Pedro Rebelo, Sonic Arts at the Sonic Arts Research Centre, Queen’s University Belfast 

Data sonification maps statistical figures to sound and is used to explore data patterns through time. This project uses data from the World Health Organization Situation Reports in which global figures are presented for population infected with Covid 19 and new deaths related to the virus by day between the 21st January 2020 and the 25th March 2020.

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VRACE is a €4M project funded through the prestigious Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) programme. It will establish a 48 months multidisciplinary training and research programme running focusing on the analysis, modelling and rendering of dynamic three-dimensional soundscapes for applications in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR), delivered by nine cooperating European Universities and their industrial partners.  A total of 15 Early Stage Researchers will be contracted for 36 months to conduct research at the various partner institutions.

A collaborative research project initiated by Dr Zeynep Bulut, Map a Voice explores sonic and social interactions between voice and environment. Some questions include how voice connects to a place, and if forms of speech, as well as what speaks, are not limited to mediums for verbal language or normative limits of hearing, in what other forms a voice can speak with an environment. The project includes series of interactive workshops. Workshops are open to general public.

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!  

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

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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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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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.

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. 

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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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. 

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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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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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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