INTERIOR DESIGN: Music for the Bionic Ear

INTERIOR DESIGN:
Music for the Bionic Ear
It is with great pleasure I welcome you to Interior Design: Music for the Bionic
Ear. Tonight six innovative musical works are being presented and people with
bionic and acoustic hearing will be able to enjoy and discuss their experiences
together, perhaps for the first time.
I would particularly like to thank musician, composer and sound artist Robin Fox without his enthusiasm this creative venture would not have occurred. Hamish
Innes-Brown also deserves special mention in his role as concert co-ordinator.
Over 28 years the Institute has created many unique world-firsts and built a world
-class medical research team. Our experience has led to developments in other
areas of medical bionics whilst we continue to improve the performance of the
bionic ear. Researchers and clinicians are now working on multi-disciplinary collaborative projects related to bionic vision and
neurobionics as well as continuing our vital bionic hearing research. We are constantly seeking ways to improve medical bionics
devices around the world to help people from all walks of life.
On behalf of the Bionic Ear Institute I would like to thank all the generous sponsors, volunteers and supporters who have
embraced this exciting initiative.
Enjoy this special night!
Professor Robert K Shepherd, PhD.
Director, The Bionic Ear Institute.
Welcome everybody to what is the culmination of many months of research and
development for all of the composers involved in today's program. You are about
to experience a complete program of world premieres, works written specifically
with the cochlear implant in mind. Each composer has brought aspects of their
creative practice to bear on the problem, and I hope you‘ll agree the results are
fascinating! It has been a great pleasure for me to work with the Bionic Ear
Institute on this project. Their international reputation for ground-breaking
research precedes them and their willingness to support this radical concert of
new musical works is beyond commendable.
I do hope you enjoy the concert and remember, it is music, its just unlike any
music you may have heard before.
Robin Fox, artistic director
INTRODUCTION
INTERIOR DESIGN: Music for the Bionic Ear is in some way an endpoint, and in other ways, we hope it‘s also a starting point.
The germ of the idea originated after one of Robin Fox‘s infamous laser shows at the 2006 Liquid Architecture festival at
Trades Hall in Melbourne. At that stage, music for cochlear implants was not on the horizon, just a strong sense that Robin‘s
scientific curiosity and experimental approach would result in a fruitful art-science collaboration down the track. In 2007 the
Music & Pitch project at the Bionic Ear Institute became interested in the idea of making new sounds for cochlear implant
users. Meetings were arranged, a concert was discussed, grants were applied for, and work began. So this concert is the end
result of almost four years of thinking and planning, but more importantly, we hope it‘s a starting point for cochlear implant
users themselves.
The music you will hear tonight is an initial attempt to generate new musical works for an alternative auditory sense.
Hopefully these attempts will continue, both in the minds of musicians and composers, and in the minds of cochlear implants
users. Like any concert, especially of new, never before heard music, personal taste will play a big part, and everyone will
have different ideas about what they like and dislike. What we hope is that all listeners, whether they use cochlear implants,
hearing aids, a combination, or have natural hearing, will be able to form and discuss an opinion (positive OR negative!)
because of the fact the music has been designed by the composers to be comprehensible by all listeners. The concert tonight
will hopefully serve as a starting point for cochlear implant users to discover new types of sounds, and new types of music in
years to come.
In the following pages, each of the six composers commissioned for the project provides a brief insight into the approaches
they have taken to the problem. It‘s fascinating reading, and should be a useful companion to the concert.
Hamish Innes-Brown, Researcher, The Bionic Ear Institute, & concert co-ordinator.
The cochlear implant (the bionic ear) is a fantastic device that allows profoundly deaf people to hear again, to understand
their children and grand-children, to be delighted by the sound of a bird. Infants can now be implanted at 6 months old and
learn to use their bionic ear almost as well as any child. They will grow to be teens, will spend hours on the phone and will
listen to FM radio show. However, for many cochlear implant recipients, music through a bionic ear sounds far from appealing
and interesting. Some avoid social situations when music is played as it sounds more like a nuisance than organised enjoyable
sound.
