CV

This is a selected record of my professional, academic and creative work. For fuller catalogues and current projects, see Projects, Music, Research and Engagement.

At a glance

  • Current: Visiting Research Professor, School of Music, University of Leeds.
  • Professor of Music: personal chair awarded by De Montfort University in 1997.
  • Creative practice: composition, digital work and interdisciplinary projects including Frog Fizzles, Spectrum Sounds and Digital Syzygies.
  • Research and writing: author of The Digital Musician and ’Pataphysics: A Useless Guide; co-author of Aural Diversity.
  • Advocacy and consultancy: disability, neurodivergence, accessibility and hearing difference, including the Aural Diversity project.
  • Academic leadership: founder of Music, Technology and Innovation, the Institute of Creative Technologies and Creative Computing programmes at Bath Spa and Leicester; co-founder of the Institute for Digital Culture at Leicester.

Current role

  • 2025–2028, University of Leeds: Visiting Research Professor, School of Music.

Education and professional recognition

  • 1997, PhD Composition, De Montfort University.
  • 1982, MA Composition, University of Keele.
  • 1980, BA Music and English, University of Keele.
  • 2019, Discovering Excellence Awards, ‘Research Team of the Year’: Virtual Vauxhall Gardens.
  • 2017, Principal Fellow, Higher Education Academy.
  • 2006, National Teaching Fellow, Higher Education Academy.
  • 2006, Times Higher Education Awards: Most Imaginative Use of Distance Learning (Highly Commended).

Academic career and leadership

  • University of Leicester, 2018–2024: founded Creative Computing; co-founded the Institute for Digital Culture and served as its Deputy Director, 2022–2024; founded the Staff Neurodiversity Group; chaired the Captioning Task and Finish Group.
  • Bath Spa University, 2013–2018: founded and directed Creative Computing as a subject area and research centre.
  • De Montfort University / Leicester Polytechnic, 1986–2013: Lecturer in Performing Arts: Music; Reader in Musical Composition; awarded a personal chair in Music in 1997; founded Music, Technology and Innovation; co-directed the Centre for Technology and the Arts; founded and directed the Institute of Creative Technologies.
  • Earlier professional work: Music Copyist, Novello & Co. (1982–1986); Musical Director, ‘George W. Welch’ ensemble (1983–1989); Musical Assistant, Opéras de Lyon et Paris (1984–1985).

Selected creative practice

  • Frog Fizzles: 147 miniature living scores based on frogs, bringing together composition, constraint, listening and digital practice.
  • Spectrum Sounds: commissioned by the BBC and the four UK Arts Councils.
  • Digital Syzygies: collaborative work involving autistic and d/Deaf musicians using EEG headsets, developed within the ERC-funded Digital Scores project.
  • GlossGlide: a creative rethinking of Percy Grainger’s digital archive, drawing on archival sound materials from the Grainger home in White Plains, New York.
  • For the full catalogue, recordings and scores, see Music.

Selected books and research

  • The Digital Musician, 3rd edition.
  • ’Pataphysics: A Useless Guide.
  • Aural Diversity, co-authored.
  • New realisation of Erik Satie’s Uspud, published in the Journal of the Royal Musical Association.
  • “The continuous in motion: music and/as science”, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews.
  • Research and publications across electronic music, digital culture, Raymond Roussel, audio-only games, Ménière’s disease, museum sound, computer science, disability and listening.
  • For a fuller list, see Publications.

Aural diversity, disability and consultancy

My experience of Ménière’s disease, severe hearing loss, tinnitus and diplacusis, together with my diagnosis of autism in 2018, significantly changed the direction of my work. In 2018 I founded Aural Diversity, which brings together research and practice around hearing difference and the many ways in which people listen.

  • Founder, Aural Diversity Network.
  • Creator, Aural Diversity Infographic, widely used in audiology and acoustics.
  • Creator, Balance Disorder Spectrum, an interactive map of balance conditions.
  • Consultancy and advisory work for organisations in healthcare, education, engineering and the arts, including the NHS, Arup, Attenborough Arts Centre, Atkins Global, the Ménière’s Society and the University of Leicester.
  • Founder, University of Leicester Staff Neurodiversity Group (2022–2024).
  • Further work is listed under Engagement.

