Reflecting on 2024
The date of this blog post, which was supposed to be published at the end of last year, tells already how busy it has been! It feels like time passes exponentially.
Following my previous reflections on 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, in this blog post, I reflect on how this year has been in terms of key activities and outputs, as well as discuss my intentions for 2025.
Research
This year, my research work has mostly focused on transferring the AHRC Sensing the Forest from De Montfort University to Queen Mary University of London and on executing the work packages with the project team, which has taken most of my research time.
There has been also time for writing. This year, I have been involved in two journal articles, a conference paper, an abstract in proceedings, and a workshop position paper:
- Xambó, A., Roma, G. (2024) “Human-machine agencies in live coding for music performance”. Journal of New Music Research, 1–14 (Open Access).
- Jawad, K., Xambó, A. (2024) “Feminist HCI and narratives of design semantics in DIY music hardware”. Frontiers in Communication. 8:1345124 (Open Access).
- Zheng, S., Del Sette, B.M., Saitis, C., Xambó, A., Bryan-Kinns, N. (2024) “Building Sketch-to-Sound Mapping with Unsupervised Feature Extraction and Interactive Machine Learning”. In Proceedings of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME 24). Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- Marino, L., Xambó, A. (2024) Developing DIY Solar-Powered, Off-Grid Audio Streamers for Forest Soundscapes: Progress and Challenges. In Proceedings of the CHIME Annual One-day Music and HCI Conference 2024. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
- Zheng, S., Xambó, A., Bryan-Kinns, N. (2024) “A Mapping Strategy for Interacting with Latent Audio Synthesis Using Artistic Materials”. 2nd international workshop on eXplainable AI for the Arts (XAIxArts) at the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference.
Teaching
This year I have contributed to the following two modules while also doing the Postgraduate Certificate Academic Practice (PGCAP) to improve my teaching style (2024-ongoing):
- ECS742P Interactive Digital Multimedia Techniques (Autumn 2024)
- ECS637U/ECS757P Digital Media and Social Networks (Spring 2024)
On 3 September 2024, I gave the invited tutorial Design strategies and techniques to better support collaborative, egalitarian and sustainable musical interfaces at the DAFx24 conference, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK.
Music
As part of the Interactive Digital Multimedia Techniques (IDMT), we organised a concert at the end of the module featuring the instruments built by the students during the module.
Community
WHEN
Together with Katja Ivanova, on March 15, 2024, we launched the EECS Women in Higher Education Network (WHEN). During the year, we have organised a series of meetups and social events.
Invited talks
In 2024, I have been invited to give the following talks:
- (April 24, 2024). "In the search for sound-based music using MIRLCa, a SuperCollider extension for live coding a coral of sounds". NOTAM SuperCollider Meetup with James Harkins and Anna Xambó. Online.
- (March 13, 2024). Seminar talk "Collaborative, Participatory and Practice-based Research Methods for Sound and Music Computing". CogSci seminar. Queen Mary University of London. London, UK.
- (February 22, 2024). Seminar talk "Sound and Music Computing Goes Wild: From Communities to Ecosystems". AIM Forum. Centre for Digital Music. Queen Mary University of London. London, UK.
- (January 24, 2024). Seminar talk "Reflections on the use of CC sounds in creative computing". Research Forum. CeReNeM: Centre for Research in New Music. University of Huddersfield. Huddersfield, UK.
PhD examiner
I have been honoured to be PhD examiner of the following PhD candidates:
- (December 18, 2024). External PhD examiner for Aliénor Golvet. PhD thesis title: "Distributed Music Systems: Designing Web-Based Tools for Artistic Research and Practice (Systèmes Musicaux Distribués: Concevoir des Outils Web pour la Recherche et la Pratique Artistique)". PhD degree in Sciences et Technologies de la Musique et du Son (IRCAM · CNRS · Sorbonne Université), IRCAM, Paris, France.
- (August 14, 2024). External PhD examiner for CHEN Manni. PhD thesis title: "Between Noise and Structure: Artificial Intelligence and Humans in Music Production". PhD degree in Creative Media; City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
- (May 7, 2024). Internal PhD examiner for Elizabeth Wilson. PhD thesis title: "Affective Live Coding: Fostering Human-Machine Collaboration with Autonomous Agents". PhD degree in Media Arts and Technology; School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science; Queen Mary University of London, UK.
Public engagement
I have also contributed to panels of discussions, the opening of an art exhibition in the forest and the organisation of a hackathon in Edinburgh:
New Year’s resolutions
I am happy to announce the launch of the Computational Sonic Arts Laboratory, a research team based in the Centre for Digital Music (C4DM) at Queen Mary University of London dedicated to advancing the intersection of sonic arts and cutting-edge technology.
We are heading the final period of the AHRC Sensing the Forest project. We are very ambitious, but we also need to be realistic. This period is becoming the time to start completing prototypes and releasing outputs. We are working hard on those. Since I am at QMUL, the team has been expanding! I feel honoured to work with so many incredible minds.
Happy New Year 2025!
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my colleagues at QMUL for helping me set up, for the opportunities, and for the vibrant conversations. Many thanks to the Sensing the Forest team for all the amazing moments and for working together with the challenges. Thank you to Gerard and my parents for their constant advice and help.