An ongoing industry project creating original music and sound design cues for use in film music and game trailers, released by L.A. based Sencit Music

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Speaker Grid

Stewart Worthy. A non-narrative installation with reactive / interactive qualities via DMX, MIDI and audio control from Max

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Soundpainting

Dr Julio d'Escriván. An ongoing exporation of live gestural communication between Soundpainter (composer) and live ensemble

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Mirror Screen

Stewart Worthy. A site-specific, multimedia installation based around the steel sculpture Screen by Rob Ward

 

Project members

Prof Monty Adkins
Dr Julio d’Escriván
Dr Geoff Cox
Dr Ian Gibson [co-founder and executive committee member of the National Sonic Art Forum]
Stewart Worthy

 

Publications

Creative Outputs

Cox, G & Marley, K (2017) Mill Study [Video]

De Vos, Z., Johnson, T. and Gibson, I. (2016) Hallers Routine [Performance] In: Adaptive Music Technology Research Group Concert, 24 Feb 2016, Bates Mill, Huddersfield

d'Escrivan, J (2016) Visual OP [Composition]

Gibson, I (2016) Adaptive Music Technology Research Group Concert with the University of British Columbia [Show/Exhibition]

Worthy, S (2016) Speaker Grid I [Artefact]

Adkins, M. and Roberts, S. (2015) Freud's House: the Double Mirror [Video/Installation] (Documentation)

Cox, G (2015) Tree People: the story of the Colne Valley Tree Society [Video]

Adkins, M. and Payne, J. (2014) Clockwork Cities [Video]

Adkins, M. and Payne, J. (2014) Ecstatic Drift [Video]

Adkins, M. and Payne, J. (2014) Spirals [Video]

Cox, G (2014) Tree People [Video]

d'Escrivan, J. and Adkins, M. (2014) Geometries of Flight [Video]

Gibson, I (2014) CosMix [Show/Exhibition]

Gibson, I., Middleton, D. and Adkins, M. (2014) Borderlands CosMixed [Show/Exhibition]

d'Escrivan, J (2013) FLIX [Composition]

Adkins, M. and Kluge, J. (2012) Global Village [Video]

Adkins, M. and Dickens, P. (2012) Four Shibusa [Video]

d'Escrivan, J (2012) Villanueva: El Diablo [Composition]

Adkins, M. and Jones, O. (2011) Suspended Edges [Video]

Adkins, M. and Payne, J. (2011) Remnant [Video]

Adkins, M. and Chalcraft, M. (2011) Symbiont [Video]

Cox, G. and Marley, K. (2011) Deconstructing Voices [Show/Exhibition]

Cox, G. and Marley, K. (2011) Nothing but the hours [Video]Cox, G (2011) No Escape [Performance] In: Leeds Film Music Conference, 6-8 September 2011, University of Leeds, Clothworkers Concert Hall

d'Escrivan, J (2011) fusil [Composition]

d'Escrivan, J (2011) Terra Nova [Composition]

d'Escrivan, J (2011) Reveron [Composition]

Adkins, M. and Almond, M. (2010) Cortex 10 [Video]

Cox, G (2010) No Escape [Performance] In: GEM Days, 27 January 2010, Phipps Hall, University of Huddersfield

Cox, G. and Marley, K. (2010) A Film About Nice [Video]

Cox, G (2009) No Escape [Composition]

d'Escrivan, J (2008) Ensayo Sobre La Bicicleta (Essay on the bicycle): composition [Video]

 

Papers

Cox, G (2017) ‘‘There must be a poetry of sound that none of us knows…’: Early British documentary film and the prefiguring of musique concrète’ Organised Sound , 22 (2), pp. 172-186. ISSN 1355-7718

d'Escrivan, J (2014) ‘Videogames as digital audiovisual performance’. In: xCoAx 2014 Proceedings of the Second Conference on Computation Communication Aesthetics and X Porto, Portugal. : xcoax.org. pp. 248-259. ISBN 9789897460364

d'Escrivan, J. and Adkins, M. (2014) ‘Stream-­Form and the loss of traditional virtuosity: thoughts and a method’ MONO (2). ISSN 1646-7388

Rogers, A. and Gibson, I. (2014) ‘Transient Analysis for Music and Moving Images: Consideration for Television Advertising’. In: Proceedings of the 40th International Computer Music Conference and the 11th Sound & Music Computing conference. Athens, Greece: ICMC/SMC. pp. 1226-1232.

