A composer’s approach to eye-ear cross-modality: sounds, illusions and embodiment from opera to interactive installation.

Caneva, Sara ORCID: 0009-0002-3920-509X (2025). A composer’s approach to eye-ear cross-modality: sounds, illusions and embodiment from opera to interactive installation. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This practice-led PhD explores perception-related principles for composing. My research in Composition aims to establish artistic relations between listening and seeing, which I pursued by shaping and altering audiovisual expectations in varied settings and musical structures. Throughout the portfolio, I have refined my focus to increase the audiences’ and performers’ listening awareness through visual cues management or visual deprivation, finding how visual stimuli – or removal thereof – can enhance the auditory perception. Research questions revolve around articulating these points through multifarious musical outputs and media. In some pieces, cross-modal perception was a core interest that originated my compositional concepts and determined my approach to developing material. In others, eye-ear sensory illusions were practically incorporated into musical narratives by reducing or removing visual stimuli, such as with dark or visually empty performance spaces. Methods have involved mind mapping, field recordings, composing (in music notation software and DAW), artistic/scholarly collaborations and performance, which enriched the creative process. That has led to expanding the borders of contemporary music genres with cross-disciplinary approaches and public engagement. My background as a conductor also supported compositional perspectives on gesture-sound interconnectedness. All my compositions discussed in this commentary were commissioned and performed in international contexts throughout my PhD, which increased their significance and outreach.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):

Supervisor(s)	Email	ORCID
Wilson, Scott	UNSPECIFIED	orcid.org/0000-0003-3510-4240
Mahtani, Annie	UNSPECIFIED	orcid.org/0000-0001-9064-6312
Latimer, Ryan	UNSPECIFIED	orcid.org/0000-0002-5819-9329