Culture Participation & New Media Literacy, Usage and Adoption
In May 2012, I started working as a scientific researcher at SMIT (Studies Media Information and Telecommunication), a research department affiliated with the Brussels Free University (VUB) and a part of iMinds. My current research focus is on 1) e-Culture and digital culture participation, 2) media literacy and 3) unstable media art adoption in cultural institutions. Within the Digital Arts cluster, I am working on user-centered methodologies concerned with media usage and literacy in the context of cultural-creative industries for both the Policy Unit and the User Research Cluster. From mid 2012 to end 2015, all my research projects are involved with the third generation of the Policy Research Centers for Media and Culture of the Flemish Government.
Participatory Design for Embodied Music Mediation Technologies
From February 2008 to April 2012, worked on my PhD-thesis at the Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM) of Ghent University. My promoter was prof. dr. M. Leman, who kinda introduced the paradigm of embodiment to systematic and cognitive musicology. My research had the overblown and pompous worktitle "Socio-musicological research into the application of Embodied Music Mediation Technologies in the Cultural-Creative Sector". The project comprised methodologies from social sciences, human-computer interaction studies and sometimes when it was convenient, musicology.
The topics that are dealt with included:
- usability engineering of embodied interfaces for musical expression
- living lab methodologies for new media technologies in cultural and creative industries
- participatory, iterative and interaction design for artistic collaborative interfaces and interactive virtual reality environments in art.
Some publications:
- Diniz, N., Coussement, P., Deweppe, A., Demey, M. & Leman, M. (2011). An embodied music cognition approach to develop multilevel interactive sonification. Journal of Multimodal User Interfaces (Vol. 4 N° 2/3/4). [online: http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/journal/12193].
- Deweppe, A., Diniz, N., Coussement, P. & Leman, M. (2011). A methodological framework for the development and evaluation of user-centered art installations. Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies. (Vol: 5, N°: 1). [online: http://www.musicstudies.org/arc.html].
- Leman, M., Lesaffre, M., Nijs, L. & Deweppe, A. (2010). User-oriented Studies in Embodied Music Cognition. Musicae Scientiae (Vol: 14, N°: 2). Univeristé de Liège: Belgium.
- Deweppe, A., Diniz, N., Coussement, P., Lesaffre, M. & Leman, M. (2010). Evaluating Strategies for Embodied Music Interaction with Musical Content. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (CiM10). Sheffield: United Kingdom.
- Diniz, N., Deweppe, A., Demey, M. & Leman, M. (2010). A Framework for music-based interactive Sonification. 16th International Conference for Auditory Display (ICAD) Washington: USA.
- Deweppe, A., Leman, M. & Lesaffre, M. (2009). Discerning user profiles and establishing usability for the interactive music applications that use embodied mediation technology. In: J. Louhivuori, T. Eerola, S. Saarikallio, T. Himberg, P.‐S. Eerola (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2009 European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music Conference (pp. 74‐78). Jyväskylä: Finland.
As I was unable to finish my thesis within the period of the scholarship, I kept working on it during weekends and holidays for years on end; a strategy I don't particularly condone or advise. The prognosis of finalizing the thesis and organizing the defense initially was to land somewhere around Summer 2013. Eventually, I obtained my silly hat and title no earlier than Summer 2017, after nine and a half years of heartache.
The topics that are dealt with included:
- usability engineering of embodied interfaces for musical expression
- living lab methodologies for new media technologies in cultural and creative industries
- participatory, iterative and interaction design for artistic collaborative interfaces and interactive virtual reality environments in art.
Some publications:
- Diniz, N., Coussement, P., Deweppe, A., Demey, M. & Leman, M. (2011). An embodied music cognition approach to develop multilevel interactive sonification. Journal of Multimodal User Interfaces (Vol. 4 N° 2/3/4). [online: http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/journal/12193].
- Deweppe, A., Diniz, N., Coussement, P. & Leman, M. (2011). A methodological framework for the development and evaluation of user-centered art installations. Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies. (Vol: 5, N°: 1). [online: http://www.musicstudies.org/arc.html].
- Leman, M., Lesaffre, M., Nijs, L. & Deweppe, A. (2010). User-oriented Studies in Embodied Music Cognition. Musicae Scientiae (Vol: 14, N°: 2). Univeristé de Liège: Belgium.
- Deweppe, A., Diniz, N., Coussement, P., Lesaffre, M. & Leman, M. (2010). Evaluating Strategies for Embodied Music Interaction with Musical Content. Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Musicology (CiM10). Sheffield: United Kingdom.
- Diniz, N., Deweppe, A., Demey, M. & Leman, M. (2010). A Framework for music-based interactive Sonification. 16th International Conference for Auditory Display (ICAD) Washington: USA.
- Deweppe, A., Leman, M. & Lesaffre, M. (2009). Discerning user profiles and establishing usability for the interactive music applications that use embodied mediation technology. In: J. Louhivuori, T. Eerola, S. Saarikallio, T. Himberg, P.‐S. Eerola (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2009 European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music Conference (pp. 74‐78). Jyväskylä: Finland.
As I was unable to finish my thesis within the period of the scholarship, I kept working on it during weekends and holidays for years on end; a strategy I don't particularly condone or advise. The prognosis of finalizing the thesis and organizing the defense initially was to land somewhere around Summer 2013. Eventually, I obtained my silly hat and title no earlier than Summer 2017, after nine and a half years of heartache.
Paganini to Petrucci: evolution of classical quotation in 50 years of Rock
For my master's thesis in historical musicology, I asked my promoter prof. dr. F. Maes whether I could do something on popular music, more specifically, on Hard Rock. He agreed, but gave me proper warning that this was not at all his area of expertise, so in terms of content I was pretty much on my own. Moreover, the thesis should conform to academic standards, whether or not scientific material was scarce.
Valiantly, I set out on my quest, soon to discover that, aside from seventies Prog Rock, most of rock's neo-classical sub-genres were quite poorly documented in the scientific literature (at least, at the time). So, instead of writing a thesis solely about the likes of Deep Purple, Dream Theater, Symphony X, Sonata Arctica and Yngwie Malmsteen, I ended up listening to and writing about King Crimson, Yes, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Focus, The Nice and Emerson Lake and Palmer. AlI things considered, it ended up better than anticipated; the crude quality of my work was somewhat confirmed when in 2010 (four years after I finished my master's thesis) Anderton published a paper in "Popular Music", that used a pretty much identical reference section. You can still find my thesis online, as I entered it in the annual Flemish "Pop thesis contest". The content is predominantly in dutch and personally, I think the Anderton's paper is a far better read. Still, you can have a lot of fun with trying to name the bands and composers on the cover. It definitely keeps me entertained for a while from time to time. |