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Interactive Music Systems (W3081)

15 credits, Level 5

Autumn teaching

You will explore the use of interactivity in performance contexts with strong technological components. The topics of live electronics, hyper-instruments, sound art installations, audiovisual performance systems and multi-channel spatial sound will be covered through practical exercises and projects. The relationship between acoustic instruments and live electronics, as practiced over the past decades, will be studied together with 20th century notation practices. The concepts of embodiment, improvisation and collaboration in performance contexts are explored through theoretical and practical seminars and workshops.

The module includes a hardware-building component using the popular Arduino technology amongst others. You will learn the basics of electronics together with soldering and hardware hacking. You will create an instrument or an interactive live electronics system for musical expression, focussing on the performance element of electronic music.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 20 hours of contact time and about 130 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.