Sonic communications--Postdoc/postgrad opportunities

[Freya Bailes <Freya.Bailes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

SONIC COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH GROUP (SCRG) - Opportunities

The Sonic Communications Research Group (SCRG) within the School of Creative
Communication at the University of Canberra offers a unique environment for
postgraduate and post-doctoral research, and welcomes visiting overseas
students. SCRG members are interested in questions such as the following:
- How do we communicate with sound?
- How does sound represent information, and help us perceive and interpret
complex data?
- How does sound induce affect?
- How do creative sound practices operate in contemporary culture?
- How can computers assist sound in media generation for creative and
commercial purposes?
- How do sound, text and image inter-relate in new media?
- How does text communicate when sounded, versus in other contexts?
- How is sound represented?
SCRG has an unusual range of expertise, representing cultural theory,
musicology, empirical cognitive studies, and creative practice in sound and
new media, particularly using computer mediation in real-time performance.
SCRG therefore fosters the application of multidisciplinary approaches to
its research, aware that there can be a productive interplay between
approaches and methodologies that are seemingly in conflict.
SCRG publications reflect this variety but share an interest in
understanding and creatively enhancing sonic communication. The group is
outward looking, with collaborations (MARCS Auditory Laboratories,
University of Western Sydney), external partnerships (austraLYSIS, creative
ensemble, and Great White Noise Pty Ltd., a commercial sound production and
project management concern), and involvement in research networks such as
the Australian Research Council (ARC)-funded Human Communication Sciences
network (HCSNet).
SCRG is funded by an ARC Discovery grant (CI Roger Dean), and is developing
ARC linkage and other forms of funding.
 
The following SCRG members are happy to supervise research:

Professor Roger Dean - cognition of segmentation and rhythm and segmentation
in music, including that in computer music, groove musics, jazz, improvised
music, and new music composition, Australian contemporary jazz;
comprovisation; computational generation of sound; algorithmic synaesthesia
between sound, text and image; sound file recognition by computational
approaches.  
 
Dr. Stephen Barrass - sonification, auditory perception, audio interfaces,
audio augmented reality, public sound installations, aesthetics of auditory
displays, data driven music, new interfaces for algorithmic music, and music
visualisation 
 
Dr. Freya Bailes ­ musical imagery (i.e. ?auralisation¹ or imagining sound
in the ?mind¹s ear¹), music perception and cognition, mental representation
of musical structure
 
Dr. Hazel Smith - new media writing; sonic writing; relationships between
text, sound and image; literary representations of music; literary and
cultural theory 
 
Dr. Mitchell Whitelaw ­ sound practice, culture and criticism; experimental
electronic sound and music; improvisation with real-time inputs and
processing; data sonification and aesthetics
 
For more on SCRG, visit http://www.canberra.edu.au/vc-forum/scrg/. Contact
the co-leaders Roger Dean (roger.dean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) or Stephen Barrass
(stephen.barrass@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx).
 
SCRG expects all participants to co-publish, and while PhD students and
post-doctoral researchers have considerable flexibility in their choice of
research topics, and their development, these must cohere with core themes
of the group, and attract the support of a member.
 
Applications for Higher degree places close on 31 October for enrolment in
semester 1 in 2006, but international students must apply for study by the
end of September. 
 
Highly qualified applicants who would like to conduct research within SCRG
should note that the University of Canberra has a number of places available
for doctoral students on a competitive basis under the Research Training
Scheme. Information on RTS, and also on full fee-paying places and
fee-waiver scholarships can be found at:
http://www.canberra.edu.au/corporate/research/students/scholarships.html.
 
There are in addition a number of postgraduate scholarships available
(http://www.canberra.edu.au/student-services/scholarships).
 
Outstanding candidates should be able to attract an APA scholarship, or a
similar stipend from other sources, and SCRG will assist with such
applications for well-focused candidates. SCRG also hopes to have its own
funds to provide 'top-up' bursaries in support of outstanding candidates for
PhD or post-doctoral research.

Australian Government Higher Education (CRICOS) Registered Provider number:
#00212K