Music researchers visit Sherwood Forest

A group of Beaconsfield students got a taste of some cutting-edge technology last week via a sophisticated outreach program presented by a unique research centre based at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music.

The Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT) is an inter-university project involving “scientists and engineers from different disciplines who are all doing research on music and sound,” explained Don McLean, dean of the Schulich School and chair of CIRMMT’s board of directors.

While the centre and its innovations have earned it a reputation on the international stage, “one of the things we want to do is bring it to kids at various levels, and show them the positive uses of the new technologies,” he said, adding the visit to Sherwood Forest Elementary School was the “first time we’ve done this on a formal basis.”

A team of researchers presented four interactive workshops on May 19 to Grade 4 and 5 students, “and for all the kids the experience was hands-on. It was very exciting and they had a great time,” said teacher Diane Martello.

One new instrument to which they were introduced was a “T-stick, a tube containing wires wrapped in rubber which is sensitive to touch and motion. The students used the pressure of their fingers to generate sound.

“There was also a sound and voice processing display where the kids spoke into a microphone and their voices were changed through a filter,”Martello said, adding one student remarked “that he sounded like Alvin the chipmunk.”

In addition, there was a workshop focusing on sense-surround s well as a computer screen that the children drew on, “and as they drew spirals and circles they were able to compose music at the same time.

“The objective of the visit was to allow the students to experience science and open their minds to possibilities in art and music,” Martello said.

Founded in 2000, CIRMMT’s mandate is to develop state-of-the-art tools and approaches to the scientific study of music media and technology, and to promote the application of newer technologies in science and the creative arts. For more information, check www.cirmmt.mcgill.ca.

Chronicle, Jacques Pharand