Coming up August 3rd: a double-header online seminar from the Augmented Instruments Lab featuring Oliver Bown and Anthony Marasco. Starts 3pm UK time here: youtube.com/live/WuHdzO6...

AIL Open Seminars #013 and #014 – Ollie Bown and Anthony Marasco

YouTube video by Augmented Instruments Lab

youtube.com

Last week I was at the University of Lancaster for the wonderful @prosquared.org summer school. A great and informative week. I was also lucky enough to be selected as a prize winner for my HaptiCoupler project!

This week I'm in Lancaster for the wonderful @prosquared.org summer school! Here's a photo of today's demo session and I'll be doing a presentation about my work tomorrow. Great to be here and learn more about the journey of going from prototype to production!

I have written a little about the livestreaming setups that Jordie Shier and I used to stream #NIME2026 last week (dual paper tracks 9am-5pm + 2 alternating concert venues 7pm-11pm = lots of streaming). davisonaudio.github.io/posts/2026/0...

Yesterday our lab ( @apmcpherson.bsky.social & co.) hosted the NIME open day - a post #NIME2026 event for anyone interested to come and demo their instruments and music tech creations and for attendees to come and experience them. Around 40 demos and ~200 attendees came along - some photos below!

Though I've mostly been running around sorting livestreams for the online attendees at #NIME2026, I did also present our paper on Wednesday! It's also now available in the NIME proceedings here: nime.org/proc/nime202...

Alongside our lab co-hosting #NIME2026, I'll also be presenting a paper there! Our paper "Techniques for Closely-Coupled Sensing and Actuation in Digital Musical Instruments" (by me, Adam Schmidt, and @apmcpherson.bsky.social) explores methods of sensing and actuating for hybrid instruments (1/2)

Coming to #NIME2026 or in London at the end of June anyway? Come along to our lab open day on 27/06! We'll be demoing our work (including @apmcpherson.bsky.social's magnetic resonator piano) and you can submit a proposal for a demo of your own work! Sign up here: forms.cloud.microsoft/e/rTgMiXpXd6

This #CHI2026 paper is now available on the ACM digital library! Find it here: dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Matt Davison@mdavison.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Next week I'll be at #CHI2026 in Barcelona presenting our paper "Design Explorations of Instruments and Interactions with Bidirectional Haptic Couplings" (by me & @apmcpherson.bsky.social). Read all about it here: davisonaudio.github.io/chi2026/

Next week I'll be at #CHI2026 in Barcelona presenting our paper "Design Explorations of Instruments and Interactions with Bidirectional Haptic Couplings" (by me & @apmcpherson.bsky.social). Read all about it here: davisonaudio.github.io/chi2026/

Design Explorations of Instruments and Interactions with Bidirectional Haptic Couplings

Exploring the design of digital musical instruments with bidirectional tactile interaction through a user study. This study investigates the potential design and interaction implications when tradional unidirectional mapping paradigms are swapped out for bidirectional haptic interaction.

davisonaudio.github.io

10 days to go until we have Kathy Hinde visiting the lab for a seminar! Catch the livestream on the day at 2pm UK time using this link: youtube.com/live/3Yv4_33...

First time recording a piano in a while – and this one was full of electromagnets! Great fun last week recording audio for @apmcpherson.bsky.social's Magnetic Resonator Piano with @xeniapestova.bsky.social playing, along with some fun other Augmented Instruments Lab creations. Videos coming soon!

Delighted that Hannah Spencer and the Greens have won against the divisive hatred peddled by Farage and his cronies, and against the Tories-in-disguise of Labour

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 5mo ago

Green party wins Gorton and Denton byelection, pushing Labour to third place in blow to Keir Starmer

One week left to apply to this PhD studentship! Fully funded, covers fees and stipend; UK home student applicants only (due to funder rules).

Andrew McPherson@apmcpherson.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I'm recruiting a PhD student for autumn 2026 on a project on accessibility in musical instrument design, in partnership with disability arts charities OHMI and Drake Music. Application deadline 15 February 2026. More info and contact details: liss-dtp.ac.uk/project/inst...

I'm recruiting a PhD student for autumn 2026 on a project on accessibility in musical instrument design, in partnership with disability arts charities OHMI and Drake Music. Application deadline 15 February 2026. More info and contact details: liss-dtp.ac.uk/project/inst...

Great to have the opportunity to present a paper by @francisco-bernardo.bsky.social, myself, and @apmcpherson.bsky.social at DAFx 2025: "Impedance Synthesis for Hybrid Analog-Digital Audio effects". The work, led by Francisco, integrates digital systems into analog circuits bidirectionally.

NIME 2026 is coming to London! 23-26 June 2026. General chairs Courtney Reed (Loughborough University London, Augmented Instruments Lab alum) and me. More details soon!

Great to have demoed the HaptiCoupler kit at #lac2025 yesterday. Lots of great insight and creative ideas from people trying it out. This kit is open source, find all the files (firmware, schematics, PCBs etc.) in the GitHub repo here: github.com/davisonaudio...

(1/2) I'll be presenting a demo of the HaptiCoupler device at the Linux Audio Conference in Lyon this week! ( jimlac25.inria.fr ) The HaptiCoupler is an open source kit that enables bidirectional tactile interaction with digital resonant synthesis instruments

PhD opportunity: I'm recruiting a PhD student in digital musical instrument design at Imperial College London. Applications now, start date in the autumn. Funding is limited to UK home students. More topic details to follow. Interested? Email me with a CV! andrew.mcpherson@imperial.ac.uk

First Bsky post, first lab paper of 2025! "On mapping as a technoscientific practice in digital musical instruments" -- a dive on the history and critical implications of mapping theory, with speculation on possible futures. Forthcoming in JNMR: instrumentslab.org/data/andrew/...