In 2015 Big Ears, a public engagement training scheme founded by Dr. Franziska Schroeder ran a collaboration with the Drake Music Northern Ireland.

The event was held under the theme “Designing Inclusive Interactions” and launched the exciting new collaboration between SARC and The Drake Music Project Northern Ireland. PhD researcher Koichi Samuels curated the event. On the first day, the researchers met with the musicians from Drake Music NI, together they collaborative planned how they would create bespoke input devices for Ableton Live workstations. Their remit was to design accessible musical instruments. The prototype interfaces that were created included a hacked game controller, gestural video camera interaction using an LED glove, and touch sensors that were calibrated to the musician’s facial movements.

The showcase performance to a public audience on the 27th March at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Queens University Belfast. A recording of one of the improvised pieces from Big Ears 2015 was aired on BBC Radio Ulster.

The project was sponsored by Queen’s Research and Development Training Fund and sponsored by major industry sponsors Ableton Live and Roland UK. (LOGOS) View the blog

https://www.qub.ac.uk/sarc/research/performance-without-barriers/SARCDrakeMusicNI2015/