Everybody likes a bit of mustard, Richard!

Hvad så?

2009-05-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Just come across Copenhagen Cast, a superb site for learning Danish. I've also recently joined LiveMocha, a social-networking-language-learning site, but only the most "popular" of languages (French, German, Spanish...) appear to be served there at the moment. Nice idea, though, and I hope it grows.

Blip.fm

2009-04-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

Just joined Blip FM, which appears to be a way of sharing music, but it's not particularly intuitive, and it's difficult to tell whether or not you've actually made your track public. That aside, nice idea (although a site which also hosts the music would be most useful).

So, here's one of my current efforts: Katy Perry vs. Visage vs. a bit of Duran Duran vs. Me : "I Kissed A Girl Then Faded To Grey".

Sonic Interaction Design Workshop, York, April 2 2009

2009-04-06T06:13:00.001-07:00

Time for a workshop report...

Last Thursday, I was given the opportunity to present a poster and a small demo of my PhD research at the Sonic Interaction Design workshop at the University of York. While I presented a full paper at NordiCHI last year, this was the first chance I had to present the results of my research in poster and in demo format, so I was both quite excited and extremely nervous (as I never feel I can coherently translate 4 years of solid work into a 30 second spiel...).

After the usual introduction, the day began with a really interesting talk by Daniel Hug from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Zurich. Daniel's work on sound design for interactive media struck a chord (so to speak!) with my own research interests, particularly in terms of how sound design carried out within traditional media such as films and, increasingly, computer games can influence sound design within other forms of interactive media. Like my own PhD research, Daniel posed this as an open question and, as I did as part of my own work, found that undergraduate students represented a great source of inspiration.

The next talk was given by Jerry Ibbotson of Media Mill, an audio production company for computer games. Jerry's talk was less "academic" in style, but he was able to explain in great detail how the design of sound for computer games (and in particular driving games) is approached an implemented. As a frustrated musician/sound designer, I felt myself grumbling at how easy he made it appear - while I love the job I'm in at the moment, I still find myself wishing I could spend my day sitting in front of a brand new sports car with a digital recorder...

Then it was onto the posters. Anyone that knows me will agree that I often find myself getting tongue-tied when trying to explain my work, particularly when it is work a carried out nearly 2 years ago now. However, after a couple of false starts, I managed to get into my rhythm, and the poster certainly aroused some interest. The only problem was that, because I was so busy explaining my poster, I was unable to view the others, which was slightly disappointing. However, I've been told all the posters will eventually be made available on the SID website, so all is not lost.

The full title of the workshop was "Sonic Interaction Design and its relation to Film and Theatre sound design" and, coupled with the fact that the workshop was held within a department of film and theatre, it was no surprise that one or two performances would be written into the day. The first performance, "The Anny in the Kitchen", was...well, just in case it's performed again, I won't go into all the details, but I found it extremely amusing and an interesting approach to creating a theatrical scene based upon a sound design rather than the (traditional) other way round, and how dissonance between what we hear and what we see can yield humorous results. Someone later on in the day stated that he felt the use of humour in sound design has yet to be fully investigated and, based upon this performance, I completely agree.

In the afternoon, there were another two interesting talks from Annabelle Pangborn, who is a sound designer for films, and Mary Luckhurst alongside Paul Abbott, who together are involved in sound design for theatre. Not being a huge theatre goer, I must admit these talks meant less to me than the talks earlier in the day, but this does not mean I found them any less interesting - indeed, one of the key discussion points at the end of the day was that theatre does not use sound to its full potential, yet we in interactive sound design have a lot to offer.

Not being involved in the second poster session meant that this time I was free to look at everyone else's work, although I must admit I spent most of the assigned three quarters of an hour transfixed by Cumhur Erkut's poster, "Exploring self-induced sonic interactions in the context of the arts". Cumhur's project looked at how little sonically-enhanced technologies could be used within theatrical performances - such as the clapping of one's hands to trigger a reverberation effect. One thing I drew out of this research was that I didn't feel it should be limited to theatre performance - I could certainly view it being used within a wide range of contexts. I had a lot of fun listening to Cumhur and playing with the technology, which left less time to view the other posters.

Finally, it was time for the last performance of the day. Well, actually, it was the same performance (or, rather, the underlying "script" remained the same) but the soundtrack was much darker and much less humorous, again showing the power of sound design and how it affects how we perceive a particular performance. Following discussions, it was time to head off to a nearby restaurant for a well earned feed.

So what did I learn from the day? Firstly, I learnt that (thankfully!) there were others out there who shared my enthusiasm for interactive sound design. When I first started my PhD, I always felt that sound design was always on the fringes, or was limited to the cognitive aspects of sound, but this seems to have changed. I feel that this is an exciting field to work in, and can only grow in stature. My only disappointment with the day was that I felt too much emphasis was given on how Sonic Interaction Design could contribute to e.g. theatre than the other way round, i.e. what those of us involved in SID can learn from sound design in film/computer games, particularly in terms of the immersive and emotional aspects. I think that one of the reasons for this could be that it is difficult to demonstrate the interesting aspects of film/computer game sound design within (for example) a mobile technology, although some of the examples Daniel's students put together certainly hinted at this through their critical designs. Other than this, I feel I'm working in one of the more exciting areas in interaction design!

