CreateWorld 2011 Proceedings CreateWorld11 Conference 28 November - 30 November 2011 Griffith University, Brisbane Queensland Australia Editors Michael Docherty :: Queensland University of Technology Matt Hitchcock :: Griffith University, Qld Conservatorium CreateWorld 2011 Proceedings of the CreateWorld11 Conference 20 - 30 November Griffith University, Brisbane Queensland Australia Editor Michael Docherty :: Queensland University of Technology Matt HItchcock :: Griffith University Web Content Editor Andrew Jeffrey http://www.auc.edu.au/Create+World+2011 ISBN: 978-0-947209-38-4 © Copyright 2011, Apple University Consortium Australia, and individual authors. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without the written permission of the copyright holders. CreateWorld 2011 Proceedings of the CreateWorld11 Conference 28 - 30 November, 2011 Griffith University, Brisbane Queensland Australia Contents Robert Burrell, Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University 1 Zoomusicology, Live Performance and DAW [email protected] Dean Chircop, Griffith Film School (Film and Screen Media Productions) 10 The Digital Cinematography Revolution & 35mm Sensors: Arriflex Alexa, Sony PMW-F3, Panasonic AF100, Sony HDCAM HDW-750 and the Cannon 5D DSLR. [email protected] Kim Cunio, Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University 18 ISHQ: A collaborative film and music project – art music and image as an installation, joint art as boundary crossing. [email protected]; Louise Harvey, [email protected] Helen Farley, Australian Digital Futures Institute, USQ 32 From ‘hands up’ to ‘hands on’: harnessing the kinesthetic potential of educational gaming with Adrian Stagg [email protected] Sue Gregory, UNE 40 Do virtual worlds have a role in increasing student engagement as measured by their higher academic grades? with Brent Gregory [email protected] and [email protected] Matt Hitchcock 51 Radio IMESD Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University [email protected] Aengus Martin, UTS 64 Windtraces: Accessible Sonic Art With Kirsty Beilharz [email protected] Julia Wren, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia 72 Using iPad2 to assess students’ live performances and actively engage students with tutor and peer feedback With Alistair Campbell, John Heyworth, Christine Lovering [email protected] Dr Jason Zagami 85 Dynamic EEG Mapping as artistic expression School of Education and Professional Studies, Griffith University [email protected] Editor’s Note Createworld 2011 involved the presentation of papers and performances that demonstrated the innovation underpinning, informing or evaluating the intersections between the digital world and human creativity. The papers selected for these proceedings drew upon a range of disciplines and frameworks, and were relevant to various aspects of the creative process including the development of new design concepts, methods, evaluation, and processes of engagement. The papers were reviewed and selected through a double blind peer review process. Our thanks goes to the panel of referees for their help in the onerous but rewarding task of selection of these papers, and to Andrew Jeffrey for organising the conference and the arrangement of publication in electronic form. Michael Docherty Matt Hitchcock Proceedings Editors Conference Directors Stephen Atherton, Apple Pty Ltd Michael Docherty, Queensland University of Technology Andrew Jeffrey, AUC Review Panel Michael Docherty, Queensland University of Technology Matt Hitchcock, Griffith University Phil Long, University of Queensland Cat Hope, Edith Cowan University Kate Foy, University of Southern Queensland Sue Gregory, University of New England CreateWorld11 28-30 November, 2011, Brisbane, Australia 1 Zoomusicology, Live Performance and DAW Robert Burrell, Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University Abstract: The field of practice-led research in music is diverse, encompassing creation, performance, and production. In my case, it forms part of my PhD research at Griffith University, Queensland Conservatorium of Music. This project attempts to bring together traditional notated music composition practice with electro- acoustic techniques. In this project I attempt to create an interaction between the motifs of a particular bird’s call and the responses of a live performer. Recordings collected in the field are applied through various computer programs to create a sound file against which the performer interacts in imitation and polyphony as well as in a metaphysical and abstract metamorphosis. The process contains field recordings, music transcriptions, audio manipulation and Digital Signal Processing (DSP) within a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), new music compositions and a series of works for solo performers and electronics. This project address the notions of composition across multiple media and the effect that technological workflow can have on the compositional process. This paper positions the research and responds reflectively on the progress to date. Introduction to the Research This paper documents an evolving project of practice led research where I seek to extend my repertoire of compositional techniques by acquiring inspiration from the natural world. It describes a development of styles and techniques and evaluates the composers’ response to these processes. It also describes the difficulties of documenting some of nature’s complex aural events, and the transition from western common practice notation to using Digital Signal Processing (DSP) within a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Then the challenge of writing music in notation that is to be performed (from the notation) to a live audio recording that is crafted to interact with the live performer and visa versa. My main focus is that of birdsong, and in this project I focus on the Pied Butcherbird. Photo courtesy (Unknown, 2011) In much of Australia the Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus Nigrogularis) is known for a distinctive ‘beautiful, flute like song’ (Day,1993). It is one of the three Australian birds included in the National Audubon Society and Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s record Beautiful Bird Songs of the World (Pollock, 1979). Sometimes this species will sing in duet or antiphony with others, one bird’s call being complimented and added to by another, often without a break or even overlapping, resulting in harmonies and counterpoints. Andrew Skeoch has written CreateWorld11 28-30 November, 2011, Brisbane, Australia 2 in his ‘Listening Earth’ blog, “Pied Butcherbirds have the most sublime song; a series of fluted musical tones, woven into a repertoire of short melodic phrases that are often sung in duet” (Skeoch, 2008). I am using birdsong as a stimulus to extend myself; to create new works, which are greater in technical scope (than my previous works), and that exhibit a more advanced style. To introduce a ‘left of field’ component into my craft in the hope that I may find a new ‘voice’ that is concordant with my evolving philosophical comprehension. I began by recording birdsong and transcribing it into western common practice notation, analyzing the recordings for their motivic, harmonic, rhythmical and structural elements as well as any implied or apparent compositional devices such as motivic development, ornamentation, and repetition with variation. I then selected motifs, rhythms and compositional devices for reinterpretation, which were then realized as notated works. In this process I have created a number of multiple movement works for woodwind and brass quintets, percussion ensembles and string orchestra. Example 1. A copy of the transcription of various birdcalls collected at Diamantina Lakes National Park, far western Queensland, Australia. These transcriptions were used in the work for WW Quintet. Example 2. A copy of an excerpt from the score for Woodwind Quintet which incorporates the motifs notated in example 1. CreateWorld11 28-30 November, 2011, Brisbane, Australia 3 This work can be heard at http://www.robertburrell.com.au and also at http://www.soundcloud.com/robertburrell/tracks?page=2 The results have been gratifying; the melodic material in the birdsong has created music with depth and implied form with the impression of going beyond anything that I have previously composed. However, in my desire to explore the possibilities of birdsong in composition, I am also endeavoring to combine the recordings made in the field with traditional compositional techniques and methods that come from working in common practice notation. This project will result in the creation of a mix of electronic and acoustic live performance works, with the electronic component being derived from Digital Signal Processing (DSP) within a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Auto-Ethnography, the Self and Research In the paper Music, Recording and the Art of Interpretation, Professor Paul Draper and Dr Stephen Emmerson report that: “the Queensland Conservatorium Research Centre (QCRC)hosts a number of research areas and corresponding academic clusters. Perhaps the most ephemeral and misunderstood of these is the Artistic Practice as Research theme, its somewhat contentious nature residing in the use of the adverb ‘as’. (Paul, 2008) This methodology has been selected as the primary mode of exploration for this project. It allows the work of art, the music itself to occupy a central point in the research, with the associated new knowledge that comes from the project subject to interpretation