MiltonlineGreat to be involved in this Scientific American podcast episode unpacking micro-timing expression (‘swing’, ‘time-feel’ etc) with the brilliant Nina Kraus, Theo Geisel and Charles Keil. Thanks to host Joe Polidoro.
What That Jazz Beat Tells Us About Hearing And The Brain
A discussion on sonification and the intersection of science and music on the Unexpected Elements science programme, broadcast July 6 2023 on BBC World Service and BBC Sounds.
Available here as well as on all other platforms. (The Coolest Science section starts at around 29:25 minutes).
Hidden Music featured in the wonderful New Scientist Podcast
CLP was featured in the Metro newspaper tech section on Friday 13th November 2020. More on the project:
A collaboration with Dr Enzo De Sena, the mutations of the Covid-19 virus over 500 generations are sonified. Every motif is formed by the mutation of successive Covid-19 strains. Although ‘musical’ decisions are made, they are done so not to cloak the data with familiar emotional signs, but to reveal the hidden music of the mutations – as such motivic similarity and variation are the shared language of music and biology. Despite the remarkable amount of change it should be appreciated that Covid-19 is in fact relatively stable, so the hope for an effective vaccine remains.
– Milton
This project tries to sonify the genetic mutations of COVID-19 as they are observed over time. The main aim of the project is to satisfy a personal curiosity and for artistic purposes. However, it is hoped that sonifying the mutations could highlight patterns that would not be picked up otherwise.
The current sonification methodology associates notes’ timing to the position of the mutation within the DNA and pitch to the type of nucleotide mutation (e.g. G->A, or C->T etc). This means that the position of the mutation results in different rhythmic placement, and the type of nucleotide mutation results in different melodies.
– Enzo
To follow the project visit: miltonline.com/covid-sonify
A pleasure to take part in this BBC Scotland documentary on sleep, presented by Ian Hamilton and produced by Laura Kingwell. Ian, who is blind has a particualr interest in sleep disorders and the work of Prof Debra Skene, a key collaborator in Sound Asleep. First broadcast 29/3/20 on Good Morning Scotland on BBC Radio Scotland.
Sound Asleep was filmed by Jake Davison, Kate Wallace, Josephine Hannon and Megan Brown. They interviewed Professor Morten Kringelbach, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford, and Professor Milton Mermikides, a composer guitarist and music theorist.
Jake explains: “The film is about the discovery of newly described changes in brain activity during sleep by Professor Kringelbach and his team, and how conversion of these findings to music could provide a useful diagnostic tool and possibly a therapeutic for sleep disorder treatment. We decided to cover this story because, in the age of smartphones, tablets and a 24/7 world, the quality of our sleep is decreasing and its importance is often overlooked. This new model of sleep brain activity developed by Professor Kringelbach and his team, as well as his collaboration with Professor Milton Mermikides to produce musical compositions from this data, will help us understand the mechanism of sleep better and therefore allow us to improve our own sleep. Both the ground-breaking nature of this research and the unorthodox method of utilising music to potentially unlock more discoveries seemed intriguing to us and something that needed to be heard about
The fabulous Qed conference happened again this year, to much acclaim. Very happy to work on the intro video again. (Here’s 2013‘s offering). This time Paul Zenon revealed his superstitions. Many of these are particularly inside jokes in the skeptic community, but I hope others are entertained. Fingers crossed.
A collaboration with Mike Hall and Tom Hardwidge of Considered Creative brought about this super fun animation for the opening of the 2013 QED conference. Musically, I wanted to capture the relentless spirit of scientific exploration through the ages, so felt a perpetual motion chord sequence with the instruments changing in line with the ages. 50 points for identifying the sound when Cox throws the LHC switch.
A collection of Internet theme tunes (2008-2011) in glorious high quality (including themes to the Pod Delusion, Lady Geek, QED and GeekPop). Free to listen or pay little/what you like to own.
[bandcamp album=4023596385 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=c01619 size=venti]
Here’s the promo for the wonderful #QEDcon Conference I’m attending 5-6 Feb 2011 http://qedcon.org
I wrote this little tune, and 7 musicians from around the world (George Hrab (Bethlehem, UK), Bridget (London,UK), John Gregson (Wimbledon), Steve Hamilton (Edinburgh), jonotrumpeto (UK), Halone (Finland) and me) contributed instruments, while Kylie Sturgess & Dave Fregon (Australia) and Mike Hall (UK) rinsed the visuals. This all had a nice sense of community (spirit not work) about it. Full report following QED.