A cochlear implant is composed of a microphone that captures the acoustic signal and sends it to a sound processor located
behind the ear. This processor transforms the sound into electric impulses which stimulate the auditory nerves directly via
electrodes inserted into the inner ear. In a healthy ear they are about 30,000 auditory nerves, tuned to specific frequencies. If
a bionic ear were composed of 30,000 electrodes, each connected to one auditory nerve, any sound could be perfectly
reproduced. Unfortunately, the current technology allows the insertion of only 22 of electrodes. Therefore each electrode
activates many nerves, inducing an imprecise pitch perception, which may sound like a pianist with boxing gloves. Our
research team at the Bionic Ear Institute is working on many different innovative technologies to restore the appreciation of
music and to give back to the music the ten finger pianist that it needs. But tonight, it is a different approach; our 6
composers had to create music that can be played even with boxing gloves…
Dr Jeremy Marozeau, Head of the Music & Pitch Project, The Bionic Ear Institute.
http://www.bionicear.org/research/Music_perception.html
ROHAN DRAPE: Another in Another Dark
Another In Another Dark is concerned entirely with contour, with outlines, with
traces, with fundamental shapes.
In particular it is concerned with ternary symmetrical contour, shapes that arise by
perceiving a network of relations between sounds where each is considered in some
particular sense as either less than or equal to or greater than another.
For instance that one sound is pitched lower or equally or higher than another, that
one sound is softer or louder than another, that it is of shorter or longer duration,
that it precedes or is simultaneous with or follows after another, that the tone
colour is lighter or darker, that it is produced with lesser or greater difficulty, and so on.
These contours can be either alike or unlike to varying degrees, and can be related by a
number of types of transformations. So as to write less abstractly and more concretely,
consider the first two measures of Brahms‘ Piano Quartet Op.25 (right).
If we describe the first measure as a larger ascending interval enclosing a smaller
interval of the same direction, and the second measure as a larger descending interval
enclosing a smaller interval of the same direction, it is clear that the second measure is
in some sense an inversion of the first. If we write the contour of each measure in a
half-matrix form, as ―<<< >> <‖ and ―>>> << >‖ respectively, the sense of inversion is made more precise, each
symbol is replaced by its opposite.
In the first three measures of Feldman‘s Palais de Mari something closely related happens. Although the notation does not
immediately suggest it, the first measure can be described as a smaller descending interval enclosed by a larger interval of the
same direction, the contour is a close relative of that above, a
sort of rotation, and it's transformation in the third measure is
likewise an inversion, though not exact (the contour descriptions
are ―><> <> >‖ and ―>>< >< <‖). When
considering the individual voices however the two phrases are
very nearly alike, the only alteration in the third measure is to
halve the duration of the first note of the left hand.
These considerations are the beginnings of Another In Another Dark, which is a set of variations, each variation a near
repetition, as little changed as is necessary, a slowly shifting sequence of increasingly elaborate contours and contour relations,
overlapping and interleaving linear contours, simultaneous contours within and between voices, contours partitioned by register
and instrument, contours of duration and pitch and dynamic that are aligned or misaligned, in agreement or contradiction,
contours between phrases that are more or less concise, more or less abstracted.
The perception of musical details (pitch, interval, timbre etc.) are dramatically and unknowably different for CI patients. The
intention here is that these necessarily diverse perceptual surfaces will each have a similar relation to the basic structural
elements, the sequences of contours and contour transformations.
