Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lo ....Understanding motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. This project examines motivation and practice quality in elite music performance. It applies major theoretical explanations from other domains where optimising motivation and practice quality has consistently been found to increase performance, persistence, learning, creativity, and wellbeing. The expected outcomes of the project address the competitiveness of Australian musicians, particularly in light of significantly lower funding for music institutions compared to international counterparts. The research endeavours to inform understandings about the nature of motivation and practice more generally, by extending conceptions that have until now been formed largely through research in non-artistic domains of human accomplishment.Read moreRead less
Discovering genes for singing ability in Australian families. Music abilities are core to what makes us human, with singing ubiquitous in all cultures. Anecdotal evidence suggests that singing ability runs in families, supporting its genetic basis, however no research has systematically traced it across generations. Using an innovative web-based singing program and the latest molecular genetic techniques, this project aims to discover singing ability genes through the first Australian study of l ....Discovering genes for singing ability in Australian families. Music abilities are core to what makes us human, with singing ubiquitous in all cultures. Anecdotal evidence suggests that singing ability runs in families, supporting its genetic basis, however no research has systematically traced it across generations. Using an innovative web-based singing program and the latest molecular genetic techniques, this project aims to discover singing ability genes through the first Australian study of large families with many talented singers. This will generate new knowledge on the origins of human musicality and help Australia develop a sustainable source of cultural capital. It will build interdisciplinary research capacity and inform bespoke music learning programs that account for individual differences.Read moreRead less
Interrogating the music city: cultural economy & popular music in Melbourne. Drawing on a range of sources and disciplinary frameworks, this project is designed to be both a history of the pop and rock music scenes in Melbourne from the mid-1950s to the present, and an analysis and critique of the usefulness of the concept of the 'music city' to understanding the role of popular music in the cultural economy of cities internationally. Melbourne is Australia’s premier ‘music city’, with popular m ....Interrogating the music city: cultural economy & popular music in Melbourne. Drawing on a range of sources and disciplinary frameworks, this project is designed to be both a history of the pop and rock music scenes in Melbourne from the mid-1950s to the present, and an analysis and critique of the usefulness of the concept of the 'music city' to understanding the role of popular music in the cultural economy of cities internationally. Melbourne is Australia’s premier ‘music city’, with popular music a key component of its contemporary identity and cultural economy. As governments and civic leaders around the world increasingly look to music cultures as drivers of economic development and cultural status, the project offers a timely evaluation of the utility of this cultural and economic strategy.Read moreRead less
An interaction model for human–machine creative collaboration. The project aims to demonstrate how interactive systems can enhance creative productivity, through the development and evaluation of a model for how humans and AI can interact while creating. This is expected to generate new strategies for effective, intelligent, and domain-general creativity support. These new strategies will be validated in the domains of drawing and music composition by rigorous human-centred prototyping technique ....An interaction model for human–machine creative collaboration. The project aims to demonstrate how interactive systems can enhance creative productivity, through the development and evaluation of a model for how humans and AI can interact while creating. This is expected to generate new strategies for effective, intelligent, and domain-general creativity support. These new strategies will be validated in the domains of drawing and music composition by rigorous human-centred prototyping techniques. The principal anticipated outcome of the project is a model for how to enhance creative work through interacting with AI, an opportunity that is currently largely unexplored. Benefits will include an increase in the rate of creative outputs, both within the creative industries and throughout the economy.Read moreRead less
Policing Australian Popular Music. This project will be the first comprehensive study of the relationship between policing and popular music in Australia. An interdisciplinary approach brings together criminology, music, history, social work, cultural, and music education research to investigate the processes by which certain forms of popular music and affiliated communities have been criminalised, and the ways musicians and musical communities have voiced resistance to police and state power. T ....Policing Australian Popular Music. This project will be the first comprehensive study of the relationship between policing and popular music in Australia. An interdisciplinary approach brings together criminology, music, history, social work, cultural, and music education research to investigate the processes by which certain forms of popular music and affiliated communities have been criminalised, and the ways musicians and musical communities have voiced resistance to police and state power. Through innovative interview and arts-practice based methodologies, the project will generate new knowledge on the historic and contemporary relations between state governance and creative cultural expression to inform policy and practice in policing as well as cultural investments. Read moreRead less
Hearing histories of the western Pilbara. This project aims to investigate Indigenous song traditions of the western Pilbara through current practice and legacy recordings. It aims to show how public song traditions were used through the twentieth century as tools to manage environmental change. By recording and documenting songs and histories, and curating and developing an online collection of song-based digital heritage items with a virtual landscape interface, the project is expected to prod ....Hearing histories of the western Pilbara. This project aims to investigate Indigenous song traditions of the western Pilbara through current practice and legacy recordings. It aims to show how public song traditions were used through the twentieth century as tools to manage environmental change. By recording and documenting songs and histories, and curating and developing an online collection of song-based digital heritage items with a virtual landscape interface, the project is expected to produce knowledge about the role of digital collections and cultural mapping in supporting the sustainment of endangered song traditions. It also aims to develop tools for use by communities and researchers to secure legacy, crowd-sourced and newly created records of intangible cultural heritages for the future.Read moreRead less
Stage acoustical quality in auditoria: measurement, simulation, prediction and design. This project asks what acoustic qualities make a concert hall stage outstanding for musicians, and how can these qualities be achieved? It involves a collaboration between acoustics researchers in Australia and Korea, with complementary expertise in lab and field studies of auditorium stages.
From sound to hearing: the integration of behavioural, neurophysiological, and neuroimaging research with computational models. McLachlan and Wilson have recently published a ground-breaking new model of the auditory system with important implications for treating deafness and understanding neurological disorders. In this research the predictions of the model will be experimentally validated using advanced neuroimaging techniques.
Musical resilience within marginal groups in culturally diverse societies. This project aims to examine and compare the music of minorities in one Western and one non-Western culturally diverse society to better understand how certain musics thrive. This project will improve understanding of the musical and social lives of minority communities in culturally diverse societies. By exploring how communities perceive and handle challenges to musical practices, it will expand knowledge of the ways th ....Musical resilience within marginal groups in culturally diverse societies. This project aims to examine and compare the music of minorities in one Western and one non-Western culturally diverse society to better understand how certain musics thrive. This project will improve understanding of the musical and social lives of minority communities in culturally diverse societies. By exploring how communities perceive and handle challenges to musical practices, it will expand knowledge of the ways that music can enhance the lives of minority peoples and our society. The outcomes will include practical guidance that can inform community activities and policy at a range of levels, and benefit society through positive social change.Read moreRead less
Loudness moves! Roles of changing acoustic intensity in the perception of music. Changing loudness of a sound is an urgent cue for object location, and an emotional cue in speech and music. With new empirical techniques, we will identify roles of loudness in perception of structure, arousal and emotion in music. The work has application in inter-personal communication, sonic information display and, and in music selling online.