Research At SARC

The multidisciplinary work at SARC evolves and expands as collaborations develop and with variations in our research community.

PhD Thesis

Click here to see our PhD Thesis Abstracts

Audio Engineering Seminars

A new series of Audio Engineering Seminars has commenced in 2018. The seminars, which will normally be held at SARC and are linked to the new cross-school BSc in Audio Engineering, are aimed at bringing together people at QUB and from the local industry & wider community interested in audio and related topics.

View the latest seminars

Research Projects

The Crunch Test
SARC_Immerse
Sounding Conflict
Humanising Algorithmic Listening
The Mozambique Case Study
NI Hospice Sound Gardens
Sounds of the City - Engaging Communities in Sonic Arts
Performance Without Barriers
‌Belfast Sound Map
Recomposing the City
Distributed Listening
The Soundscape Park Project
Translating Improvisation
Street Society: Innovative and Imaginative Approaches to Activate Specific Sites in Belfast

Research Project

The Crunch Test

The influence of sound on our food experience is still an under studied phenomenon. While we easily relate smell to taste or vision to touch when we are selecting or eating certain foods, sound plays a subtler role but one which can have significant influence of perceptions of freshness as previous research has shown. This study aims to explore the impact of first bite sound on crunchy and crispy foods. Throughout a series of questions and playback of sound recordings of first bite for six different foods we aim to collate data to help us understand how sound affects our food experience. What do we mean when we say crunchy or crispy? Does sound play a role in our selection between natural and ultra-processed foods? Can you guess what sound a certain food makes? We invite you to participate in this research project and help us answer these questions so we can all learn how to listen to our food better!

The Crunch Test is a pilot research project at Queen’s University Belfast aiming to gather data on the relationship between sound and food based on first bite experience.

Participate in the online survey (estimated duration: 15 minutes)
https://acsurvey.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bgfLndQH3AkflAN

Staff involved:

Professor Pedro Rebelo (Sonic Arts Research Centre)

Professor Moira Dean (Institute for Global Food Security)

Dr Michelle Spence (Institute for Global Food Security)

Research Project

SARC_Immerse

SARC_Immerse is a research group dedicated to the development, creation and dissemination of ‘immersive experiences’ using virtual, mixed and augmented reality technologies.

Two major recent investments have positioned SARC_Immerse at the centre of immersive technology research in Northern Ireland:

1) A Central Research Infrastructure Fund of £100k by Queen’s University Belfast, and

2) the £13 million investment by the AHRC, with co-funding from the industry sector, to secure the future of the creative industries in NI. This ‘Future Screens NI’ bid is the largest single investment in the creative industries in NI: https://goo.gl/vUiPV8.

People working as part of SARC_Immerse are:

Prof Michael Alcorn
Dr Trevor Agus
Mr Christopher Corrigan
Dr John D'Arcy
Dr Declan Keeney
Mr Michael McKnight
Dr Matilde Meireles
Dr Miguel Ortiz
Prof Pedro Rebelo
Dr Koichi Samuels
Dr Franziska Schroeder
Prof Paul Stapleton
Dr Maarten Van Walstijn
Dr Simon Waters
Dr Kurt Werner

Technical:
Craig Jackson
David Bird

Research Project

Sounding Conflict

FROM RESISTANCE TO RECONCILIATION

This project investigates the effects of sound (including sonic arts, participatory music-making and storytelling in theatre) and their distribution through digital media activities. We are analysing how sounds project and ameliorate community experiences, memories and narratives of conflict across cultures and different conflict/post-conflict settings of resistance through to reconciliation.

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Research Project

Humanising Algorithmic Listening

Humanising Algorithmic Listening is an AHRC funded network which brings together experts with an interest in the applications and implications of machine listening from diverse disciplines including oral history, sensory ethnography, archive services, computer science, philosophy and music technology. The principle aim is to develop a critical and methodological agenda for the design, development and application of computational methods for audio analysis - listening algorithms - in the future.

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Research Project

The Mozambique Case Study - Understanding the Role of Music and Sound in Conflict Transformation

Music making is known to have benefits for social cohesion. As a social practice, music depends on personal interaction, dialogue, agreement on conventions and trust. Previous work on music and conflict has illuminated the different roles that music and sound play in conflict situations (from exacerbating conflict to mitigating it). Moreover, recent scholarship has highlighted the transformative power of music, demonstrating how music making activities could have a direct and positive impact on conflict resolution, peacebuilding and reconciliation by non-violent means.

This research project aims at contributing to these ongoing debates by exploring the possibilities of music and sound in conflict transformation in Mozambique through a participatory case study rooted in sonic art methodologies.

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Research Project

NI HOSPICE SOUND GARDENS

The Sonic Arts Research Centre has been commissioned to install and develop content for three sound gardens for the re-built Northern Ireland Hospice building on Somerton Road, Belfast.

