MASSmcr

16/04/2024

MASSmcr is proud to present A FREE screening at School of Digital Arts - SODA & after film discussion with Caro C, an electronic music artist and UK researcher for the documentary, focusing on Daphne Oram and Delia Derbyshire.

21 May 2024. Ground floor cinema space, SODA, MMU. ALL Welcome.

Book tickets to secure your place. https://bit.ly/mmuswt
Come along a little earlier to grab some snacks and drinks and get ready for the film. Event will be over by 6:30pm at the latest.

This screening is kindly co-sponsored by the Contemporary Intimacies, Sexualities and Genders, & the Manchester Centre for Public Histories + Heritage research groups

Q&A with docu researcher CaroC

08/04/2024

Congratulations to the Fluff team for getting funding from Factory International

Get to know the next brilliant cohort of Factory Sounds musicians who will be developing their skills in 2024.

04/04/2024

Hello, we've been away a long long time, but we're back!

17/05/2022

Don't forget our webinar this Thursday (May 19th at 13:00 GMT) on music, sound, videogames and the Legend of Zelda with Philip Kirby. Link below for tickets:

When musical and digital geographies meet. Instrumental music and the spatiality of musical style, structure and form in Legend of Zelda.

13/05/2022

Our next webinar in our series on 'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces' is on Thursday 19th of May at 13:00 (GMT). We welcome Philip Kirby to discuss musical and digital geographies in the Legend of Zelda!

Everyone is welcome and it's completely FREE!

Register for tickets here: https://t.co/CjHBuprHVb

About the webinar:

When musical and digital geographies meet. Instrumental music and the spatiality of musical style, structure and form in Legend of Zelda.

Abstract: Digital geographies and musical geographies are proliferating. This talk considers a topic at the intersection of both: videogame music. It argues that, through attention to such music, geographical approaches to videogames, and to music, can be expanded. Specifically, it argues that instrumental score, increasingly employed in major videogame franchises, should be subject to greater focus. Close analysis of instrumental score offers new ways of understanding the spatiality of musical style, structure and form. This talk illustrates the potential of greater geographical engagement with instrumental music through the case study of the Legend of Zelda: one of the most popular videogame franchises.

Philip Kirby is lecturer in social science at the School of Education, Communication and Society, King’s College London. His research considers the politics and construction of identity, both in practice and in popular culture. It has two main themes: 1) social and historical understandings of specific learning difficulties; 2) geopolitical perspectives on disability, gender and nationality in popular culture.

When musical and digital geographies meet. Instrumental music and the spatiality of musical style, structure and form in Legend of Zelda.

26/04/2022

MASSmcr is delighted to welcome Dr Nick Redfern to our online lecture series. Nick will discuss the computational analysis of horror film audio.
Thu, 28 April 2022
13:00 – 14:30 BST
https://filmaudio_redfern.eventbrite.co.uk

Our next webinar is with Dr Nick Redfern on 28th April entitled 'Computational analysis of film audio' (13.00-14.30). Ticket and Eventbrite details to follow, but save the date!

08/04/2022

Our next webinar is with Dr Nick Redfern on 28th April entitled 'Computational analysis of film audio' (13.00-14.30). Ticket and Eventbrite details to follow, but save the date!

09/03/2022

'Pivot to Digital in Music Festivals' by Aileen Dillane

Unfortunately the webinar scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled due to illness. We will sort out a new date as soon as possible.

Apologies for the inconvenience.

15/02/2022

ANNOUCEMENT

Hi everyone. We have decided to reschedule the online lecture 'Pivot to Digital in Music Festivals' by Aileen Dillane due to take place 17th February, to the 10th of March at 13:00.

All concerned wish to respect the digital picket in support of colleagues engaged in pensions related industrial action.

Your tickets remain valid and we hope that you can join us for this new date. If you haven't got your free tickets yet, they can be booked here:
https://irishmusicfestsgodigital.eventbrite.co.uk

Ireland shut down live music. The effects of Covid-19 & the pivot to digital for music festival ethnography and 'in-place' sonic experiences

09/02/2022

The next session in our webinar series on 'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces', is on Thursday 17th February at 13:00 (GMT). Everyone is welcome and it's completely FREE!