Selected research funding

Principal Investigator / Lead Academic

  • 2023–2025, Innovate UK (KTP), £431,000: Geo-demographic segmentations of populations of audience data, with The Audience Agency.
  • 2021, AHRC, £33,698: Aural Diversity Network.
  • 2019, GN ReSound, £23,000: Aural Diversity.
  • 2019, Arts Council England, £11,400: Aural Diversity.
  • 2018–2019, Wellcome Trust ‘Discipline Bridges’ scheme, £10,000: BalanceAID development.
  • 2018, GN ReSound, £22,200: Consequences of Ménière’s Disease and other hearing conditions for musicians, their hearing care and hearing technologies.
  • 2015, UCAS, £47,000: Project Alfie.
  • 2012, TSB, £42,750: The Opera Group digital development.
  • 2009, HEIF, £355,422: CPulse.
  • 2006–2009, HEFCE, £360,000: Collaborative Training Accounts.
  • 2003, HEFCE Science Research Infrastructure Fund, £1.3 million: Institute of Creative Technologies, Project Leader.
  • 1999, HEFCE, £192,000: Centre for Technology and the Arts, Project Leader.
  • 1999, Arts Council of England ‘New Audiences’ scheme, £36,000: Symphony for Cornwall.

Selected Co-Investigator work

  • 2014, NESTA, £124,625: Insight: Improving Museum Performance using Predictive Analysis, with Black Radley Ltd. and Prof Alison Hems.
  • 2004, JISC, £99,152: Collaborative Stereoscopic Access Grid Environment for Experimentation within the Arts and Humanities Community (CSAGE), with the University of Manchester.

International peer review and advisory work

  • 2016–present, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships / Actions: Vice Chair.
  • 2011–2021, European Research Council SH5, Cultures and Cultural Production: Panel Member.
  • 2020, European Research Council: Synergy Grants.
  • 2022–2023, PRIN (Research Projects of National Interest, Italy): Panel Member.
  • Peer review for the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, Austrian Science Fund, Portuguese Science and Technology Research Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
  • 2021–2026, Advisory Board, ERC Digital Scores: investigating the technological transformation of the music score.
  • 2018–2024, Advisory Board, Attenborough Arts Centre.

Editorships and reviewing

  • Co-editor, Springer book series Cultural Computing.
  • Co-editor, International Journal of Creative Computing.
  • Guest or special-edition editor for Interdisciplinary Science Reviews, Computer Music Journal and Digital Creativity.
  • Reviewer for MIT Press, Routledge, Cambridge University Press, Bloomsbury, Springer, Focal Press, Tempo and the Percy Grainger Society.

Doctoral supervision

Current

  • Shelby Navone, “Improving inclusivity and accessibility for disabled and neurodivergent people in digital performance and culture” (second supervisor).
  • Giorgie Goiati, “Electroencephalogram-driven AI composition and performance system for autistic and/or d/Deaf musicians” (second supervisor).
  • Zhuolin Li, “Who uses digital sound archives?” (second supervisor).

Completed

Supervised doctoral work in composition, digital opera, multimedia and live performance, creative computing, new media, data interoperability, broadcasting, popular music and installation/performance art, as first or second supervisor.

