Fully funded PhDs in the prestigious Sussex Leverhulme Trust Doctoral Scholarship Programme which brings together doctoral researchers from different disciplines to advance our understanding of the interactions between sensing, perception, and awareness in humans, animals, and machines.

Dates: Submission deadline 31 January 2019, interviews on 25-27 February 2019. Successful candidates will be notified by March 4th.

Psychology
Neuroscience
Physiology
Artificial intelligence
Robotics
Philosophy
Digital humanities
Music

Supervisors: Dr Chris Kiefer, [log in to unmask] & Dr Cecile Chevalier, [log in to unmask]

Augmented reality (AR) technology is developing at speed, and computational artists are beginning to experiment with new AR tools to create new aesthetic experiences (Chevalier and Keifer, 2018). Conversely, computational arts provide a testing ground for creating experimental scenarios that may provide new insights into the impact of AR technologies on human perception and behaviour. Early conceptions of AR (a.g. Azuma, 1997) acknowledged the potential of rich multi-modal approaches (e.g. sound, smell, touch). Current consumer AR technology shows a tendency towards predominantly visual augmentation and towards the provision of information, leaving a widely underexplored area that focuses on rich multisensory perceptual mediation. We welcome proposals exploring augmented reality's new potential in the computational arts, and finding new understanding of audience perception with AR tools.

Perception of naturalistic sounds and well-being - implications for composition of sound environments

Supervisors: Dr Alice Eldridge, [log in to unmask] & Dr Hugo Critchley, [log in to unmask]

Natural sounds have long been associated with evocation of well-being. Empirically, natural sounds are reported to be more 'pleasant' than artificial sounds (Guastavino, 2006), and are also reported to promote measurable health benefits, including reduced pain and anxiety in health care (Chaing, 2012). Recent research helps explain these health benefits through observed alternations to autonomic activity when listening to naturalistic vs artificial sounds (Van Praag et al 2017). The implications for the composition of every-day as well as therapeutic sound environments are significant (online, games, virtual reality, as well as TV, film and music) but under-explored. At the same time, digital music composition methods may provide further insights into open questions: it is not clear, for example, whether this effect is due to the formal perceptual properties (harmonic, timbral) of the sounds, or wider associations of natural environments that are evoked. Projects in this area would develop upon the work of Van Praag et al (2017) to gain deeper insight into the perceptual basis and compositional implications of this phenomenon. Students should have a background in music as well as one of cognitive neuroscience or psychology; experience of computational methods is highly desirable.

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New paper Sounding Out Acoustic Indices out now in Ecological Indicators

Dr Alice Eldridge
Lecturer in Music Technology
University of Sussex
Falmer
Brighton
BN1 9RG

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+44 (0)1273 877411
@alicealicealice
www.ecila.org