Register for tickets here: https://irishmusicfestsgodigital.eventbrite.co.uk

For this webinar we welcome Dr Aileen Dillane, an Ethnomusicologist and Senior Lecturer in Music at the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick. The title of her webinar is 'The Pivot to Digital in Music Festival Offerings and Ethnographic Research: ​Reflections from FestiVersities Irish Case Studies (2020-21)

Abstract:
Music experienced at festivals relies on a variety of multi-modal experiences from the material and sonic to the social and sensual. Being ‘in-place’, both as a festival-goer and ethnographer, is an essential part of the experience. During the Covid19 pandemic in Ireland, strict lockdown protocols and the closing down of the live music industry and related music activities (including amateur music making), severely affected music festival provision in 2020 and 2021. Drawing on Turino’s concept of music as social life (2008) and Caraha’s work on digital intimacies (2018), this presentation explores three Irish case studies from the European FestiVersities project on music festivals, public spaces and cultural diversity. I examine how the pivot to digital, and to various online platforms, resulted in quite different approaches to music provision by music festivals teams for Temple Bar Tradfest, Body and Soul, and Cork International Choral Festival. The degree to which each festival responded to the situation is understood not just in relation to genre, but also to funding, and sense of mission and value, something that the lockdown brought to the surface in heightened ways. The presentation will also address challenges faced in doing ethnography of this nature during the pandemic, online and at a social distance.

'See' you there!

Ireland shut down live music. The effects of Covid-19 & the pivot to digital for music festival ethnography and 'in-place' sonic experiences

17/01/2022

Next in our webinar series, 'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces', is this Thursday 20th January at 16:00 (GMT). All welcome! And it's FREE!

This week we welcome Femke Vandenberg (a PhD Candidate and lecturer at the Department of Arts and Culture Studies at Erasmus University, Rotterdam) who will be speaking to the title 'Livestreams and the collective potential of digitalized concerts.'

Get your tickets here: https://onlineravers.eventbrite.co.uk/

Abstract:
The social morphological composition of concerts as densely populated sites of engaged individuals makes them an excellent example of what Randall Collins has called large scale interaction rituals . When successful, concerts can foster moments of rhythmic entrainment where, through collective behaviour (such as dancing, singing, or clapping) and a shared excitement, the audience can reach a state of collective effervescence a mutual experience of heightened enthusiasm. The transition of live music to the virtual sphere saw an immense acceleration due to COVID 19 lockdown measures, with livestreams proving a popular means for artists to continue performing for their fans. This lecture will discuss the online social practices and behaviour of livestreamed concert audiences using Randall Collins Ritual theory to investigate their potential in generating a successful large scale interaction ritual. Two cases will be presented. The first compares the audience behaviour at livestreamed electronic, classical and folk music concerts on Facebook Live, and the second discusses the success and intensity of (collective and interpersonal) audience interaction on live music streams on Twitch.

Biography:
As a cultural sociologist Femke's research interests include in the role popular music has in society with a particular focus on the experience of live (digitally mediated) music.

Social practices and rituals during COVID-19. Can digital music events recreate community and solidarity or is the raver dancing alone?

15/12/2021

Don't forget the third in our webinar series, 'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces', is tomorrow Thursday 16th December at 14:00 (GMT). It's free and all are welcome!

For this webinar we welcome Markus Hetheier (PhD Student at Manchester Metropolitan University) who will be speaking to the title 'Voicing Manchester’s streets through soundmaps and psychogeography.'

Book your tickets here:
https://bit.ly/3EPy6za

Hetheier introduces a digital soundmapping project exploring the relationship between the self and Manchester's cityscapes.

10/12/2021

The third in our webinar series, 'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces', is next Thursday 16th December at 14:00 (GMT). All welcome!

For this webinar we welcome Markus Hetheier (PhD Student at Manchester Metropolitan University) who will be speaking to the title 'Voicing Manchester’s streets through soundmaps and psychogeography'

Book your tickets here:

https://bit.ly/3EPy6za

Abstract:
Countersilence is a sound and media project which aims to express the relationship between the self and the city through a digital soundmap informed by psychogeography. The research questions asked are:

- How can soundmaps be used as creative digital medium to map personal narratives of the city?
- How can psychogeography be used as artistic strategy to express one’s relationship with the city?

The project is based on 'practice as research' as the act of listening and understanding the relationship to place in an embodied subjective process. I will assemble a creative toolkit that will combine soundwalks, field recordings and electronic music as sonic practices, digital soundmaps as creative medium and psychogeography as artistic strategy. This creative toolkit will be tested and qualitatively evaluated through my reflective practice to critically examine how soundmaps and psychogeography can be used as creative tools to express the relationship between the self and the city.