NATASHA ANDERSON: Study for the Bionic Ear #1
The materials (in order of entry) are the following;
Percussion – shaker and 4 drums, from high to low in pitch across the cochlear
implant frequency response spectrum
Piano
¼ inch tape processed analogue synthesizer
Bowed vibraphone
Electronic sine tones
Cello harmonics
These materials were chosen for a number of reasons. Tests indicate that drums are amongst the most easily distinguished
instruments for cochlear implant users. Piano, while moderately well recognised, is used here more for its ability to match
electrode frequencies while playing rhythmic passages of short notes than its timbre. With the bowed vibraphone I was
interested to see if using an instrument that adds a pulse rate to its sound supports the recognition and enjoyment of sustained
notes. Studies have shown that controlling the pulse rate can help in pitch perception: the motor on a vibraphone can be set at
various speeds. The bowed vibraphone notes are sometimes mixed with pure tones either at the pitch of the vibraphone or
shifted a few cents. How do these differences in sound quality or shifting of the wave pulse alter perception? With the processed
synthesizer bursts I‘m hoping the nature of the sound — the fact that they are so dynamic and quick moving across the
electrode range — means cochlear implant users are able to tap into the sheer energy of this sound. It may take some
getting used to but perhaps the potential to enjoy such sounds is inherent in the way the implant works. The mixing of live
and spatialised pre-recorded sound allows listeners to explore the differences between using visual and spatial cues when
interpreting sound.
Compositional parameters imposed include trying to only ever use a single sound at any given time. This of course is broken,
particularly with the exploration of the two-note chords and overlapping envelopes in the second half of the piece, but generally
remains true. Since rhythm is the most reliable musical tool to work with when making music for cochlear implant users, when
events happen became almost more important than what that event is. Thus I concentrated on building form through horizontal
means rather than vertical ones: playing on the distance between events — seeking to create an interesting rhythm, tension or
pleasurable recognition of repetition with the timing of events.
This project exposes the conundrum of hearing. Of course everyone hears differently – but generally I either work with material
according to how I hear it and others can make of it what they will, or I play with how sound is ‗read‘. On this project we
are directly concerned with how a certain group of people hear, but without ever being able to know what that is.
Furthermore, cochlear implant users have to consciously interpret every single sound they hear – many of which are unpleasant.
Given these conditions I felt an obligation to work within the simplest clearest means possible to create something that held the
potential for ‗pleasure‘ – as nebulous and impossible a concept as that is.
Musicians
Eugene Ughetti & Matthias Schack Arnott – percussion
Anthony Pateras – piano and synthesizer
Judith Hamman – cello
Joe Talia & Chris Lawson – engineers
BEN HARPER: This is all I need (2011)
For many years I've been interested in making music with tunings different to those found on standard, Western musical
instruments. It seemed a natural choice to write a piece of music tuned to a scale which is better suited to the structure of a
cochlear implant than those of conventional instruments. The scale used in this piece has 16 distinct notes, designed to fit in
with the frequency ranges of the electrodes in a cochlear implant, and with the harmonic overtones that naturally occur in
sounds.
Knowing that the implants were made primarily to recognise speech, I used several short, spoken phrases as a sort of key to
the whole work. Adding these speech fragments to the music reminded me of the simple, disconnected phrases often heard in
language lessons. I started to envisage this piece as a primer in a new language, establishing a basic vocabulary which could
be built upon and expanded in subsequent pieces. The spoken phrases inspired four short musical patterns, which imitate the
speech's rhythm and melody. At first, these patterns are simply repeated while being accompanied by different harmonies.
Later, the melodies begin to change while the rhythms stay more or less the same. The chords used to play harmonies are kept
as close as possible to those found in popular music.
This Is All I Need was composed entirely for electronic instruments. This allowed me to keep the music precisely tuned
throughout. Also, by using older, simpler synthesiser sounds, I could stop the instruments from sounding too rich and possibly
interfering with the listener's perception of melody and harmony.
Ben Harper is an Australian composer, artist and writer who now lives in London.
JAMES RUSHFORD: Tussilage
For Golden Fur.
Tussilage is a textural super-imposition of ideas. Composed for viola, cello, and reel-to-reel tape recorder, the acoustic
instruments play live in tandem with tape playback (consisting of pre-recorded source material from the same live instruments).
