Cybersalon / NMK / SMARTlab Xmas Lecture 07 presents Martyn Ware: A Journey Through Sound :: December 6, 2007; 7-10.30 pm :: The Pavilion, University of Westminster, New Cavendish Street campus, London [Nearest tube: Goodge Street, Warren Street]

Music has been at the vanguard of the creative industries & has impacted upon new technologies. Digitisation and the growth of the Internet have had profound effects on music production, distribution and even the way we listen. Now music and sound are at the forefront of emerging technologies that can make truly immersive, sensorial experiences - akin to the Star Trek ‘holodeck’ - a step closer to reality. What does this ‘Sci-fi Hi-fi’ future hold for the musicians of tomorrow?

Join Martyn Ware who will discuss his ‘future of sound’.

Martyn is best-known as a seminal 80s pop icon and co-founder of The Human League and Heaven 17. As record producer and artist, he has contributed to recordings totaling over 50 million sales worldwide. More recently through the Illustrious Company - his recent creative venture with Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode, Yazoo and Erasure - and his current Arts Council supported art project, the www.futureofsound.org, Martyn has developed a reputation as a convergent media ‘Svengali’ - working with and showcasing some of the latest developments in immersive media and emergent technologies.

The lecture will be chaired by Professor Lizbeth Goodman - Founder & Director of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute & MAGICGamelab: currently Microsoft Senior Fellow & Chair in Creative Technology Innovation (also a well known performer and author/broadcaster) - who will share a taster of work by SMARTlab artists & SMARTlab/NESTA fellows.

Special SMARTlab Guests:

- New York artist/scholar Daria Dorosh, presenting Patternwoman with soundtrack by Ian Epps with vocals by Galen Brandt, Vox Stream soundtrack by Clilly Castiglia (from the Playing Field), & The Changing Room, with music by Wolfram Tones: based on NKS Rule 30.

- World Sensorium scent sculpture by New York artist/scholar Gayil Nalls also on show/smell.

- Chris Hales’ latest song-activated interactive movie.

- Fiddian Warman’s latest Soda sound/robots (Sodaplay).

- NESTA fellows digital image and sound work in progress…

Following the lecture there will be a drinks reception and social networking/audiovisual lounge with a surround sound DJ set from Martyn and guests utilising The Illustrious Compay’s 3D Audioscape facility. The SMARTlab Pirate Ship/Dance Club in Second Life will also be open for virtual clubbing…

About The Xmas Lecture

This will be the seventh Cybersalon/NMK Xmas Lecture, hosted this year in partnership with the SMARTlab. The lecture was established in 2001 as an opportunity for leading members of the UK new media industry to talk freely about their work and speculate about how media and communications technologies are interacting and impacting on society, economics, politics and culture. Lectures are attended by a mixture of new media professionals, academics, students, journalists and an interested general public.

In previous lectures, James Woudhuysen, Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester, has talked about the cultural barriers to scientific progress; Eva Pascoe has described her experiences in founding Cyberia, the world’s first Internet Café, and how Internet Cafes have continued to evolve and impact on society; Professor Jonathan Briggs has discussed the role of Internet technologies in helping to rebuild war-torn Kosova; journalist Bill Thompson has wondered if big business is destroying the Internet; and Dr Richard Barbrook has pondered the shape of nets to come.

This year’s Xmas Lecture is supported by Sky, SMARTlab, MAGIC (SMARTlab core funders NESTA & Microsoft CSR).