Biography:

Markus Hetheier is an electronic music producer, sound artist and doctoral researcher. When wearing his electronic music hat, he is performing under his stage name Industries that links the post-industrial past of his German hometown to Manchester. Here, he started producing and releasing his electronic music following his studies at the School of Electronic Music in 2018. His music explores and subverts musical structures and ranges from field recordings, distorted sounds to harmonic melodies and large beats. As a sound artist he has an interest in soundwalks and field recordings and collaborates across disciplines and media. His sound work ranges from sound art, audio-visual collaborations to workshops and podcasts. He recently started his practice-led PhD at the Manchester Metropolitan University where he is working on a sound and media project which will explore the relationship between the self and Manchester through soundmaps and psychogeography.

Hetheier introduces a digital soundmapping project exploring the relationship between the self and Manchester's cityscapes.

16/11/2021

15/11/2021

The second in our webinar series, 'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces', is this Thursday 18th at 13:00 (GMT). It's free and everyone is welcome! Link below to register for tickets and to be sent the Zoom link.

This week we welcome Orlando Woods (Singapore Management University) who will be speaking on 'Entrepreneurial Artistry in a Digital Age: Grime's Three Pathways to Power'.

Orlando will examine how grime shifted from being an underground movement to a wide-ranging cultural movement of entrepreneurial artistry in a digital age.

Join us!

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/entrepreneurial-artistry-in-a-digital-age-grimes-three-pathways-to-power-tickets-209889905357?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

How grime shifted from being an underground movement to a wide-ranging cultural movement of entrepreneurial artistry in a digital age.

10/11/2021

This looks really interesting as we've had a few conversations about DIY electronics.

Wire your own musical instruments

28/10/2021

Don't forget that today at 13:00 (online) we have the first seminar in our series on 'Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era'.

Today Dr Shara Rambarran offers insight on her new, and very timely book Virtual Music: Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era (Bloomsbury, 2021) by explaining how music (along with sound and image) shapes virtuality through digital technology, and interactive relationship with its users.

Book your place here: http://massmanchester.eventbrite.com

Music and Sonic Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, are a group of multidisciplinary researchers exploring the musical beats and sonic streets of Manchester and beyond. Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces. Lecture series 2021-2022.Join us as we explore the music, sound and sonic s...

22/10/2021

ANNOUNCEMENT

We are proud to present our public lecture series for 2021-22!

'Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces.'

Join us as we explore the music, sound and sonic spaces of digital worlds. Drawing on debates from sociology, media studies, sound studies, gaming, film, literature and music, we investigate the role of music and sound in the digital era. We discuss the intersections between embodied and virtual experiences, activism and participation, production and consumption, and individual and collective experiences of sound and music that contribute to virtual world-making.

Our series begins on Thursday 28th of October at 1 pm (online) with Dr Shara Rambarran (musicologist and lecturer in Music Business and Media at the University of Brighton) discussing topics from her latest book Virtual Music. Sound, Music, and Image in the Digital Era.

Lectures are free to attend and everyone is welcome. You will be sent the relevant Zoom link on registering for a ticket. You can register here:

http://massmanchester.eventbrite.com

The series continues on the third Thursday of each month until May 2022:

Nov 18: Orlando Woods. Entrepreneurial artistry in a digital age, Grime’s pathways to power.
Dec 16: Markus Hetheier. Voicing Manchester’s streets through sounds, self and the city.
Jan 20: Femke Vandenberg. The lonely raver, COVID-19 and online communities.
Feb 17: Aileen Dillane. Pivot to digital in music festivals, reflections from FestiVersities Ireland
Mar 24: Leslie McMurtry. Digital horror and gothic story-telling in podcasts
Apr 28: Nick Redfern, Computational methods for sound analysis in cinema
May 19: Philip Kirby. Musical orientation in virtual space: Style and topic in the Legend of Zelda.

Music and Sonic Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, are a group of multidisciplinary researchers exploring the musical beats and sonic streets of Manchester and beyond. Digital Worlds: Music, Sound and Sonic Spaces. Lecture series 2021-2022.Join us as we explore the music, sound and sonic s...

04/10/2021

This sounds like a fascinating webinar on issues of inclusion, diversity and authorship in field recordings.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/new-directions-in-field-recording-pluralising-the-field-tickets-184213998027

Addressing issues of inclusion, diversity and authorship, Isobel Anderson and Tullis Rennie discuss new directions in field recording.