Senior lecturer/Associate professor 50% employment, Interactive Sound Design Program with
a BA in Computer Science, with specialty in Sound programming and real-time audio synthesis,
from fall 2012.

Kristianstad University in the south of Sweden and the Department of Design and Computer Science is looking for a teacher, developer, designer, researcher with competence in Sound Programming, Music programming, real-time audio synthesis (MA, MFA or Ph.D. ).

We are looking for a person that can:

Teach in programming and development of sound synthesis, real-time audio synthesis. DSP and audio in C/C++ for synthesis, filters, envelopes, analysis of serial and audio input, re-synthesis, etc., in environments such as SuperCollider, PureData, Max/MSP, OpenFramework, Csound.

Is interested in working with cross-platform development: Windows, Apple, Linux, XCode, CodeBlocks, Visual C++, mobile platforms for sound such as Arduino, Android and iOS/iPhone (eg. RJDJ/Pd and PDlib, Objective C).

Wants to research and work experimentally and creatively, according to the research and development led student projects, with the goal to demonstrate and present one’s own work as well as student work in international Arts, research and development communities such as the NIME – New Interfaces for Musical Expression conference, International Conference for Computer Music (ICMC), Transmediale digital media conference, Ars Electronica International Festival of Digital Art.

Can start as soon as possible, or at least start teaching a course in Music programming in late August 2012 based on existing course material (available on request).

The employment is half time with opportunity to develop your own personal projects and applications in creative work and research in the other half. There are also possibilities to apply for projects together with other members of the staff who are engaged in artistic, music and academic research and development projects (see further below).

Content of application

We like to see examples and references of both practical and academic work/projects. Because it is an undergraduate BA program, combining music and software development, we wish the applicant to show familiarity with practical, technical, creative methods for development of for instance prototypes, simulations, etc. in sound programming and coding projects, within different areas, designs and contexts.

Interactive Sound Design BA Program

The Interactive Sound Design BA program is a three year bachelor program with an exam in Computer Science. The program started in 2005 as one of the first in northern Europe that combine music and software development. That is music as an aesthetical-technical-social-design field of study and a practice. The goal is to combine fundaments and advanced studies in practical programming, coding, software and hardware development, with creative sound design, tinkering, interaction design and music composition in application areas such as: Musical instruments, music composition and performance, computer games with playability based on sound and music creation such as GuitarHero and SingStar, mobile services like MusicID, TouchOSC and RJDJ, interactive art installations, and interaction design as in health and wellbeing services for people with complex needs. The education is held in technically well-equipped facilities at Kristianstad University’s campus in Hässleholm in the south of Sweden: 30 min train ride from Lund, 50 min from Malmö and 60 min from Copenhagen. On campus facilities for advanced development in electronics, mechatronics, physical computing, Sound Editing, Max/Msp, PureData, Surround sound system and recording.

The teaching staff at Interactive Sound Design consists of 10 people with backgrounds in Computer Science, Musicology, Music Composition, Interaction Design, Mobile Communication, Acoustics, hardware development and Mechatronics. Kristianstad University has 15.000 students. The department of Design and Computer Science has an artistic professor in digital art, Michael Johansson and a professor in Computer Science is under employment.

Since the start in 2005, Interactive Sound Design has done research, artistic-technical research and creative student projects in collaboration with partners from Sweden, Denmark and Norway in culture, art, industry, and public sector. We collaborate with actors in mobile communication/smartphone (Ericsson, TAT, Milso), health and wellbeing (Hässleholm hospital, Kristianstad hospital), Music industry (Propellerhead, Delta/DK), computer games (Massive, I/O interactive/DK), music (Inkonst, Siesta music festival, Inter Art Studies, Skåne’s Art Society, Neon gallery).

A special focus has since the start been artistic-technical and creative research within the areas of Internet-of-things, tangible interaction, Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) with development of computer based interactive applications, hardware and sensors for interaction design, music instruments and music and health. All students learn the easy to use Arduino sensor platform to design and make prototypes for controlling sounds and music in other devices, PC with Max/MSP, OpenFrameworks, SuperCollider, smartphones with PureData/Pdlib, etc. The students learn additional programming in C to combine Arduino with wireless environments like Xbee and Bluetooth. An example is the ongoing research project www.RHYME.no (2010-2015) within music and health with advanced development of tangible sound and music interfaces in SuperCollider, Processing, Arduino, Android and iPhone/iPodTouch. Here the research is done by Interactive Sound Design teacher Anders-Petter Andersson in collaboration with Norwegian Academy of Music/Centre for Music and Health, Oslo School of Architecture and Design and University of Oslo. Local student projects in Hässleholm develop interaction design, sound synthesis and sensors for similar target groups together with Interactive Sound Design teachers Daniel Einarson, Fredrik Frisk, Haydar Al Attar and Anders-Petter Andersson.

Development and research based projects during the three years of the education, give students possibilities to develop and practice their technical, practical and creative skills. It makes it possible for students to apply techniques from working with static sound files, linear composition, recording and performing, to physical modeling of sound, non-linear composition, algorithmic composition real-time audio synthesis, micro tonality, fractal music, generative music, sound engines for games, interactive music installations and mobile services with user interaction for laymen, internet-of- things tangible interaction and TUI.

Former students get employment and highly specialized positions in a wide range of fields from interactive art, software development, interaction design, gaming industry, mobile services to assistive technologies. Many students also start their own businesses with help from Kristianstad University’s entrepreneurial program in collaboration with Lund University innovation centre IDEON.

Examples of course literature at Interactive Sound Design BA program

Banzi, M. (2009), Getting Started with Arduino, Make:Books, O’Reilly, USA.

Boulanger, Richard & Lazzarini, Victor. (2011) The Audio Progamming Book. Mit Press. ISBN

9780262014465

Noble, Joshua. (2009) Programming Interactivity. O'Reilly Media. ISBN 9780596154141

Collins, Nick. (2008) The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521688655

Roads, Curtis. (1996) The Computer Music Tutorial. Mit Press. ISBN 0262680823

Contact

Anders-Petter Andersson, anders-petter.andersson@hkr.se, cell phone +46704013360, www.musicalfieldsforever.com, www.RHYME.no

Daniel Einarson, daniel.einarson@hkr.se