Alan Chamberlain

Dr Alan Chamberlain BA (Hons), MSc, PhD, FRSA

[alan-chamberlain]

Living With AI Podcasts

Here’s selection of Podcasts that I’ve been involved in as part of the TAS project. They are enjoyable to do and offer an insight into the world of AI. We’ll be recording more soon. Available on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify etc. AI Music: Duelling against a Robot Piano! APRIL 21, 2021, SEASON 1, EPISODE 14 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1447474/8287907-ai-music-duelling-against-a-robot-piano Legal and Ethical Problems with AI APRIL 07, 2021, SEASON 1, EPISODE 12 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1447474/8201290-legal-and-ethical-problems-with-ai Should we Worry about Swarm Robotics (Or simply rebrand as Flocking Robots?) MARCH 31, 2021 SEASON 1, EPISODE 11 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1447474/8195460-should-we-worry-about-swarm-robotics-or-simply-rebrand-as-flocking-robots Living with AI Security MARCH 24, 2021, SEASON 1, EPISODE 10 https://www.buzzsprout.com/1447474/8022176

[alan-chamberlain]

Reviewed and accepted for the International Conference on Computational Creativity, ICCC’20, Coimbra, Portugal. September 7 – 11, 2020.  Composed by Alan Chamberlain and submitted to ICCC 2020

[alan-chamberlain]

New Music Release  The Loss of One by Alan Chamberlain 1.Voices From the Shore 07:04 2.Heligoland 08:58 3.Flow 1 03:09 4.Flow 2 08:30 5.The Loss of One 06:24 6.For Amelia Rosselli 06:40 This album brings together a series of musical works by Alan Chamberlain. Some are experiments with sound and technology (artificial intelligence - Flow 1 & Flow 2), while others are written around themes, such as Heligoland, and Voices from the Shore. I hope you enjoy the work and follow me on Bandcamp. Thanks Alan Credits Released May 26, 2020 Composer Alan Chamberlain Producer Alan Chamberlain

[alan-chamberlain]

CODI off-grid Network Launched This great new initiative has launched! Are based in Wales?

We want to hear from experimental sound-artists and music creators working in free-improvisation, sound-art, noise, drone, no-input mixing or any other unconventional or avant-garde practice, to help us shape the network’s activity.   SIGN UP to be included on CoDI Off-Grid's database of artists.   https://www.tycerdd.org/codi-off-grid

“CoDi Off-grid will feature an online database of experimental artists, plus online events to support artists to connect each other, promote their work, share practice and ideas, and reach new audiences. The network is free to join and developed in collaboration with a steering group of artists and curators located in Wales: Alan Chamberlain, Ash Cooke, Avi Allen, Beck Edwards, Dafydd Roberts, Edward Wright, Louise Trehy & Nêst Thomas”

[alan-chamberlain]

New Commission for the National Library of Wales I’ve just heard that I’ve been awarded a commission to compose and record some music for the National Library of Wales. The purpose of this is to enable composers and musicians to create unique works during this period of uncertainty, by using sound files from the collection to inspire the work, demonstrating the importance of Sound archives. The commissioned work will be displayed on the web, and will be a way of inspiring others to get creative with Welsh sound items.

[alan-chamberlain]

New research publication  Yihong Wang, Konstantinos Papangelis, Michael Saker, Ioanna Lykourentzou, Alan Chamberlain, and Vassilis-Javed Khan. 2020. Crowdsourcing in China: Exploring the Work Experiences of Solo Crowdworkers and Crowdfarm Workers. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–13. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376473 Abstract  Recent research highlights the potential of crowdsourcing in China. Yet very few studies explore the workplace context and experiences of Chinese crowdworkers. Those that do, focus mainly on the work experiences of solo crowdworkers but do not deal with issues pertaining to the substantial amount of people working in 'crowdfarms'. This article addresses this gap as one of its primary concerns. Drawing on a study that involves 48 participants, our research explores, compares and contrasts the work experiences of solo crowdworkers to those of crowdfarm workers. Our findings illustrate that the work experiences and context of the solo workers and crowdfarm workers are substantially different, with regards to their motivations, the ways they engage with crowdsourcing, the tasks they work on, and the crowdsourcing platforms they utilize. Overall, our study contributes to furthering the understandings on the work experiences of crowdworkers in China. Download PDF: Link ACM Page Link: Link

[alan-chamberlain]

Online & Off-Grid: New Ways of Performing Music in Wales

The last few weeks have been difficult for everyone, but it's interesting to see how some of the Welsh music scene is starting to adapt to not being able to perform live-in the same space as the audience (co-located). Yesterday I took part in Oscilloscope, normally it's an event hosted in Penmaenmawr, with people performing their 'experimental' work 'live' to an audience, it's also usually streamed - with Ed Wright doing a great job of comparing....

