November 01, 2022

The Augmented Instruments Lab is moving to Imperial

The Augmented Instruments Lab is getting a new home!

From January 2023, lab director Prof. Andrew McPherson will be joining the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London as Chair in Design Engineering and Music.

For the next few years, the Augmented Instruments Laboratory will have two institutional affiliations. Lab members who are current PhD students in the Centre for Digital Music at QMUL will remain there until they graduate, while Andrew and future members will be based at Imperial. The two universities are a short journey apart by tube, so we will continue working as a single team, designing instruments, conducting studies and organising concerts together.

Early 2023 will also see the start of a major new research project entitled RUDIMENTS: Reflective Understanding of Digital Instruments as Musical Entanglements. This is a 5-year ERC Consolidator Grant, funded by UKRI and hosted at Imperial, which examines the cultural implications of engineering decisions in the musical domain, drawing on recent work in human-computer interaction, science and technology studies, and artistic research. There will be several postdoctoral positions and a PhD studentship advertised as part of this project. Keep an eye on the InstrumentsLab Twitter feed for job postings and event announcements.

A massive thank you to the Centre for Digital Music for all of the inspiring work we have done together over the years. And stay tuned for more exciting projects to come, both at QMUL and Imperial!

As always, if you have any questions about our work, or if you’re interested in working with us, please get in touch.