Show completed PhD supervisions
  • Dr Lee Scott (Digital Opera, first supervisor)
  • Dr Luke Nickel (Composition, second supervisor)
  • Dr Fania Raczinski (Algorithmic Meta-Creativity, second supervisor)
  • Dr Lu Zhang (Theoretical Issues in Creative Computing, second supervisor)
  • Dr J. Fishenden (The Palimpsest of Time: New Media Composition, first supervisor)
  • Dr I. Willcock (Multimedia and Live Performance, first supervisor)
  • Prof K. Pullinger (Published Works, second supervisor)
  • Dr H. Zhou (Data Interoperability via Ontology-Based Data Understanding, second supervisor)
  • Dr J. Laccetti (New Media Stories: Interactivity, Feminism, and Narrative Structures in New Media, second supervisor)
  • Dr C. Chambers (Published Works, first supervisor)
  • Dr C. Hobbs (Composition, first supervisor)
  • Dr R. Tipping (Classical Music Broadcasting on Television, first supervisor)
  • Dr P. Pece (The Effects of Trauma on the Memory Skills of Musicians, first supervisor)
  • Dr S. Smith (Compositional processes in hip-hop, second supervisor)
  • Dr R. Hemmings (Randomisation in popular music, second supervisor)
  • Dr G. Dale (Installation Art, second supervisor)
  • Dr R. Miller (Performance Art, second supervisor)

Curriculum development

  • 2019, BA/BSc Creative Computing, University of Leicester.
  • 2013, BSc Creative Computing, Bath Spa University.
  • 2006, MA/MSc Creative Technologies, De Montfort University.
  • 1997, BA/BSc Music, Technology and Innovation, De Montfort University.
Earlier examining, teaching and academic service

PhD examinations

  • 2021, University of Bournemouth, Dennis Braunsdorf (Composing with Flexible Phrases)
  • 2018, Royal College of Art, Derek Hales (Deleuze, Pataphysical Fiction and Speculative Design Research)
  • 2016, University of Sydney, Anastacia Nicéphore (Platωn’s Reality: Baudrillard’s Nostalgia)
  • 2015, Bath Spa University, Owen Lloyd (Composition)
  • 2011, University of Cardiff, Wendy Keay-Bright (Designing for Playfulness: Investigating the Therapeutic Potential of Technology Interfaces for Children on the Autism Spectrum)
  • 2009, University of Manchester, Peter Griffin (Composition)
  • 2005, University of Hertfordshire, Paul Carr (Composition)
  • 2004, University of Manchester, Ricardo Leal (Composition)
  • 2004, University of Hertfordshire, Paul Barker (Composition)
  • 2001, University of Middlesex, Kostas Giannoulakis (Music Visualisation)
  • 2000, University of Exeter, David Sanderson (Composition)

External examining

  • 2010–2014, University of Central Lancashire, MA Creative Thinking
  • 2010–2013, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, MA Computer Music
  • 2009–2013, University of Lancaster, BA Music / BSc Music Technology
  • 2005–2006, Anglia Ruskin University, BA Creative Music Technology
  • 2004–2007, University of York, MA/MSc Music Technology
  • 2001–2005, University of Hertfordshire, BSc Electronic Music / MSc Music and Electronics
  • 1999–2002, Bath Spa University College, BA Music / BA Creative Music Technology
  • 1999, University of Leeds, MSc Music Technology
  • 1998–2000, University College, Bretton Hall, BA Music

Selected teaching

  • 2019–2022, BA/BSc Creative Computing: Digital Arts Lab, Concurrent Design, SciArt and Big Data Analysis, Computational Arts.
  • 2010–2011, BA Music, Technology and Innovation: Digital Cultures; Performance Projects.
  • 2006–2011, MA/MSc Creative Technologies: Research Methods; Digital Cultures; Final Projects.
  • 1997–2006, BA/BSc Music, Technology and Innovation: creative projects, sound manipulation, internet music, electroacoustic music, musicianship, dissertations and projects.
  • 1986–1995, BA Performing Arts (Music): music history, composition, analysis, ensemble performance, dissertations and project workshops.
  • 1990–1995, interdisciplinary teaching: Dada and Surrealism, Conceptual Art, Marcel Duchamp, ’Pataphysics and French surrealist literature.

Selected academic service

  • University and faculty research, higher degrees, teaching and learning, disability/equality and EDI committees at Leicester, Bath Spa and De Montfort University.
  • Chair and member of course boards, management boards, strategy groups and research committees across the period 1988–2024.