Information Dynamics of Music (IDyOM)


IDyOM (Pearce, 2005) is a computational model of auditory expectation based on probabilistic prediction and statistical learning. IDyOM is developed and used in much of our research. Further information and downloads are available on the IDyOM project page.

Steve Reich’s Clapping Music


Steve Reich’s Clapping Music is a project originally funded by The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, a partnership between Nesta, the Arts Council England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). The project features a collaboration with the London Sinfonietta and aims to investigate learning of rhythm production skills through a game based app centred around the music of Steve Reich.

Further information is available at the project’s research website and in the Research & Development Report.

The project won the Public Engagement Involve Award at the QMUL Engagement and Enterprise Awards 2017. A video interview was made for the event.

Live Science Residency at the Science Museum


Between November 11th – December 11th 2015, we ran a Live Science Residency at London’s Science Museum. Live Science is an ongoing project where scientists come into the Science Museum to carry out research using Museum visitors as volunteers.

In this project, we wanted to learn more about the relationship between music, emotions and the brain. Over 300 people participated in the experiments and shared their thoughts about music with us. The study was not limited to one particular kind of music; we learned about people’s reactions to everything ranging from Beethoven to Metallica, from Adele to Bob Marley, from Eminem to One Direction, from Radiohead to Miles Davis, and from The Beatles to Daft Punk.