The work weaves together two independently expressive lines, that often oppose and obscure one another. Though much of the
musical material was composed with the researched parameters of the cochlear implant in mind, there is also a deliberate
attempt to ‗veil‘ this material through the work's aural density. Any resulting lack of clarity in the music (whether melodic,
harmonic, textural, performative) is, for the listener, partly intentional.
James Rushford is a young Melbourne based composer/performer, interested in a diverse range of contemporary music.
Alongside concert music, his focus lies in inter-media, installation and recorded mediums. In 2008 James was the recipient of
the Eric & Margot Cooper Travel Scholarship and the Dowd Foundation Award, enabling him to tour overseas and work with
musicians including Robert Ashley, Phill Niblock, Marcus Schmickler, Fred Frith and Michael Pisaro. As a composer, James was
also the recipient of the Alan Rose Memorial Fund, the Keith & Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship, the Marion and Isobel
Thomas Prize, the Frank Bosch Scholarship, and has had music commissioned by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Speak
Percussion, Song Company, Team of Pianists, Decibel, ELISION (UK), CUSP Gallery, Ear Massage (Netherlands), The Bionic Ear
Institute, Tristram Williams, Quiver, the Melbourne International Arts Festival (2006 and 2008), and the 21:100:100 project (a
collaboration with Oren Ambarchi and Marco Fusinato).
A multi-instrumentalist, James performs mostly with piano, viola and electronics, and has studied with teachers such as Anthony
Pateras, Liza Lim, Brett Dean, Kate Neal and Donna Coleman. His regular ensembles include the avant-classical/improv trio
Golden Fur, rock trio Johnny Saw Horses, and an improvising duo with Joe Talia. He also performs intermittently with Francis
Plagne, Ned Collette & Wirewalker, BROUS and the Un-Australian String Quartet (dir. Jon Rose). His solo record, Vellus, was
released by the experimental music label Cajid Media in 2008, followed by a collaborative album with Joe Talia, Palisades, on
Sabbatical Records in 2009. James completed a Masters of Music Performance (Composition) at the Victorian College of the Arts
in 2010. He is 25 years old.
ROBIN FOX: 3 Studies for the Bionic Ear
Study 1: Pulse. This study connects with the way in which the cochlear implant
uses a steady pulse to regulate information sent to the 22 electrodes. Each
frequency in the set of 22 is pulsed at high speed and the shape of its
envelope changed regularly to produce varied sonic attacks. The spatialisation sends one set clockwise and one anti-clockwise
through the speaker array.
Study 2: Rhythm/Pattern. The second of the three studies focuses on the generation of rhythmic patterns using only the
frequencies that make up the 22 centre frequencies of the filters that parse audio from the air and deliver it to the cochlear
implant. Various permutations are performed on the pattern including changing the wave-shape (sine, square, triangle and
sawtooth) and also transpositions of the tones down from the original at various points. The transpositions are in justly intoned
intervals, so fractions are used rather than equally tempered steps. I am interested to know whether these transpositions will
cause audible ‗drop-outs‘ for the cochlear implant wearers.
Study 3: Tone (the cochlear chord). The third study introduces each tone of the frequency set individually. As each tone will
emerge form a different channel, the room should gradually fill with the chord. My hope is that the spatial separation of the
sources might increase clarity and separation of the tones for implant recipients. Extra sub bass frequencies are added to act as
physical ‗modulation‘ tones.
Robin Fox is an artist straddling the often artificial divide between audible and visible arts. As an audio-visual performance artist
his work has featured in festivals worldwide. Recent appearances include a commissioned performance for the Henie Onstad
Kunstcenter Oslo (March 2010), Mois Multi Festival Quebec City (Feb 2010), Steirischer Herbst Festival Graz (Nov 2009), Musica
Genera Festival Warsaw (June 2009) and the Yokohama Triennale (September 2008). His audio visual films for the cathode ray
oscilloscope are documented on the DVD release ‗backscatter‘ (2004) with more recent works Volta and 5 Creation Myths being
exhibited as video works at the RoslynOxley9 gallery in Sydney, The Asian Art Biennale in Taipei and the Miniartextil
International exhibition in Como, Italy.
