Esa-Pekka Salonen in Leeds

This Saturday, the international concert season in Leeds started with a concert of the Philharmonia, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. I was very much looking forward to hear again this conductor, as he had been for years the director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Sometime in winter 2005, he had given a concert of his own compositions in Thousand Oaks, which I attended. I had wanted to ask him then re. a joint project about computers and music, but I had been too slow in pursuing a meeting, and he had already left.

On the program was the Symphonie Phantastique by Berlioz and two works by Beethoven: the 2nd Leonore Ouverture, and his 4th Piano Concerto. I had not listened to any work by Beethoven in many years, as I felt quite familiar with his overall style. Yet at this concert I was quite surprised to hear the astonishing musical consequent compositional structure, which makes so much sense. In contrast, I still have difficulty following the musical thoughts of Berlioz. His orchestration may be brilliant, but I am not able to hear "what he means" by his compositions. Somehow like listening to someone who speaks a different language: I hear the sounds, but they do not make sense...

A problem interrupted the 2nd movement of the Piano Concerto: someone in the audience, sitting behind the orchestra, fell ill and fainted - the concert was interrupted, and medics carried the person out. The movement was not continued, instead the orchestra went rightinto the finale - and a few minutes later another one fainted, but this time without interruption of the music. There is a review of this concert in The Guardian (1.Oct.)

Times Higher Education Awards 2008: Leeds Met Shortlisted Again!

As every year since 2005, the Times Higher Education gives out awards to universities, recognising achievements in a wide variety of areas. Leeds Met has won in 2006 in the category "outstanding contribution to the local community" and became 2nd in the overall "Unviversity of the Year" category. When I opened today this week's Times Higher Education issue, I saw that Leeds Met again has made it into the shortlist: this time in the category "outstanding contribution to inovation and technology", for a project on giving student feedback through audio (MP3 files). Congratulations, Bob!

ISMAR: Posters (2nd Photosynth)

With the pictures I took today, I now created a quite elaborate photosynth: with 97 photos and a synth quality of 100% (no picture was left out) this is the best synth that I have made so far. Each poster can be viewed in its full resolution as a separate picture.

ISMAR: posters

Here is a Microsoft Photosynth of the ISMAR poster room. A more detailed synth is in preparation, this one here is just the "first try".

Opening of ISMAR Conference

The ISMAR conference takes place at the Engineering Faculty of U.Cambridge. The morning keynote today was given by Paul McIlroy from Hawk-Eye. As the Technical Director, he presented the Augmented Reality and tracking systems which his company employs in sport events for showing the exact ball location, which is very useful in judging critical situations.

Afterwards was a session devoted to progress of display technology. After the lunch break there were sessions about user studies, layout, and applications (still ongoing). I had to go back to the hotel room to take care of some work to be done.

ISMAR: Reception in the Wren Library

The Wren Library is located in the Trinity College. It host books from back to the 8th century, and also the first print of Newton's Principia. A very honorable place. ISMAR participant were given access to visit the library room, before a reception took place downstairs.

Travel to Cambridge

First an appointment for immunisation at my NHS surgery, then a haircut. Then briefly to work, running last minute errands. Then taxi to the train station - train to Cambridge, to visit the Annual ISMAR conference. I have been the Finance Chair this year. Gerhard Reitmayr from U.Cambridge has done an excellent job in organising the local issues, and has been of great help with the financial transactions etc.

I arrive in the late afternoon, time for a brief stroll. Half of the town are the "colleges" from the University Cambridge. Honorable buildings, often closed to visitors.

Trinity College

"The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas"

An excellent movie, touching and moving, full of humanity. Hopefully those "unconvincables" have a chance to watch it...

SDF: Faculty Day

On Thursday the day of our faculty, Innovation North, in the Leeds Met Staff Development Festival. I attended a workshop given by a specialist on Intellectual Property (IP), and then joined Tony Bryant in the workshop "I am a researcher - get me out of here!".

In the afternoon, the Ideas Factory presentations were repeated, and I got my medal a second time (after I had handed it in before).

During the last plenary keynote talk I was asked to joint the faculty management team who were sitting in the first row. Tony was not to be found, so I was told that I should say something about research as kind of closing remarks of the day. During the quite funny keynote by comedian Kevin McCarron I was collecting my thoughts to produce some meaningful sentences (without any powerpoint slides!). Then we all walked onto the stage. As I take place, I see that Tony is here too! He must have been there all the time, just had not been noticed. So what now about my words about research? I do not want to say the same as he, since this would just "his show"... so when it is my turn I talk something general about the Staff Development Festival, instead of what I had wanted to say (which was how to link research with student-related teaching etc.). Then Tony gave his public address, and our faculty day closed.

SDF: Research Day

Today the Leeds Met Staff Development Festival held its Research Day, where talks, workshops, and symposia were held related to Leeds Met research activities. I had set up a mini-symposium: "Creative Technology - An Oxymoron?". John Elliott gave a talk about the human mind, Michael Ward presented state of the art of musical beat tracking, and Ben Dalton showed examples of robotics and remote presence used for creativity.