DMLab Keynote at NIME2020

We are delighted to say that our DMLab team have been invited to give one of the keynote presentations at this year’s NIME conference.

About NIME

The International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression gathers researchers and musicians from all over the world to share their knowledge and late-breaking work on new musical interface design.

This is the twentieth edition of the conference and is being hosted by the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, a world-leading music institution and one of the eight conservatoires in the UK. This year too, the event is all online.

The theme for NIME2020 is right up our street – the Accessibility of Musical Expression. The aim is to look at the challenges and opportunities of making musical expression accessible to all.

Keynote and Gig

We are really excited to be delivering one of the keynote presentations and hosting an online gig featuring Jo-Anne Cox, Steve Varden and John Kelly – three exciting Disabled musicians who explore what accessible music technology can do in their work.

All 3 musicians collaborate with makers to create new ways to make music and to push the boundaries of what accessible music-making and music tech is. Jo-anne has incorporated sound-responsive lighting and vibrating wearable tech into her recent live cello shows. Steve built his own accessible rig for playing mobile and live (watch his Barbican performance for Drake Music here) and John developed the Kellycaster as part of DMLab with Charles Matthews.

Our keynote will be the virtual launch of our new project: The Accessible Musical Instrument Collection, also known as AMIC.

Still in the early stages of development, AMIC will be a sound playground, a place that offers Disabled people the chance to try out accessible instruments to find their way of making the music they want to make.

Tim Yates (head of R&D) and John Kelly (DM Associate Artist) will give attendees at NIME a sneak peek behind the scenes at the development of this new collection of accessible instruments and tech, and invite them to collaborate with us and be part of it.

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NIME2020