Centre for Applied Research in the Arts

Connect Resound is an action research project that was initially funded by a 110k grant from the Nesta Digital Research and Design Fund. The scheme of work was a collaboration between The University of Hull (Research), North Yorkshire Music Action Zone (charitable), and UCan Play (technology) to investigate how digital technology can enhance access to expertise and widen participation in music education. The project team, led by Principal Investigator Dr Andrew King, focussed upon the technological framework and the teaching behaviours as part of the evaluation.  A Remote Music Network was then established between national music hubs in England supported by a 60k grant from Arts Council England. The project was further enhanced by a 273k grant in 2017 from Paul Hamlyn to roll-out the project nationally. 

The New Music Biennial 2017 was supported by a 697k grant from multiple agencies such as Paul Hamlyn and Arts Council England that had two project work streams: Composer Residencies; and Minute of Listening. The project was led by the Performance Rights Society Foundation with support from Sound and Music and evaluated by a team of researchers at the University of Hull led by Dr Andrew King.

The Risky Cities project will use innovative arts and humanities approaches to build climate awareness and help communities become more flood resilient, today and for the future. Funded as part of the AHRC UK Climate Resilience Programme, the project will develop learning histories for one flood-prone city (Hull, UK) and use them in community-based arts and heritage interventions as well as large-scale cultural productions developed in collaboration with project partners, Absolutely Cultured and the National Youth Theatre. An inter-disciplinary collaboration between History, Geography and Environment, Drama, English and Education Studies, the project seeks to understand how Hull communities have experienced, responded to and learned to live with water over the last 800 years. It explores the fictions of flooding – as recorded in poetry, prose, drama and newspapers – that have arisen alongside, and in response to, the experience of living with water in Hull. Finally, the project team will explore the opportunities for using meaningful, place-based stories about the past, as a means of working with present day communities to build climate change awareness and flood resilience. We will evaluate the effectiveness of our arts and heritage community interventions and will seek to establish best practice guidelines to be used in future projects in other risky cities. Dr Amy Skinner of the Drama department at the university is a co-investigator for this project.

The Flight of the Monarchs project is led by Dr Rob Mackay. The project has used new methods in eco-acoustic composition, together with public-facing art installations to create practice-as-research outputs that are a form of environmental advocacy (designed to confront audiences directly with the plight of one particular species). Mackay first recorded the threatened Monarch butterfly in the El Rosario nature reserve in Mexico; he then used sound compositions to create an installation for the Amy Johnson Festival in Hull (on the theme of flight). Other works within the project consider the environmental factors that contribute to the species’ decline – and incorporate scientific literature on the Monarch, together with evidence of eco-activism taking place. Mackay has worked alongside Mexican film maker Jessica Rodríguez and poet Rolando Rodríguez to make further installations – including a portable wooden structure housing speakers and screens, that allows viewers and auditors to experience something of the Monarch’s natural environment.

This research project explores STROKESTRA^™, a music rehabilitation programme for stroke patients and carers. The STROKESTRA programme is managed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) and facilitated by professional RPO musicians with clinicians from the Hull and East Riding Community Stroke Services (HERCSS). The research aims to identify how STROKESTRA is implemented, experienced and facilitated as well as to evaluate its impact on the wellbeing and post-stroke recovery of patients and carers. The research team is led by Dr Elaine King (Music) and involves Dr Helen Prior (Music, collaborator), Caroline White (Health and Social Work) and Dr Helen Gibson (Health and Social Work). The initial stages of the research are funded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. 

The Chinese Whispers™ Project embraces culture and creativity. Its intercultural agenda focusses on developing awareness, competence and citizenship in local members of the community (children and adults) and facilitating respectful interaction between people from different cultural backgrounds. Its creative agenda promotes the learning of language and culture through creative practice, such as through choir singing.

The Chinese Whispers™ Project celebrates its activities in annual public concerts that are hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Hull. The concert involves students and staff from the School of the Arts in the University as well as children and adults who have participated in the Chinese Whispers™ Project.

A team of researchers is currently pursuing three strands of enquiry about the ChineseWhispers™ Project:

1. Educational: To engage native English speakers in learning Mandarin Chinese through song. A “singing curriculum” will be produced to facilitate the learning of language through song for primary and secondary school children as well as adult community members.
   
   
2. Psychological: To investigate cultural, emotional and experiential aspects of learning Chinese in the context of music-making, especially choir singing. The results of a survey will be published about people’s emotional and experiential perspectives on learning a foreign language through singing. The results of a comparative study will be published to explain whether or not learning a language through singing significantly improves the scores of school children in language tests.
   
   
3. Creative: To explore issues of translation and cultural fusion through music composition.

Find out more about the Chinese Whispers™ project

Dr Christian Billing

Director of Research (School of the Arts) | C.M.Billing@hull.ac.uk

Professor Pavel Drabek

Professor of Drama and Theatre Practice | P.Drabek@hull.ac.uk

Dr Cat Fergusson-Baugh

Lecturer / Director of Drama | C.Fergusson-Baugh@hull.ac.uk

Mr Jason Hayhurst

Lecturer in Digital Media and Subject Lead for Screen | J.Hayhurst@hull.ac.uk

Dr Andrew King

Reader in Music and Technology / Head of School | A.King@hull.ac.uk

Dr Elaine King

Reader | E.C.King@hull.ac.uk

Dr Helen Prior

Lecturer in Music | H.Prior@hull.ac.uk

Dr Amy Skinner

Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Practice | A.E.Skinner@hull.ac.uk