Sound Matters: a framework for the creative use and re-use of sound: field recordings and speech

Research data spring

Sound Matters: a framework for the creative use and re-use of sound: field recordings and speech

14/7/2015

Research data spring

Sound Matters: a framework for the creative use and re-use of sound: field recordings and speech

14/7/2015

Aim To create a framework for the use and re-use of sound that facilitates the interrogation and relational playback of non-musical sound material specifically field recordings and speech

Objectives

• To create an interdisciplinary Community of Users of the framework

• To create a Listening-Led software Environment that offers interfaces and tools that links the processes of the framework

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Sound Matters: a framework for the creative use and re-use of sound - Field Recordings and Speech 3

Team

» Who have you worked with?

• Main team: Ximena Alarcón (PI), Cathy Lane (Co-I) and Lisa Hall (Administrator and Communications Officer)

• 20 interdisciplinary Researchers/Artists working with field recordings, speech and archives: Goldsmiths, Exeter U, Queens University Belfast (SARC), Manchester Metropolitan Univesity, Manchester University, Australia, India, UAL, Surrey, Hackney Archive, The Traveling Archive , CRiSAP researchers + PhD students

• Presenters Co-design Workshop: Ron Herrema (Artist and developer) , Andrea Zarza (British Library) , Chris Baume (BBC/U. Surrey Showcase)

• Film maker: Sally Hossack

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Team

» Who got involved over the past 3 months?

• Technical Developers, Researchers from Computing Science, Music, from Universities (Surrey, Goldsmiths, University Pompeu Fabra, Queen Mary University of London, U of Sheffield)

• British Library (‘Save our Sounds’ and ‘Unlocking the Speech Archive’ projects)

• Wider Internet community (Twitter, facebook, blog, Mural.ly), from Australia, US, Netherlands.

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Team

» Who volunteered to help?

Phase 1

• 20 interdisciplinary artits/researchers, archivists, technical developers and the wider internet community.

• About eight Artists and Researchers offered collaboration as a result of the online dissemination.

Phase 2

• Researchers from Organisations: Bergen Center for Electronic Arts – BEK– Norway , Center for Digital Archeology – US, University Pompeu Fabra - Spain

• Researchers from Universities (Possible support from Goldsmiths,Glasgow College of Art (CLIPPER), QMUL)

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Valuation

» What makes your project amazing (gap filled) & useful (benefits) for the sector?

• It is unique as it is based on the critical and practical perspective of researchers and artists working with field recordings and speech. In this respect, the focus is not on data mining, but on the purpose of creative search as a discovery and learning about history and cultural memory.

• The supporting technologies seen as a solution have been built with community based frameworks and are sustainable: freesound API, Mukurtu UMS, Jamoma framework

• The output will be free, modular and adaptable.

• Back end friendly, and possible outputs which can be digital (web, desktop, mobile apps) and physical (installation, objects).

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Valuation» If it becomes a proper national/shared solution, why you think

people will love it and commit to applying it?

• It is filling a gap that connects creative processes with software solutions enabling the creatives to interrogate their material and develop relational playback in ways that have been unaccessible or too specialised.

• Researchers/artists will have the opportunity to offer a creative listening experience for multiple audiences in many ways, creating new narratives that stimulate new perspectives of history and cultural memory.

• It will enable researchers to develop new combinations of their material using meta-data, and parameters for playback specific to field recordings and speech.

• It is an stimulus for institutional archives to open and to find creative ways of accessing their own material in the future.

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Valuation

» What are your plans for sustainability?

• All the software we are using is Open Source, github based (freesound API, Essentia RT, Mukurtu) , and the chosen structuring software (Jamoma) uses a modular structure that can grow and create opportunities for more developments, and rendering into different interfaces for the whole community of researchers.

• The activation of a community of supporters of the project, makes it sustainable too.

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Progress

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Progress

» What have you achieved in the first phase?

• The establishment of a community of researchers supporting the framework: both humanities based and technology based

• Clarifying the context of research, regarding: input, personal and public archives, interrogation, relational playback, outputs.

• Technical Understanding for the most advanced software for Sound Interrogation and Relational Playback

• Gaining conclusions about needs and creative ideas from the community in order to create a suitable prototype.

• National Acknowledgement: Expression of Interest by the British Library, and contributing Universities.

• International Acknowledgement through:

Scholarly Dissemination: Paper accepted for NYU Conference ‘Sound, Images and Data’ 2015

International Partners for the second stage: BEK, UPF, Center for Digital Archeology

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Second phase - Prototyping

» Objectives

• To create the specifications of the listening-led software environment (community based: researchers + developers)

• To create a prototype of the listening –led environment that links Relational Playback – Archives and Interrogation Tools, by adapting and cponnecting existing Open Source software.

• This will be routed into different digital and physical interfaces, for Third Phase

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Second phase- Prototyping

» Milestones

• An online written survey with the Sound Matters community, that summarises our findings of the conceptual, methodological and technological framework.

• A two days co-design workshop involving Sound Matters community and Jamoma developers, in writing specifications for relational playback and interrogation of field recordings and speech, needed to prototype the listening-led environment.

• A prototype development according to specifications.

• Continue activation of community by publishing in the blog 10 more stories; opening another virtual board to follow the development of the prototype; activating JISC mail list for the community.

• Deliver and Publish paper about Sound Matters

• Informational Workshop at the British Library

• Attendance Europeanna Sounds Conference 2015

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» Deliverables

• Prototype:

Survey Results

Technical Framework

Specifications for Prototype

Working Prototype

• Dissemination and Community:

Informative Workshop at the British Library in collaboration with Luke McKernan

Academic Paper

Video showing process Stage 2

10 additional stories from the community on the blog and Sound Matters JISC list

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» What success would be like?

• Community: An active online community and grassroots specifications for prototype

• Prototype: Working prototype that links technically the different components for Relational Playback and Search and Retrieval

• Future collaborators: Feedback from British Library, CLiPPER and other possible International collaborators for options for opening their own archives in the future.

• Acknowledgements:

International academic community for Academic Paper

Community Freesound,Essentia, Mukurtu and Jamoma

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Funding

»fEC Total: £37.088

»JISC 75%: £27.816

»UAL 25%: £9.272

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Not for the pitch, but please fill in

»Contact person: Ximena Alarcón

»Social media presence: http://soundmattersframework.wordpress.com#soundmatters @CRiSAP2 @ximesonic

http://soundmattersframework.wordpress.com/

Sound Matters: a framework for the creative use and re-use of sound: field recordings and speech

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