Follow link for full post ............ Link

[alan-chamberlain]

http://www.improvisersnetworks.online/events-wales-archive/item/872-bangor-scratch-2-26-02-2020

Scratch

SCRATCH is a new series of improvised music events that aim to encourage an open dialogue among audiences, musicians and artists, building dynamics that may not have formed organically otherwise.

The emphasis is very much on performance as art/action/event! SCRATCH is dedicated to the practise of improvised music, contemporary composition and performance art.

Storiel Bangor have very kindly offered us their upper gallery for our gigs and we very much hope that through the interaction of performers and audiences within the space SCRATCH events will also generate something of a unique sonic response to the content of the works on display.

website : Follow this link

About the venue

STORIEL MUSEUM Ffordd Gwynedd, Bangor LL57 1DT Tel: [phone]

GETTING THERE: map, travel & parking :

Mission and Values

“The aim of Gwynedd Museums Service is to collect, care for, preserve, exhibit and interpret galleries/items based on the unique history and character of Gwynedd and ensure that these collections inspire and educate and are available for all to enjoy impartially and inclusively.”

[alan-chamberlain]

New ACM ToCHI paper

Here’s a new publication that deals with Location-based Social Networks and starts to understand the nature of location, identity and territory in regard to these emerging systems.  This is important as it has all kinds of design implications for a range of services which can relate to the Arts, Games, Cultural Heritage and so on... The paper is open access, it can be downloaded from the PDF link in this page - https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3364997 Citation  Konstantinos Papangelis, Alan Chamberlain, Ioanna Lykourentzou, Vassilis-Javed Khan, Michael Saker, Hai-Ning Liang, Irwyn Sadien, and Ting Cao. 2020. Performing the Digital Self: Understanding Location-Based Social Networking, Territory, Space, and Identity in the City. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 27, 1, Article 1 (January 2020), 26 pages. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3364997

Abstract  Expressions of territoriality have been positioned as one of the main reasons users alter their behaviors and perceptions of spatiality and sociality while engaging with location-based social networks (LBSN). Despite the potential for this interplay to further our understanding of LBSN usage in the context of identity, very little work has actually been done toward this. Addressing this gap in the literature is one of the chief aims of the article. Drawing on an original 6-week study with 42 participants utilizing a bespoke LBSN entitled “GeoMoments,” our research explores the following: (1) the way that territoriality is linked to self-identity; and (2) how this interplay affects the interactions between users as well as the environments they inhabit. Our findings suggest that participants affirmed their self-identity by selectively posting and claiming ownership of their neighborhood through the LBSN. Here, the locative decisions are made related to risk, hierarchies, and the users’ relationship to the area. This practice then led participants to discover and interact with the digital information overlaying their physical environments in a playful manner. These interactions demonstrate the perceived power structures that are facilitated by identity claims over a virtual area. In the main, our results reaffirm that territoriality is a central concept in understanding LBSN use, while also drawing attention to the temporality involved in user-to-user and user-to-place interactions pertaining to physical place mediated by LBSN.

[alan-chamberlain]

It was a really good experience to attend the Beyond Conference this year, lots of interesting talks, chances to talk to people about our research and catch-up with people that I hadn’t seen in a while. the conference is really the creative sector and the UK’s industrial strategy.  “Beyond is the R&D conference for the creative industries. It explores the relationship between research, academia and business innovation and tackles the challenges impacting the future of the sector.

In its 2nd year, Beyond 2019 focuses on the intersection between Artificial Intelligence and creativity, with themes addressing the opportunities, challenges and controversies these innovations present.

Beyond provides a unique forum to share knowledge, discover opportunities and connect with business leaders, creatives, researchers, policy makers, journalists and funders.

