We are pleased to have received a Project Incubation Grant from the Centre for Digital Humanities to support Huw Cheston's PhD research. This £2000 grant is supporting the development and validation of an exciting new software tool for studying interaction in musical performances. Musicians (e.g. a jazz duo) play together on MIDI instruments, with all visual and auditory feedback being piped through a central computer server, with the server applying arbitrary manipulations (e.g. temporal delays, simulated acoustics, visual occlusion) in real-time during the performance. This setup will enable us to conduct highly controlled experimental manipulations during musical performances, allowing us to gain exciting new insights into the underlying mechanics of ensemble performance.
