MTF Research is a global interdisciplinary network of academics and researchers from the sciences and humanities. The symposium is a place to connect, initiate and develop new research projects at the intersection of music and technology. The symposium brings together brilliant minds from around the world to seed discussions that connect those diverse areas of study and explores new potential collaborations.

The brilliant Nancy Baym of Microsoft Research joined us as the symposium leader. She gave the opening keynote and launched her book ‘Playing to the Crowd’ (NYU Press). A pioneer in internet research, Nancy is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft in New England and a Research Affiliate in Comparative Media Studies and Writing at MIT. Her work reveals the subtle and pervasive ways people make sense of new communication technologies and weave them into their everyday lives. Read more about Nancy here.

The MTF Research Symposium format provides space for researchers from all disciplines to present and discuss their work, engage with world-leading researchers and explore opportunities for new collaborative projects.

The programme over the two days included guest speakers and wide-ranging discussion on a range of interdisciplinary and cutting-edge topics:

THURSDAY

12:00 Intro and welcome by Nancy Baym
12:30 Human Music Interaction
14:00 Fika (coffee and snack)
14:30 Radical Inclusion
16:00 Digital Archives
17:30 Ends

FRIDAY

08:00 Coffee
08:30 Music Rights and Blockchain
10:00 Fika
10:30 Artificial Intelligence
12:00 Ends

Guests included:

• Jeremy Morris: Professor of Media Studies from the University of Madison-Wisconsin, author of “Selling Digital Music, Formatting Culture” and founder of Podcastre.org - a searchable/researchable database that indexes and preserves hundreds of thousands of podcasts from around the world.
• Hedvig Kjellström: Professor in Robotics and Machine Learning from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, whose work includes advanced gesture-driven conductor-orchestra communication and the creation of an opera choir consisting of flying drones.
• Allen Bargfrede: Music industry futurist and social theorist from Berklee College of Music, whose work concerns distribution, licensing and payments for digital music, blockchain, and the use of music as medicine.
• Carlotta de Ninni: Head of Research and Operations at Mycelia and an expert in music copyright and licensing, blockchain technology, smart contracts and AR/VR.
• Marcus O’Dair: Convenor of the Blockchain for Creative Industries research and teaching cluster at Middlesex University in London and author of Distributed Creativity about the impact of blockchain technology on the creative industries.
• Jez Collins: founder of the Birmingham Music Archive, documentary filmmaker and co-director of UnConvention.

Tickets were limited to just 100 places. 

The MTF Research symposium is based on the principles of the Manifesto for the Future of Music Technology Research (or ‘Musictechifesto’) - written at the first MTF Research Symposium at Microsoft NERD Labs in Cambridge, MA in 2014.