1980s pop + accessibility

2009-03-05T02:30:00.000-08:00

Sometime back in the late 1980s, a UK band called Breathe released a track called "Hands to Heaven". The band have long since split up, but one of the original members is now involved in web design at Headscape.

Hence, "Hands to Heaven" has been covered in an accessibility-styleee (the "Boag" in question is Paul Boag, creative director at Headscape).

Made my day, but probably only funny to those who remember the original or are involved in web design...!

Rødgrød med fløde

2009-03-04T03:46:00.000-08:00

As part of my stop-start attempts at learning Danish, and while I wait for a video to convert from VOB to WMV format, I've created a new Twitter account called graemepaadansk. I plan to post 3 - 4 tweets a day, made up of interesting Danish phrases I come across, my current thoughts in Danish, or anything else I can think of. The only rule I have set myself is that ALL tweets must be in Danish - no English allowed!

Feel free to follow me if you wish - Danish speakers are particularly welcome to correct my mistakes!!!!

Create your own album cover!

2009-03-02T04:32:00.000-08:00

A bit of fun this one, passed on to me by a friend...

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days.
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

Here's mine:

If anyone (???) reads this blog, feel free to add your own version into the Comments!

Wordle

2009-02-24T06:41:00.000-08:00

Wordle is a little application that produces a word cloud of a section of text. This is how my PhD abstract is rendered...very interesting...

Friendfeed

2009-02-24T02:36:00.001-08:00

Just a quick note to say that I have collated all my social networking thingies together into one feed using Friendfeed. My Friendfeed contains this blog, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and one or two other applications. So, if you're interested, feel free to follow me...

Doing my bit for Char-i-dee, mate!

2009-02-19T08:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a photo of my new bike I have purchased with the intention of ridding myself of the rather substantial waistline I have acquired over the past couple of years.

I purchased it from the Cycle Stop charity, which offers employment opportunities to long-term unemployed people.

Yes, my desk (in the background) is a mess.

The perils of prototypes

2009-02-13T07:09:00.000-08:00

This made me chuckle.

Well and truly poked

2009-02-08T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I've finally done it. A little later than everyone else, but never mind! Yes, in addition to (re-)starting a blog, I joined everyone else on Facebook almost to the day that it turned 5 years old.

I had my reasons for not joining before - like many, I felt that I was already in touch with the people I wanted to be in touch with. I didn't, however, subscribe to some of the weird and wonderful conspiracy theories that others have come up with for not joining.

I've now caught the bug, and have just lost almost an entire weekend catching up with old school and workmates, most of whom are just as I remember albeit, like me, having wrinkled slightly over the past fifteen years! Strangely, very few of the mates I met at university appear to be on, I've no idea why. It sounds rather quaint now, but when I graduated from my undergraduate degree back in 1998, none of us had mobile phones or e-mail addresses - I remember writing and posting loads of letters to fellow ex-students about my first job!

Twa pehs...

2009-02-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

As a native Dundonian, one of my current favourite blogs is Retro Dundee which, rather than concentrate on photos showing how the city looked 50 - 100 years ago (as many historical sites tend to do), this concentrates on Dundee from the 1960s to the 1980s, the latter of which was the decade in which I grew up. It really is incredible how much Dundee has changed in such a relatively short period of time - the Overgate Centre for one!

Let's Go!

2009-01-30T09:17:00.000-08:00

So...here we go again.

Over the past five years or so, I've tried, and failed to keep a blog. I really, really wanted to do this during the course of my PhD, particularly when it came to writing the fu...the thesis up. You have not known write-up desperation until you've spent two hours on a Friday evening rummaging through boxes of notes to find JUST ONE particular reference, while at the same time cursing yourself for not noting it down in somewhere easy to find, such as...in a blog, for example. Doh.

Laziness is often a factor for me - there is the general excitement of setting up a blog, which is then followed by the realization that, to keep it flowing, you've got to keep posting. It's here that things have generally gone wrong. My life really isn't that exciting to merit multiple posts a week/day/hour, which is why my Twitter page looks very bleak. However, I'd like to point out that I do more with my life than to return from Belgium.

Coupled with this problem is the fact that I never know which aspect of my personality to present in a blog. Is it the serious post-doc researcher who reflects on life in a Wittgensteinian manner, or do I use it as a platform for my rants against contemporary performances of the Scottish national football team, or the fact that I find this type of YouTube clip to be hysterically funny? Well, to be honest, I'm not going to worry about it any more - it's going to be a mish-mash of everything, although now that I'm apparently a serious post-doc researcher, it will be probably more geared to my musings on all things linked to what I do for a living.

So, let's get this thing on the road. It will be exciting. Maybe.

And, in case you're wondering why this blog has been given such a daft moniker, you can blame this now famous letter of compaint.