Month: March 2017

How will I find answers to my questions? How do I know if I discover something meaningful and valid to people?

My first part of the study will focus on scanning journals and conferences for papers in my research area to see where lots have been done and where there still are questions to ask. I will interview composers and producers of game music to document their process to identify obstacles and challenges. I will examine and compare existing middleware used to integrate music into games to find areas where music is limited by the technology.

I will keep on developing my own interactive music framework (iMusic – more on that in future posts) to test different solutions for music integration into interactive applications. I will use iMusic to build an interactive, audiovisual survey where I can collect feedback from (hopefully) lots of users and evaluate their respons to the musical experience. My aim is to get a better understanding of how different technical solutions affect the listening experience for different listeners.

This is my current strategy and method. It might well be refined along the way. If any of you have ideas, if you want to get connected and involved in any way. Please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Many people asks me: “what is your research question?”, “what is your subject?”, “what exactly will you do??” and other valid and good questions.

The broad answer is “more knowledge in the area of music in interactive applications”, but there are of course much more to say. I also wouldn’t be totally surprised if the target moves a bit when I start trying to catch it, but here is a glimpse of what can be expected:

• I will scan research done so far in the subject
• I will network with other nerds around the world searching for answers
• I will evaluate how different technical solutions (for producing and integrating music into interactive applications) affect the end result for different listeners.
• I will focus on the challenges in the process of making (live) performed, traditional music for interactive applications rather than computer generated, experimental music.
• I will continue building my interactive music framework to solve some yet unmet needs in this area.