Hearing Colour: Sonic Worlds and Other Senses


Ph Credit: Cath Du Puy

IKLECTIK and Centre for Digital Music, Queen Mary University of London present,

Hearing Colour: Sonic Worlds and Other Senses

Saturday 20 November 2021 | 8pm [7:30pm doors]

Free event [REGISTRATION REQUIRED]: https://buytickets.at/iklectik/581295

Our senses form our window into the world. Join pianist and composer Dr Xenia Pestova Bennett, psychoacoustician Dr Charalampos Saitis, and digital luthier-researcher Prof Andrew McPherson to learn about how associations between the senses support uniquely human forms of communication like colour and music. This art-science conversation will feature a live performance of Dr Pestova-Bennett’s semi-improvised work Glowing Radioactive Elements (2018, 25’), which consists of five interwoven movements, each exploring different timbral techniques for the Magnetic Resonator Piano. The MRP is an innovative instrument designed by Prof McPherson that uses electromagnets suspended above the piano strings to “shape” resonance from the keyboard while retaining the use of the original action. Each movement is associated with a radioactive element and its “colour” signature. Between the movements Dr Saitis will examine how these quasi-synaesthetic poetic associations encourage interplay between artistic expression and listener by conversing with audience members and recording their timbre-colour perceptions evoked during the performance.

https://beinghumanfestival.org/events/hearing-colour-sonic-worlds-and-other-senses

Xenia Pestova Bennett

Ph Cath Du Puy

Xenia Pestova Bennett (she/her) is a performer, composer, researcher and educator. “Atomic Legacies” (Diatribe) features Xenia’s own compositions for the Magnetic Resonator Piano. Described as “boldly conceived and brilliantly realised… a foretaste of things to come” in The Wire (Julian Cowley), the recording was hailed as “intoxicating, extraordinarily eerie and evocative” (Bernard Clarke, RTE LyricFM), “melancholy… heart-swells and proper feelings” (Jennifer Lucy Allan, The Quietus) and “a nuclear musical reaction that produces that great, irradiated beauty” (Tom Service, BBC Radio 3). Xenia’s latest release “Gold.Berg.Werk” (Ergodos) features a radical reinterpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations with live electronics by Austrian composer Karlheinz Essl. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham.
https://xeniapestovabennett.com

Andrew McPherson

Ph Credit: Charis Saitis

Andrew McPherson is a computing researcher, composer, electronic engineer, and musical instrument designer and a Senior Research Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He is Professor of Musical Interaction in the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London, where he leads the Augmented Instruments Laboratory. Andrew holds undergraduate degrees in both engineering and music from MIT, an MEng in electrical engineering from MIT, and a PhD in music composition from the University of Pennsylvania. Andrew’s Magentic Resonator Piano and other musical instruments are widely used by performers and composers across many genres.
http://andrewmcpherson.org/

Charalampos Saitis

Ph Credit: Charalampos Saitis

Charalampos (Charis) Saitis is Lecturer in Digital Music Processing in the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London and Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute. His research uses empirical and computational methods to investigate different modalities of experience, interaction, and control between the digital music user (listeners, performers, producers) and sound as a multimodal semiotic system. Charis’ recent work explores the cognitive processes that drive cross-sensory “metaphors we listen with” – sonic metaphors rooted in non-sonic sensory experiences.
https://www.seeingmusic.app/
https://timbre.fun/
http://eecs.qmul.ac.uk/profiles/saitischaralampos.html

Sebastian Löbbers

Sebastian Löbbers is a researcher, software developer and musician currently working at the Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London. His research investigates how people represent musical timbre through simple drawings and aims to develop a sound synthesiser that can be controlled through visual input. Besides research, he develops interactive software and artworks and composes music for contemporary dance, film and video games. His works have been staged and exhibited internationally in galleries, performance halls and music venues. Recent projects have been displayed at the Edinburgh Science Festival, Ars Electronica and the WeSA Festival.

Web: www.sebastianlobbers.com