Welcome to Integra Lab
Integra Lab is the music interaction research lab founded by Jamie Bullock and Lamberto Coccioli in 2009, at the end of the first phase of the EU-funded Integra – Fusing Music and Technology project. The experience of Integra convinced us that musician-centred interaction design and sustainability of live electronic music were two promising but relatively neglected areas of practice-based research. Integra Lab was set up to expand our work in those areas and continue the development of the Integra Live software.
Music
Music
Based at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the UK, we collaborate with performers, composers and sound artists, supporting them in the creation and performance of innovative music projects.
Research
Research
We bring together musicians, researchers, designers and developers to explore music and human-computer interaction.
Innovation
Innovation
We are motivated by producing work that benefits the arts, culture and the wider society. Alongside our research and creative projects, we have a growing portfolio of external collaborations.
Our Work
Blog
Integra Lab is a continually evolving group of talented individuals working on a variety of different projects. Our blog is a one-stop place to keep up to date with both our work and research.
Arduino Day 2018
On Saturday the 12th of May - as a part of Arduino Day 2018 - the Integra Lab hosted a day long event in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire foyer as part of the worldwide celebration of the Arduino community. Our community event was focused around introducing electronics to musicians. [...]
Integra Lab hosts Arduino Day 2018
The Integra Lab is proud to announce that on Saturday the 12th of May, in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire's foyer, we will be hosting the Arduino Day 2018! Arduino Day is a worldwide birthday celebration of Arduino. It's a 24 hour-long event – organized directly by the community, or [...]
Integra Lab welcomes Edmund Hunt
Integra Lab welcomes Edmund Hunt. Edmund will be joining us as a Post-Doctoral researcher working with voice, language and live electronics. Edmund Hunt is a British composer. His work has been performed by ensembles including Psappha, The Royal Northern Sinfonia, CHROMA, BCMG, ICARUS Vocal Ensemble, The Curious Chamber Players and [...]
Integra Lab At ADC 2017
Earlier this month, we at the Integra Lab attended the Audio Developers Conference at the CodeNode, London. ADC began as the JUCE summit, a conference hosted by ROLI for users of the JUCE framework and audio developers to extend their knowledge on audio application development and software design. Over the [...]
Integra Lab at ICMC/EMW 2017
This year’s International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) was hosted at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in conjunction with Shanghai’s Electronic Music Week (EMW) festival. Balandino Di Donato and James Dooley from Integra Lab attended the conference to present a paper on the MyoSpat gesture-controlled audiovisual system. They were accompanied by [...]
Events
MiXD: Music Interaction Design
Music Interaction Design is at the heart of Integra Lab’s activities. We have gained considerable reputation in music and human-computer interaction, culminating in our hosting of NIME – the New Interfaces for Musical Expression International Conference – in July 2020. Our research work focuses mainly on:
- Developing interactive systems for music creation, performance and education;
- Undertaking applied and practice-led research in musical creativity and sustainability of music with live electronics.
As pioneers of the conceptual framework ‘musician-centred design’, we place musicians and music making at the heart of what we do, developing technologies that empower users and let them think musically. The Integra Live software, for example, was specifically conceived to support musicians in the design and control of their live interaction with electronics.
Composition and performance with technology
Integra Lab has a strong history of supporting the production of compositions and performances, and exploring novel applications of technology both in the creative process and in performance. We have worked on a range of composition and performance projects with composers such as Jonathan Harvey, Kaija Saariaho, Julian Anderson, Hilda Paredes and Philippe Leroux, to name just a few. Outputs from Integra Lab members include works for instruments and live electronics, digital instruments, mixed media and audiovisual, and sonic installations. The Technology in Music Performance (TiMP) Study Group of the Royal Musical Association is based at Integra Lab, and in December 2019 we hosted TiMP’s first Symposium.
Sustainability of music with live electronics
Ensuring the long and successful life of musical works using interactive technologies is a complex and challenging proposition, involving many artistic and technical considerations. Integra Lab’s members have considerable experience in providing training and support to ensembles and composers in the performance of works from the live electronics repertoire that make use of technologies now obsolete. We have “modernized” works by Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Roger Reynolds, Edwin Roxburgh, Tristan Murail, Luca Francesconi, Jonathan Harvey, Philippe Hurel and many others, often working directly with the composers themselves, and we have supported performances of the new versions of the works all over the world.
Funded Research
Over the past ten years our team has secured over £2m in grants and research funding.
Who we are
The lab team is an experienced group of musicians, designers and developers with expertise in interaction design, music composition and performance with live electronics, digital musical instrument design, haptic interaction, gestural control and mixed reality.