Pet Sounds: Creating Music using Social Media and Mobile Technologies

这个拟议的项目旨在探索如何利用社交媒体和社交互动的力量--无论是在线的还是现实世界的--来创作数字音乐。该项目的核心方法是开发一款名为Pet Sound的移动应用程序，用于研究这些互动。宠物声音将使用户能够创建一张音乐自画像，即反映社会体验的音乐表现。为了修改这个构图，用户必须参与不同类型的社交互动。这些互动可能会通过Facebook或Instagram等社交媒体进行。例如，与另一个用户聊天可能会产生一种音乐结果，而在照片中标记朋友可能会产生另一种音乐结果。只有通过这些社交互动，以及与朋友一起进行现实世界的社交活动，才能使构图发生变化。这张音乐自拍通过不同类型的构图转换记录了这些互动。例如，乐曲的持续时间可能会变长或变短；它可能会增加一个或多个新的声音；它可能会改变音色质量、速度、节奏、和声等等。声音和音乐将几乎完全通过社交活动产生。用户将能够相互分享他们的音乐自拍，并与其他用户合作开发他们的作曲。这项研究需要跨越音乐学、人种学、作曲和软件设计的跨学科合作。研究人员将在研讨会的背景下开发宠物声音，不同群体的参与者在音乐、音乐技术和社交媒体使用方面具有不同的背景。这款应用程序的设计将吸引专业用户和非专业用户。虽然这款应用本身不会在该项目的生命周期内作为成果发布，但其原型将为研究基于社交的音乐互动提供基础。这些互动将通过音乐学、音响学、作曲和互动设计的批判性视角进行研究。该项目的成果将包括一篇合著的期刊文章、会议论文、公开演讲和表演，这些文章将考察这项研究的许多创造性、批判性/理论和技术层面。研究小组将驻扎在贝尔法斯特女王大学、牛津大学和布里斯托尔大学的音速艺术研究中心。讲习班将在布里斯托尔分水岭的普及媒体工作室举行。这一非学术合作伙伴将在吸引创意实践者、技术专家和普通观众的多样化社区方面发挥重要作用。在分水岭，研究小组将举办一系列的设计和游戏工作坊，以及午餐时间的演讲。在贝尔法斯特，研究小组将与初级音乐学院合作，在“应用音乐”研讨会的背景下接触音乐教育工作者和12至17岁的年轻人。影响的其他关键因素包括在一个国际媒体艺术中心为媒体艺术家和技术人员举办一个小组讨论会，以及在一个重要的行业活动中为创意行业专业人士举办一次演讲。这项研究的目的是展示如何利用新的数字技术将音乐制作发展为一种社会活动。拟议的项目将是有趣的，协作的，互动的，参与性的，基本上是社交的。在这种情况下，它与音乐技术项目不同，音乐技术项目要么需要表演者的大量技能，要么需要听众的专业知识。“宠物之声”将展示“新音乐”和数字音乐文化的包容性、吸引力和友好性。它将进一步表明，用户或参与者本身可以在协作创建音乐有趣的作品方面发挥重要作用，并以有意义的方式利用用户自己的经验。

The proposed project seeks to explore the ways in which the power of social media and social interactions-whether online or in the real world-can be harnessed to create digital music. The core methodology of the project is to develop a mobile app, Pet Sounds, which will be used to study these interactions. Pet Sounds will enable users to create a musical self-portrait or 'musical selfie', a musical representation of the user that reflects social experiences. In order to modify this composition, users must engage in different kinds of social interactions. These interactions might take place via social media like Facebook or Instagram. For example, chatting with another user might result in one kind of musical outcome, while tagging friends in a photo might result in another kind of musical outcome. The composition can evolve only through these kinds of social interactions, as well as by undertaking real-world social activities with friends. The musical selfie logs these interactions via different kinds of compositional transformations. For example, the composition might grow longer or shorter in duration; it might add a new voice or voices; it may change timbral qualities, tempo, rhythms, harmonies, and so on. The sounds and music will be generated almost entirely via social activities. Users will be able to share their musical selfies with each other, and collaborate with other users in developing their compositions.This study entails an interdisciplinary collaboration that spans musicology, ethnography, and composition and software design. The researchers will develop Pet Sounds in the context of workshops with diverse groups of participants who have varying backgrounds in music, music technologies, and social media use. The app will be designed to appeal to specialist and non-specialist users alike. While the app itself will not be released as an output during the lifespan of the project, its prototyping will provide the basis for studying socially-based musical interactions. These interactions will be studied via critical perspectives in musicology, sound studies, composition, and interaction design. The outputs of the project will include a co-authored journal article, conference paper, public presentations and performances that will examine the many creative, critical/theoretical and technical dimensions of the research.The research team will be based at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast, the University of Oxford, and the University of Bristol. Workshops will take place at the Pervasive Media Studio at Watershed, Bristol. This non-academic partner will be important in attracting a diverse community of creative practitioners, technologists, and general audiences. At Watershed, the research team will conduct a series of Design and Play Workshops, and a Lunchtime Talk. In Belfast, the research team will partner with the Junior Academy of Music to reach music educators and young people aged 12 to 17 years in the context of workshops on 'App-ifying Music'. Other key elements of impact will include hosting a panel for media artists and technologists at an international media arts centre, and a presentation for creative industry professionals at a major industry event.The aim of the research is to show how music making can evolve as a social activity using new digital technologies. The proposed project will be playful, collaborative, interactive, participative and fundamentally social. In this way it diverges from projects in music technology that either require a great deal of skill on the part of the performer or expertise on the part of the listener. Pet Sounds will show that 'new music' and digital music cultures can be inclusive, engaging, and friendly. It will further show that users or participants themselves can play a large role in collaboratively creating compositions that are musically interesting and that draw upon users' own experiences in meaningful ways.