Future of Engineering
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Mapping out the Future of Sound and Music Computing
A European consortium has drafted a roadmap for the future of sound and music computing (SMC), which provides the core technologies for the burgeoning electronic music industry
Drawing on inspiration from hard sciences like physics and engineering, social sciences like psychology and musicology, and the creative arts, digital musical instruments, CDs, MP3s and other innovative ICTs owe a great debt to SMC.
According to Nicola Bernardini, who coordinated the two-year IST-funded project, SMC research is behind the music industry as we know it today. With the appropriate guidance - the ambition of the S2S² roadmap - Europe could be in a position to secure leadership in this field.
Commercial music today is largely produced using computing and technology as a 'surrogate' for the real thing because using real instruments, learning to play them – or paying someone else to play them – can be expensive and time-consuming.
But this is a rather narrow view of the sector, said Bernardini. "With our roadmap, we wanted to show what SMC can be (and has already been) in research terms. [Music is] not only an economic lever but good for social cohesion."
Five key challenges have been identified:
1. Design better sound objects and environments (improving the sounds produced by objects present in our environment to enhance their emotional character).
2. Understand, model and improve human interaction with sound and music.
3. Train multidisciplinary researchers in a multicultural society.
4. Improve knowledge transfer.
5. Address social concerns.
More from here
Drawing on inspiration from hard sciences like physics and engineering, social sciences like psychology and musicology, and the creative arts, digital musical instruments, CDs, MP3s and other innovative ICTs owe a great debt to SMC.
According to Nicola Bernardini, who coordinated the two-year IST-funded project, SMC research is behind the music industry as we know it today. With the appropriate guidance - the ambition of the S2S² roadmap - Europe could be in a position to secure leadership in this field.
Commercial music today is largely produced using computing and technology as a 'surrogate' for the real thing because using real instruments, learning to play them – or paying someone else to play them – can be expensive and time-consuming.
But this is a rather narrow view of the sector, said Bernardini. "With our roadmap, we wanted to show what SMC can be (and has already been) in research terms. [Music is] not only an economic lever but good for social cohesion."
Five key challenges have been identified:
1. Design better sound objects and environments (improving the sounds produced by objects present in our environment to enhance their emotional character).
2. Understand, model and improve human interaction with sound and music.
3. Train multidisciplinary researchers in a multicultural society.
4. Improve knowledge transfer.
5. Address social concerns.
More from here
Labels: Computer-Science, Design-Engineering
PermaLink - Mapping out the Future of Sound and Music Computing posted by Ecacofonix : 10:44 PM
