Connecting Music Information Research on Musical Structures with Developing Human-Centric Interaction Technology for Health, Wellbeing and Inclusion
Chair of Music Information Computing, Utrecht University, Department of Information and Computing Science
Abstract
A large part of research in MIR is dedicated to computational investigations of musical structures. Applications of structural information in music such as for retrieval, recommendation, corpus studies or automatic music generation have been widely explored in the MIR community. Utilizing this information in the context of health, wellbeing and inclusion so far constitutes an underrepresented field. In this talk, I present research on investigating musical patterns with computational means to enhance our understanding of music, and on employing these patterns in interaction contexts such as for training purposes in health and wellbeing. I will discuss the development of music-based collaborative games for visually impaired children, applied games for musical attention control training and games for rhythmic training of children with sensor processing difficulties. Moreover, I will reflect on potential avenues to employ MIR methods for analysing musical improvisations in music therapy, and the interdisciplinary nature of developing human-centric interaction technology for health, wellbeing and inclusion.
Bio
Anja Volk is Professor of Music Information Computing at Utrecht University, and has a dual background in mathematics and musicology which she applies to cross-disciplinary approaches to music. Her work has helped bridge the gap between scientific and humanistic approaches to music while working in interdisciplinary research teams in Germany, the USA and the Netherlands. Her research comprises a broad spectrum of research questions from theoretical to technology-related issues, engaging areas such as Computational Music Analysis, Music Information Retrieval, Computational Musicology, Mathematical Music Theory, Music Cognition, and Music technology for health, wellbeing and inclusion. Anja has co-founded several international initiatives, most notably the International Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music (SMCM), the flagship journal of the International Society for Music Information Retrieval (TISMIR), and the Women in MIR (WIMIR) mentoring program, which organizes yearly mentoring rounds with participants from academia and industry. She is also committed to connecting different research communities and providing interdisciplinary education for the next generation through the organization of international workshops, such as the Lorentz Center in Leiden workshops on music similarity (2015), computational ethnomusicology (2017) and music, computing, and health (2019).
