ObjectivesThis course will develop your ability to work independently to a professional level through a mix of self-directed study and small group teaching. Completion of project /dissertation work is supported with the guidance of appropriate members of staff, who are available for regular individual contact. Contextual and research methods modules are taught in class and involve written work, practical assignments and seminar presentations, and specialist library staff are engaged to teach the latest subject-specific techniques of searching and information retrieval. Postgraduate students also have the opportunity to contribute to the MTIRC's research seminars, providing a forum in which completed projects can be presented and ideas tested and widely discussed. A substantial range of excellent facilities are available?in particular the recently commissioned laboratory area, which includes three dedicated composition studios and a separate open-plan area with high specification workstations. The Diffusion Studio is our flagship space allowing you to create immersive surround environments with up to 32 automated digital audio tracks feeding individual loudspeakers.
Entry requirementsAt least a 2:1 honours degree in Music Technology or a related area. Other relevant professional or graduate experience in music technology and/or the creative industries can also be taken into account. Non-standard entrants will be considered according to their individual merits.
Academic titleMA Music, Technology and Innovation
Course descriptionCareer opportunities
Entertainment and cultural industries have seen a marked growth in the need for technology-centred skills in recent years. Sophisticated sound design and digital music can be heard in all forms of contemporary media production, from advertising to computer games, film and radio. Enhanced skills and understanding are needed in order to make a strong and innovative contribution, and the MA in Music, Technology and Innovation provides an environment in which you can achieve this whilst developing your own capacity for self-expression and originality. The research training provided by the programme also imparts skills vital to the effective use and understanding of modern electronic information environments, as well as the conceptual tools and knowledge of the field that will facilitate progress to more advanced research, such as the PhD. A substantial area of employment opportunity also lies in education, with a burgeoning need for technologically skilled teachers at all levels of the national curriculum, and a growing number of opportunities for creative animateurs through publicly-funded projects facilitated by the Arts Council and NESTA. Recent graduates from the Music, Technology and Innovation course have gone on to work areas like multimedia production, broadcasting, composition for computer games and lecturing at college and university levels.
Programme
The MA in Music, Technology and Innovation allows you to develop your skills in practice-based and scholarly research, in either full-time or part-time study (one and two calendar years respectively). The course is suited both to new graduates wishing to extend or apply their creative talents in new ways, and to experienced practitioners seeking to update and expand their horizons. The course centres around a major practical or scholarly project, which can take the form of either a portfolio of creative work (such as compositions, audiovisual work, installations or original software) or a written dissertation (such as an historical, analytical or cultural study). A contextual dimension is essential to any work at this level, and this is supported through taught modules focusing on key historical and aesthetic issues in music technology. A module on research methods addresses the processes and practice of research in the various forms relevant to the discipline, including both traditional literature-based methods and new views of research conducted through creative practice. However you decide to focus the core of your study, the programme is designed to maximise your intellectual and artistic potential through detailed study of the technological, aesthetic and social implications of the creation of music with digital technology.
Staff
The Music, Technology and Innovation staff bring together an outstanding range of research expertise and experience, with the ability to provide support for research in any area of Music Technology. All the staff are composers, dedicated not just to making innovative music, but to the ideas, philosophies and wider artistic and cultural implications of this exciting field.
Staff include:
Professor Leigh Landy (Director of the MTIRC: cross-arts, electroacoustic music studies, access issues in contemporary music), Professor Simon Emmerson (live electronic music, theory and analysis, history of music technology), Professor Andrew Hugill (Director of the IOCT: internet music, music visulaisation,?pataphysics), Dr Simon Atkinson (composition, poetics and imagination), Dr Bret Battey (image and sound integration, algorithmic techniques, digital signal processing and synthesis), Dr Ronald Herrema (algorithmic composition, theories of creativity, popular music theory), Dr Peter Batchelor (sound diffusion, public art), Dr John Richards (new modes of performance and interactive environments, improvisation) and Dr John Young (environmental sound in electroacoustic music, aesthetics of digital sound transformation, analysis). Composers Robert Normandeau (University of Montreal) and Barry Truax (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver) are Visiting Professors who bring a further international dimension to the course with regular visits to the MTIRC.