Adkins, M. and d'Escrivan, J. (2013) ‘Geometries of Flight: Remix as Nodal Practice’. In: xCoAx 2013: a conference on Computation, Communication, Aesthetics and X, 26th - 28th June 2013, Bergamo, Italy

Adkins, M. and d'Escrivan, J. (2013) ‘Geometries of Flight: Remix as Nodal Practice’. In: International Computer Music Conference Proceedings. Ann Arbor, MI: Michigan Publishing. pp. 220-225.

Cox, G (2013) ‘Listen to Nice’ The New Soundtrack , 3 (2), pp. 89-105. ISSN 2042-8855

Rogers, A. and Gibson, I. (2013) ‘Audiovisual synchrony: Cross-modal transient structure and tempo’. In: Sixth International Conference of Students of Systematic Musicology, September 12th-14th 2013, Genoa, Italy , p. 50

d'Escrivan, J (2012) ‘Live Cinema? A composer’s thoughts about a musical new media approach to the performing of audiovisuals’ Seminário Música Ciência Tecnologia (4). ISSN 1982-9604

Rogers, A. and Gibson, I. (2012) ‘Emotional Impact of Musical/Visual Synchrony Variation in Film’. In: Proceedings of 12th International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC). Thessaloniki, Greece: ICMPC. pp. 848-852. ISBN 9789609984515

Rogers, A. and Gibson, I. (2012) ‘Audiovisual Coalescence: The Effect of Synchrony in Film Score’. In: 9th International Symposium on Computer Modeling and Retrieval, 19th-22nd June 2012, London, UK

Cox, G (2011) ‘'Connecting hearing to viewing and knowing to feeling': Sound as evocation in non-fiction film with particular reference to No Escape (Cox, 2009)’’ The Soundtrack , 4 (1), pp. 43-62. ISSN 1751-4193

Cox, G (2011) ‘Connecting hearing to viewing and knowing to feeling: Sound as evocation in non-fiction film with particular reference to No Escape’ The Soundtrack , 4 (1), pp. 43-62. ISSN 1751-4193

d'Escrivan, J (2011) Music Technology (Cambridge Introductions to Music) . Cambridge Introductions to Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521170420

d’Escriván, J. and Collins, N. (2011) ‘Musical Goals, Graphical Lure and Narrative Drive: VisualAudio in Games’ Journal of Visual Culture , 10 (2), pp. 238-246. ISSN 1470-4129

d'Escrivan, J (2011) ‘Anotaciones sobre Interactividad entre las artes del sonido y la performance audiovisual, partiendo del ‘Live Cinema’.’ En El Límite , 2 (2), pp. 89-95. ISSN 2250-6136

Wilson, S. and d'Escrivan, J. (2011) ‘Composing with SuperCollider’. In: The SuperCollider Book. USA: The MIT Press. pp. 81-104. ISBN 978-0-262-23269-2

Cox, G (2010) ‘A Return to the Future or Forward to the Past?’ Contemporary Music Review , 29 (3), pp. 251-264. ISSN 0749-4467

d’Escriván, J (2009) ‘Sound Art (?) on/in Film’ Organised Sound , 14 (1), pp. 65-73. ISSN 1355-7718

d'Escrivan, J (2007) ‘Electronic music and the moving image’. In: The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 156-170. ISBN 9780521688659

d'Escrivan, J (2007) ‘Imaginary Listening’. In: EMS07 - The ‘languages’ of electroacoustic music - Leicester, 2007, Leicester, UK

d'Escrivan, J (2006) ‘To Sing the Body Electric: Instruments and Effort in the Performance of Electronic Music’ Contemporary Music Review , 25 (1-2), pp. 183-191. ISSN 0749-4467