Victoria University of Wellington

About

Projects

Publications

Directors

Ajay Kapur	Ajay Kapur is a Senior Lecturer of Sonic Arts Engineering at the New Zealand School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington. He received an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in 2007 from University of Victoria combining computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, music and psychology with a focus on intelligent music systems and media technology. Ajay graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Computer Science from Princeton University in 2002. A musician at heart trained on drumset, tabla, sitar and other percussion instruments from around the world, Ajay strives to push the technological barrier in order to explore new sounds, rhythms and melodies. Kapur has published over 80 technical papers and presented lectures across the world on music technology, human computer interface for artists, robotics for making sound, and modern digital orchestras. His book “Digitizing North Indian Music”, discusses how sensors, machine learning and robotics are used to extend and preserve traditional techniques of Indian Classical music.	Dale A. Carnegie	Dale's research interests are in the area of intelligent control of electromechanical systems. Specifically, his Group has developed a fleet of robots capable of operation over a variety of terrains. The goal is to provide these robots with the ability to learn and adapt, and eventually be able to operate autonomously (without human intervention). To achieve this, we need to be able to solve navigation, localisation and control issues, develop new sensors, creatively incorporate new ones, and implement neural networks and other artificial intelligence algorithms.

Lecturers

Jim W. Murphy	Jim Murphy is a sound artist with a focus on the intersection of art and engineering and of the inanimate and the actant. His mechatronic works have been shown in the United States, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. He has collaborated with sound artist trimpin, and has studied under and worked with music technologist Ajay Kapur. Jim received his B.F.A. in music technology from CalArts in 2010 and completed his multidisciplinary Ph.D in Sonic Arts and Engineering from Victoria University of Wellington in 2014. He is interested in teaching the art of kinetic sound sculpture design and in exploring the use of new technologies to create large-scale networked sound art works.	Mo H. Zareei	Mo H. Zareei aka mHz is an electronic musician and a music technology researcher. Born and raised in Iran, Zareei moved to the United States in 2010 to study at California Institute of the Arts, where he started to explore the world of electronic music, making sound from scratch with codes, algorithms, and circuits. Using custom-built software and hardware, his experiments with sound covers a wide range from electroacoustic and electronic compositions to mechatronic soundsculptures and installations. Striving to turn the harsh, unwanted, and unnoticeable into the pleasing and accessible, Zareei’s work is particularly targeted at the point where noise meets grid-based structures. He is currently living in New Zealand, where he is pursuing his PhD research on noise music and mechatronics at Victoria University of Wellington.

Ph.D Students

Kameron Christopher	Kameron Christopher is currently pursuing his Ph.D in Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington. He recently completed his M.F.A Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence & Design + Integrated Media at California Institute of the Arts, and holds a BM in Music Composition from Berklee College of Music.	Bridget Johnson	Bridget Johnson is a Wellington-based sound artist. Born and raised in Australia, her work focuses on finding modes of musical expressivity in emerging technologies. As a practicing artist, musician, and composer, her works have been shown throughout New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Korea. Her recent projects include music oriented software development which focus on reimagining established art forms through the lens of new interaction techniques.
Jingyin He	Jingyin "Jon" He is an experimental sound and integrated media artist and researcher. His artistic focus is driven by the investigation and discovery of new directions in aesthetics. He works within a hybridized culture of art and technology, exploring the frontiers of computational creativity in contemporary sonic and visual arts practices. Jon is currently pursuing his Ph.D in Sonic Arts and Engineering at Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), transversing between antiquity and modern technology to design and develop new modes of performance towards the extension and preservation of traditional Chinese Arts. He recently completed his M.F.A. in Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence & Design with Integrated Media at California Institute of the Arts (USA). He also holds a B.A. in Music Technology from LaSalle College of the Arts (Singapore), and was an artist-in-residence at Studio for Electro Instrumental Music (STEIM, NL) in 2010.	Diana Siwiak	Diana Siwiak is a flutist and sonic scientist. Her research focus lies within the intersection of music performance, pedagogy, and music engineering technology. She earned a Bachelor's in classical flute at UMiami under the late Christine Nield-Capote and in music engineering and computer science under Ken Pohlmann. She then obtained a Masters under Dr. Julius Smith at Stanford's CCRMA program. She completed and published work as a sound designer for GM's electric car, the Volt. Later, she designed a musical biofeedback system providing breathing regulation for oncology patients with Dr. Jonathan Berger and the Stanford Medical Department. Diana continued her research in musical biofeedback under an NSF IGERT Doctoral Fellowship at ASU. While there, she founded LOrkAS and acquired another Masters. Diana has been passionate about music since age 2; it continues to inspire all aspects of her life.
Jason Long	Jason Long is a composer and sound artist from Christchurch, New Zealand. He studied at the University of Canterbury under respected composers Chris Cree Brown and Gao Ping, and finished his Bachelor of Music degree with a year at the Utrecht Higher school of the Arts, the Netherlands. After following that up with a First Class Honours degree at the University of Canterbury researching electroacoustic music, analog synthesis, and musical robotics and winning the Douglas Lilburn prize for composition, he was awarded a Japanese Government scholarship to undertake a Masters degree at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he built an ensemble of robotic musical instruments. With a number of his pieces being performed internationally at festivals such as the ISCM, ACL, and ICMC and a slew of music released internationally in the form of vinyl records, CDs, and digital distribution, Jason is currently pursuing a Ph.D at Victoria University in Wellington, developing a compositional and performance framework for musical robotics and live electronic music.	Blake Johnston	Blake Johnston is Wellington-based sound artist. His creative output encompasses and often combines ideas from instrumental composition, kinetic sculpture, and music technology for live performance and gallery settings. Recent works have included a collaboration with Henry Dengate Thrush in the creation of a mechatronic instrument ensemble, Polus Ensemble, works for a deconstructed piano and live electronics in his Brackets series, and a sonic installation in the Low Noise exhibition entitled Hummingbird. His work has been performed and demonstrated in Australasia, Europe and America. Blake is currently studying towards his Ph.D at the New Zealand School of Music.

Alumni

Jordan Hochenbaum	Jordan Hochenbaum is a creative technologist and member of FlipMu and the Noise Index. His works explore data sonification, generative audio/visual systems, questions emerging from Big Data, and musical interfaces with open source aesthetics. Jordan has consulted on audio research and machine learning for high profile video games and audio companies, and his work has been featured online and in print, including Wired Magazine, Computer Arts Magazine, Make Magazine, XLR8R, on Processing.org, and at international festivals and conferences including Google I/O, NASA’s Yuri’s Night, NIME, ISMIR, and ICMC, to name a few. Currently, Jordan is on faculty at California Institute of the Arts.	Owen Vallis	Owen Vallis is currently Professor of Music Technology at the California Institute of the Arts, MTIID (Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence, and Design program), and is a musician, artist, and scientist interested in performance, sound, and technology. As a co-founder of Flipmu, and The Noise Index, he explores a diverse range of projects including big data research, sound art installations, producing and composing, designing audio processors, and creating new hardware interfaces for musical performance.
Timothy Barraclough	Timothy J. Barraclough is an electronic musician and music technologist currently studying for his Masters in Engineering at the Victoria University of Wellington. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Sociology at the Victoria University of Wellington in 2012 and his Post-Graduate Diploma in Sonic Arts Composition in 2013. His work is focused primarily around creating new ways to consume and interact with artistic works through the use of both existing and emergent technology and the ways that technology can transform, inform and create socio-artistic experiences