Join us at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on the 20-21 November for lively debate, panels, short talks, innovative exhibitions and plenty of networking.”

[alan-chamberlain]

UKRI Artificial Intelligence Regional Workshops

In May I was one of the few people invited to attend on of the UKRI AI regional workshops. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced four regional workshops to seek input to the current UKRI Review of Artificial Intelligence (AI), which is anticipated to result in a UKRI strategy for supporting AI research and innovation in the UK.

The Office for Artificial Intelligence - “Why AI & Why Now?”

The workshops, which will take place in May 2019, are designed to seek input from a broad set of stakeholders in the AI landscape, including stakeholders from academia, business, and policy. It is anticipated that the workshops will explore the current AI landscape, its future directions, current and anticipated needs and opportunities.

The objectives of the workshop are to work in partnership with stakeholders to:

Develop a clear understanding of the current UK AI research and innovation landscape.

Explore the areas of opportunity in AI research and innovation in terms of developing new AI technologies, areas of application of AI, and the broad potential socio-economic impacts of AI.

Understand the current challenges and barriers to progress in AI research and innovation in the UK, consider how these might be overcome, and the role of different stakeholders within this.

[alan-chamberlain]

CHI Publications (2019) Jacob Harrison, Alan Chamberlain & Andrew McPherson. 2019. “Accessible Instruments in the Wild: Engaging with a Community of Learning-Disabled Musicians.”  In 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glagsow, Scotland, UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA. DOI - https://doi.org/10.1145/3290607.3313037

Juan Martinez-Avila, Chris Greenhalgh, Adrian Hazzard, Steve Benford, Alan Chamberlain. 2019. “Encumbered Interaction: A Study of Musicians Preparing to Perform.” In 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glagsow, Scotland, UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA. 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300706 - Open Access

[alan-chamberlain]

Pen Dinas in Voice played at “Living with the Internet of Things” at Tate Modern Following on from the Bangor Music Festival, the piece was played at an event in Tate Modern, London. The title above is linked to a video that I put together for the event, so it’s about the technology, rather than the inspiration for the piece. I’m currently working on that.  For more details:

University of Nottingham post: http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/newsroom/2019/02/08/musical-composition-and-its-impact-on-culture-and-research/

University of Oxford post: https://www.oerc.ox.ac.uk/news/tate-modern-explores-living-internet-things

[alan-chamberlain]

Friday 8th of Feb saw the live premier of my piece ‘Pen Dinas in Voice’ - performed by Swansea Laptop Orchestra.  Event details here - CODI Electronic Composers

Here’s a link to a Soundcloud version which I recorded for another event: https://soundcloud.com/alain_du_norde/pen-dinas-in-voice

[alan-chamberlain]

"Dr Alan Chamberlain is a Senior Research Fellow in the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham, and a Visiting Academic at the University of Oxford. Alan was recently awarded a creative career development award by Ty Cerdd, an organisation that promotes and celebrates the music of Wales."

[alan-chamberlain]

Image - Nottingham Theatre Royal discuss heritage, archives, community, engagement and history Cultural and heritage organisations from across the region have taken part in the first ‘Citizen Scholarship’ workshop run by the University of Nottingham, which aims to provide them with the digital tools they need to improve engagement with their audiences.

This new initiative, funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, is led by Dr Jo Robinson in theSchool of English, working with Dr Alan Chamberlain of the Mixed Reality Lab, in the School of Computer Science. Supported by Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, it aims to give cultural and heritage organisations in Nottingham and beyond a structured series of practical workshops to explore and trial the use of free and easily accessible digital tools to enhance engagement with heritage and history.

http://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/newsroom/2018/09/28/new-workshops-aim-to-give-regional-heritage-organisations-the-tools-to-build-a-better-digital-future/

[alan-chamberlain]

Recently I’ve been working with Jo Robinson on an AHRC funded project. It’s really interesting to be bringing notions of co-creation, technology and people’s engagement with culture and heritage together to appreciate the value of citizen scholarship. One of our partners is Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature (see image and link below).  From a research perspective, it’s good to highlight the way that interdisciplinary work is able to provide us with more, and different understandings on a given area. Really looking forwards to some of the auto ethnography work that’s happening and the co-design/creation workshops.  https://nottinghamcityofliterature.com Citizen Scholarship Project