His ground-breaking work with Chunky Move has contributed to the recent piece Mortal Engine winning a Helpmann award for
Best Visual Production and an Honorary mention at the illustrious Prix Ars Electronica. Recent projects include the photography
exhibition Proof of Concept at the Centre for Contemporary Photography (July 2010) and the current research project with the
Bionic Ear Institute composing music for cochlear implant wearers.
Musically he has released 3 albums with composer/performer Anthony Pateras (Editions Mego/Synaesthesia) and one with double
bassist Clayton Thomas (Room 40). He has also performed with the likes of Oren Ambarchi, Lasse Marhaug, Jerome Noetinger,
Stephen O‘Malley and Erick D‘Orion among numerous other encounters. His recent solo LP/Cassette on deMego A Handful of
Automation is his first full length solo audio release.
EUGENE UGHETTI: Syncretism A.
For spatialised percussion trio.
performed by
Speak Percussion
Eugene Ughetti
Peter Neville
Matthias Schack-Arnott
Approaching this commission has provided an excellent opportunity to re-evaluate the parameters and paradigms that allow
stimulating sonic experiences to occur.
Central to this challenge lies what I see as two fundamental problems to be engaged with. Most importantly, the veil of
perception that subjectively colours all aural experience. Aesthetic preferences mixed up with an ability to listen both
impartially and intelligently in order to decode musical language. And the essential and unique point of departure, how sound
is processed by the cochlear implant.
If this composition were a sculptural object then it would be experienced archeologically. You would excavate layers of density,
survey objects from above, below and behind, analyse places where materials converge and discover cultural remains. It would
house materials that have deteriorated into the earth and others which tell stories of the heavens or streets.
Syncretism A leads the audience towards ways of listening and ways of imagining, it sits at the threshold between familiar and
wayward sounds. It capitalises on the strengths of bionic ear hearing by using short and precise rhythmic attacks, wide pitch
intervals, spatialisation and speech, while being aided by the visual prompts of live percussion performance. It also plays with
abstract musical concepts and smudges sounds beyond the realms of aural perception taking the listener beyond their physical
limitations into something greater.
Eugene Ughetti is a Melbourne based percussionist, composer and artistic director of Speak Percussion. He has studied with
significant artists from most continents and completed a degree with Honors in Classical Percussion at the Victorian College of
the Arts. His professional experience is diverse but his particular focus is new music and hybrid-arts collaboration.
Eugene has performed throughout Europe, Asia, Canada, North America and Australia with a wide variety of artists and in
many contexts. He has appeared as a soloist with both the Melbourne Symphony and Victorian College of the Arts Orchestras.
In 1998 he was an ABC Young Composer and ABC Young Artist.
Eugene has instigated numerous international arts projects involving Australian chamber music, cross-arts collaboration,
commissioning international artists and taking other Australian artists overseas. Eugene has undertaken professional
collaborations with choreographers, animators, dancers, installation artists, actors, instrument builders, artistic directors and has
commissioned over forty new solo and ensemble works. This experience includes solo and group work in various premiere arts
festivals, educational residencies and independent projects.
