Cyborg Soloists: Advancing Interdisciplinary Music in the Post-Internet Age Through New Musician-Technology Interactions.

The project will achieve these objectives by addressing the following research questions: - How can Interdisciplinary Music be advanced beyond its current practice by collaborating with leading technological innovators?

- How can recent developments in electronics instruments, motion sensors, AI, virtual reality, web design and interactive animation and other technological innovations be used by creative musicians in new ways to create ambitious new work?

- How can musicians utilise specialist technological expertise in achieving more ambitious uses of film, analogue synthesisers and other existing technologies? - Can these technological innovations be applied to other arts and other industries?

Cyborg Soloists will address these questions by creating a Centre for R&D in Interdisciplinary Music at Royal Holloway. The Centre will combine the resources of the Music, Media Arts, Drama, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science

departments. Internationally renowned musicians and technological innovators will be invited to create work that expands

the field of interdisciplinary music that will then be toured to major international festivals and venues. The hub will host

residencies for visiting artists, giving these bespoke teams the time and resources to tackle the technical and artistic

challenges limiting the expansion of the field. The applicant will lead the projects, mentor the collaborators, and be one of

the primary artists in most of the projects. Ethnographic documentation of the projects will be used to research the creative processes leading to new insights into musician-technology interactions. And the new and adapted technologies will have wide applications across musical genres, other performing arts, as well as having wider applications in human-computer

interactions.

By creating research teams between musicians and technological innovators, a range of ambitious, innovative new projects will be explored, focused on the following topic areas: Extending the Body Creating cyborg musicians through the use of motion sensors, 3D motion capture, and brainwave scanning tech.

Remaking the Old Repurposed analogue technologies, expanding the possibilities of analogue synthesisers, and of common analogue technologies such as tape machines and turntables Film-Body interaction

Compositions featuring live video interaction with the performer, using new films featuring performers and composers, and re-editing existing films Hyperinstruments Creating new musical instruments that extend existing ones with electronics. These would range from expansions of new digital instruments (such as Air Sticks), new surface-based sensors, instruments featuring in-built sensors, and new

acoustic instruments using 3D-printing technology AI and new types of interaction with computers

Artificial Intelligence to develop computerised co-performers (acting as chamber musicians) and create new types of visual interaction. Music with Virtual Reality Virtual reality to create musical works that expand on RHUL's StoryFutures project and Jonathan Packam's VR scores. Music using the Internet and Mobile Technologies

Exploring the use of mobile phones for audience interaction, as well as website-based crowdsourced compositions Hybrid Installation Works Long form performances and works created for art spaces, facilitating new types of audience interaction. Staged Hybrid Works Inviting directors and theatre practitioners to create major works with composers and performers, featuring the

technological innovations developed.

Research Outputs from the project will including the 25 compositions, at least 10 new technological innovations developed with industry partners, performance tours by the applicant and invited collaborators, 12 journal articles, 12 conference papers, new software and hardware, 2 conferences, 2 festivals, and an edited book

about new directions in interdisciplinary music.