Research Associate in Digital Musical Instrument Design

Location: Dyson School of Design Engineering, South Kensington Campus

Job Summary 

Applications are invited for a Research Associate position in Digital Musical Instrument Design to work on a research project investigating the cultural implications of engineering decisions in the area of music technology.

The successful candidate will be based in the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London, where they will join the Augmented Instruments Laboratory (http://instrumentslab.org). They will work on the UKRI-funded Consolidator Grant "RUDIMENTS: Reflective Understanding of Digital Instruments as Musical Entanglements", which examines the values, opportunities, risks and challenges of designing new musical instruments incorporating embedded computing and artificial intelligence.

Duties and responsibilities 

This role focuses on the technical foundations of digital musical instrument design, including sensors, embedded hardware, signal processing and acoustic/mechanical design. The successful candidate will be technically proficient in design or engineering skills but also capable of situating their work in a broader cultural and creative context. The ideal candidate will have both technical and musical experience and will have prior experience working in a multidisciplinary team to create musical instruments. Activities specifically associated with this post include:

• Developing electronic hardware and software systems, particularly real-time embedded systems, for use in live musical performance;
• Pushing the boundaries of performance for embedded systems, for example through high-bandwidth physical-digital integration and/or embedded AI;
• Conducting technical evaluations of new instrument technologies;
• Conducting research in the wild and designing laboratory studies with musicians and engineers to understand how technical decisions influence musical outcomes;
• Collaborating with other researchers on the RUDIMENTS project to design and analyse new digital musical instruments;
• Publishing research outputs in established peer-reviewed venues, while helping develop new multimodal forms of research dissemination.

Essential requirements:

• A PhD (or equivalent qualification or experience) in a relevant discipline, including human-computer interaction (HCI), electronic engineering, design engineering, science and technology studies (STS), music composition/performance, musicology or anthropology.
• Experience in the design or creation of digital musical instruments involving hardware and/or software.
• Technical experience related to the design of digital musical instruments, music production software, music programming languages, or similar technologies.
• Experience working with one or more of: embedded computing, real-time signal processing, artificial intelligence for audio.
• Knowledge of one or more programming languages, preferably including C, C++ and/or python
• A track record of publication in relevant peer-reviewed journals or conferences.

Desirable requirements:

• Experience with statistical analysis methods and software.
• Knowledge of, and experience with, qualitative research methods.
• Musical experience as a performer, composer or improviser.
• Knowledge of electronic hardware design, including PCB design, and/or mechanical fabrication techniques.
• Knowledge of recent research literature in digital musical instrument design and human-computer interaction (HCI), including third-wave HCI and research through design (RtD). (D)
• Experience working as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Please refer to the job description for a full list of desired and essential requirements.

Further Information

This is a full-time, fixed-term position for 24 months. Part-time options can be considered. 

For informal enquiries about the post please contact Prof Andrew McPherson (email: andrew.mcpherson@imperial.ac.uk).

Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to Monika Delczyk at m.delczyk@imperial.ac.uk.

Closing Date: 7th July 2024 or later (open until filled, rolling applications will be reviewed until the post is filled)

Planned start date: October 2024

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