THANKS
INTERIOR DESIGN: Music for the Bionic Ear would not have been possible without the support of a large number of people
and organisations. Many of the volunteers who participate in research at the Bionic Ear Institute have given up their time to
talk about the project to the scientists and musicians involved, and have listened to endless samples, snippets, and sounds
along the way, often after hours and in difficult, noisy listening conditions. Byron Scullin, the engineer and production
manager, has made the ambitious 11.1 channel sound diffusion system a very workable possibility. Arts Access Australia and
Arts Access Victoria have helped us negotiate with the venue and provided promotion, and the Arts Centre provided the venue
itself and staffing costs for the night. The Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts was brave enough to fund the
commissioning of these works, and Arts Victoria funded the production of tonight‘s event. The Cochlear Foundation also
provided financial support. The Australian Network for Art and Technology funded Robins position of ―resident composer‖ at
the Bionic Ear Institute for 3 months through their Synapse Residency scheme. Australia Hears supported the production of this
catalogue. The composers themselves must also be thanked, for opening up their artistic practice to endless questions and
challenges, and responding brilliantly. Kate Stevens, from the University of Western Sydney, and Emery Schubert, from the
University of New South Wales, are running the post-concert focus groups and data collection. Thanks also to Better Hearing
Australia, VicDeaf, and the Cochlear Implant Clinic at the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital, who helped spread the word to
their networks. There are many staff at the Bionic Ear Institute who have also volunteered their time tonight to help things
run smoothly.
Proudly supported by
Program proudly sponsored by Australia Hears, offering the hearing aid you can buy
online and adjust at home. Australian science and a shared heritage with the bionic ear.
Visit www.australiahears.com.au
PRODUCTION DETAILS
INTERIOR DESIGN: Music for the Bionic Ear features a unique 11.1 channel audio diffusion system, inspired by the shape and
function of the cochlea, and the electrodes in a cochlear implant. Eleven separate audio channels are reproduced by speakers
placed both on stage and above your heads, mounted in the ceiling. These speakers mimic the 22 electrodes used in a
cochlear implant. Some of the composers have chosen to use the speaker array as a device to enhance spatial aspects of their
composition, and others are continuing the cochlear implant analogy further, and sending particular frequency bands to each
channel, just as a real implant sends stimulation pulses to each electrode depending on the audio frequencies picked up by its
microphones. There is also a large sub-woofer under the seating, designed to send very low frequency sound waves into the
audience. This may be perceived as vibration felt through your feet and chair as well your ears. Sometimes this system will be
active, even when live performers are on stage.
PERFORMERS
The pieces performed live or with live accompaniment were performed by Speak Percussion
and Golden Fur.
SPEAK PERCUSSION
Speak Percussion is Melbourne's most diverse
percussion arts enterprise. Its activities span a wide
variety of contexts and genres ranging from regular
music festival concerts to experimental hybrid-arts
events. Speak Percussion presents a cross-section of
percussive arts activity engaging percussion soloists
through to large ensembles. Speak Percussion has
collaborated with installation artists, choreographers, dancers, instrument builders, visual
artists, lighting designers, sound designers and architects. Speak Percussion has toured many
capital cities in Australia and throughout the European continent. Such activities included the
performance of Australian music, various collaborations, presentations of masterclasses and
workshops. Speak Percussion promotes Australian artists and pushes percussive activities into
extraordinary territories. The players tonight are Eugene Ughetti, Peter Neville, and
Matthias Schack-Arnott.
GOLDEN FUR
Golden Fur is a trio comprising Samuel Dunscombe
(clarinet/laptop) Judith Hamann (violoncello) and
James Rushford (keyboard/viola), with an ongoing and
dedicated interest in classical, experimental and
improvised music. Focusing on more obscure
contemporary and 20th century music, Golden Fur's
quest is to bring a refreshing sonic palette to chamber
music, adding volume and volatility by means of
amplification, built instruments, electronics, film and dramaturgy. As an ensemble, they have
been the recipients of the Keith and Elisabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship (2009), the Alan
C. Rose Memorial Fund (2009), the Marion Isobel Thomas Prize (2008) and the Athenaeum
Ensemble Prize (2007). Golden Fur has quickly made a name for itself as a vibrant new
ensemble that fearlessly crosses musical boundaries to create compelling and complex, yet
inclusive, concert experiences. The trio has completed two concert series; commissioning
and premiering works by Australian composers Anthony Pateras, Cat Hope, Robert Dahm,
Marco Fusinato, David Chishom, Alexander Garsden, Kate Neal and Natasha Anderson.
www.bionicear.org