Music, museums, and curated sounds: immersive audio as a compositional practice

Consisting of a portfolio of six original compositions and a written commentary, this project explores the role of immersive audio technologies as integrated compositional components informing new modes of public engagement in museum contexts. This project intersects three distinct disciplines: compositional practice, immersive audio technology, and museum curation. Through this framework, immersive audio as a creative compositional practice, rather than a purely technological utility of sound mixing and diffusion, can be understood as a function of audio-driven immersive experiences within museum applications.
Through exploring different theoretical concepts and technological processes of immersive audio, including channel-, object-, and scene-based audio technologies within and without of existing museum contexts, commercial industry, and open resources, an original creative practice is developed which allows for novel approaches in designing and implementing immersive sonic experiences in both physical and virtual environments. The works in this portfolio provide these new creative practices and technologically informed spatialisation processes for composition and explore the ways in which different types of sounds, music, historical objects, and curated word can be spatialised creatively within museum contexts as a tool for disseminating and reframing overlooked or traditionally suppressed historical narratives.
The six original compositions explore different immersive processes, applications, and contexts. The compositions include: two works for concert performance; two works for museum installation; one work for virtual/online museum installation; and a final virtual environment installation as a proof of concept for future research development. This portfolio of compositions and the following commentary together form the thesis portfolio and demonstrate how immersive technologies and processes can be integrated into a coherent compositional practice, enabling developments in creativity and broadening access to historical, cultural, and scientific knowledge.