The project will help contribute to create a calm, yet uplifting atmosphere, engage patients and visitors through changing sound environments and create sensory garden spaces through soundscapes.

Director of Research, Professor Pedro Rebelo and SARC Technical Coordinator, Mr Craig Jackson will lead the project which began in August 2015 and will continue into the beginning of 2016 when building work is due for completion.

The audio in each of the three spaces will have different design treatments to reflect their architecture and use. The development of sonic materials will be based on a participative process with current patients and staff. This will allow us to make use of sound in a reflective manner, triggering sonic memories or transporting listeners to another place. For example the seaside, or birdcalls at dawn.

Multiple loudspeakers will be located in each of the gardens, carefully located to immerse each of the spaces in an ambient cloud of sound. This might include loudspeakers hidden in planting or positioned at at height.

Undergraduate and PhD students at SARC will be contributing to the creation of the sound environments. They will also be undertaking research into the appropriate use of different soundscapes in this type of setting by performing several workshops with patients and staff.

This project has developed from another SARC installation, The Soundscape Park Project. A permanent sound installation in Bridge Community Garden, East Belfast (www.soundscapepark.org). It is anticipated that SARC will continue to feed into these sonic garden installations and continue to develop new and immersive sounds to make pleasurable outdoor environments.

For more information about either project please contact either Prof Pedro Rebelo p.rebelo@qub.ac.uk or Craig Jackson c.jackson@qub.ac.uk

Research Project

SOUNDS OF THE CITY - ENGAGING COMMUNITIES IN SONIC ARTS

This case study, led by Pedro Rebelo, demonstrates how new approaches to collaborative sonic arts lead to increased awareness of the role of sound and its relationship to place in everyday life.

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Research Project

PERFORMANCE WITHOUT BARRIERS

In 2015, the first collaboration between SARC and DMNI aimed to enable musicians with physical disabilities and learning difficulties to independently compose and perform their own music through custom-built music technology devices. The event was held under the theme “Designing Inclusive Interactions” and brought together student interaction designers with disabled musicians to collaboratively design accessible musical interfaces and perform improvised music with them in an inclusive ensemble performance.

SARC put together an exciting programme in 2016 to continue their collaboration with DMNI under the theme “Performance without Barriers”. The programme involved a 6-month long collaborative design project, which started with a design event at SARC (7th - 9th June 2016). Five interaction designers worked with pupils from local special educational needs schools and brain injury rehabilitation charity to collaboratively design customised accessible musical interfaces. Two subsequent phases of this project involved going to the participants to show them progress of the designs and gather feedback. The project ended on November 27th with a showcase performance at The Sonic Lab, SARC. Alongside the design project, an international networking meeting for partners working in the area of inclusive music making, digital design, disability and well-being also took place on 10th June 2016.

This collaboration has impacted positively on the quality of life of disabled musicians across Northern Ireland. Participants’ composition and performance skills are enhanced by using accessible musical interfaces through a collaborative design process that matches physical and cognitive abilities to an appropriate gestural interface. Designers and musicians alike are given the opportunity to express their creativity on equal terms as collaborating improviser musicians.

Performance without Barriers 2016 design project culminated in a public performance at Ireland’s longest running contemporary music festival, the Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music.

Further information

Research Project

‌BELFAST SOUND MAP

The Belfast Sound Map is an open resource that aims at engaging local communities in capturing everyday sound and hence characterise the soundscape of the city. We encourage not only the submission of sound recordings, but also other forms of experiencing and registering sound, such as text or image. The overall design of this platform facilitates this multiplicity of approaches, while also allowing participants to create their own projects. These are presented as separate, individual layers of recordings within the map.

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Research Project

RECOMPOSING THE CITY

Recomposing the City is a collaborative research group. Our mission is to bring together artists, architects, planners and others in investigating the relationship of sound to urban space. We explore various questions on urban sound through seminars, events, publications, and design projects. Our ultimate aim is to support new design and development projects, and to improve the understanding of sound within architecture studies and architectural practice.

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Research Project

DISTRIBUTED LISTENING

Two theatre companies identified a specific need of engaging young people in listening and in discovering the role of sound in everyday life. The proposal was developed according to those needs and brings a research component (distributed listening) into a portable form in the shape of a newly custom-designed app for mobile devices.

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Research Project

THE SOUNDSCAPE PARK PROJECT

EXPERIENCE ANOTHER WORLD IN THE HEART OF BELFAST

The Soundscape Park Project is a permanent sound installation located in a community garden in East Belfast. Speakers hidden all around the garden are constantly projecting different soundscapes throughout the day. Integrated technology allow visitors to interact with the sounds using motion detection and their smart phones.

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More Research Projects