Music
Within the Music area a significant development over the last period has been the establishment of the iMUSE research centre, the involvement in the CETL for Music and Inclusivity, the increase in funding attracted to our particular interdisciplinary focus on Health issues and the wide range of research projects encompassing children with special needs, including autism, and the elderly in residential homes, sheltered accommodation and day care. Practice-led research in composition and creative musicology is also a strong area of research.Phil Ellis is Professor in Music in the PA group. His current research is focused on developing interactive multi-sensory environments for the elderly in long-term care. This builds on research which led to the creation of Vibroacoustic Sound Therapy which was developed during the 1990s and early 2000s. It has relevance to special education, particularly PMLD, SLD and autistic conditions, and for the elderly in long term care and the mentally infirm. Prior to this: 2001 - 2003 Partner in an EU funded IST project, Tactile Interactive Multimedia for blind and visually impaired children; 2002 - 2003 AHRB hosted visit; Changing Places 2002 - 2004 Creative Partnerships project in Sunderland schools. Throughout this period a university supported research project investigating vibroacoustic sound therapy with the elderly in long-term care was conducted in a local care-home for the elderly, which contributed to the basis for the iMUSE project.
John Kefala-Kerr is an award-winning composer. His work addresses research questions via the detailed deployment of a wide range of compositional materials and strategies. Recent work in site-specific opera investigates new formulations for music & sound-led dramaturgy, which explore and problematise traditional distinctions between sacred and secular. This investigation is also manifest in a large corpus of scored instrumental, orchestral, musico-dramatic and electroacoustic music. He is currently developing the notion of 'creative musicology' through a body of writings in which musical exegesis is approached via the interaction of scholarly, autobiographical, fictional-poetic and performance writing.
Lieselotte van Leeuwen has been active as Principal Researcher in the group. Her research activities were: 2001 - 2003 European IST project TIM (Tactile, interactive Multimedia) - principal researcher; 2003 - 2004 Creative Partnerships Project (Intersensory development) - principal researcher. As Principal Researcher in the newly established iMUSE research centre, her work is investigating a) improving perceived control, expression and parameters of wellbeing in elderly populations through the possibility to control complex audio-visual events; b) improving perceived control, expression and communication in autistic children through the possibility to control complex audio-visual events; c) the comparison of early tactile action in typical developing children and children with tactile modulation dysfunction.
Archive development will come through video of field research activity in the iMUSE research centre. This archive will also be used in the new undergraduate and postgraduate modules and programmes developed as part of the CETL. The development of the iMUSE website linked to the main University, School of Performing Arts web site promotes the project to the wider research community.
