I am Professor of Interactive Music Composition at University of Manchester, UK, where I started NOVARS in 2007 and served as director since then. I moved to Manchester from SARC, the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queens University, Belfast, where I was music staff for five years. My experience working at these two state-of-the-art Computer Music Centres in UK placed me in a privileged position to understand the complexities of working at the intersections of Music, Science and Engineering. As a result, I have created and promoted research synergies across areas of Interactive Media, Live Game-audio, Analogue Synthesizers, Audification (Sonification) and Machine Learning for Music. All these contributed to enriching existing areas of research on Spatial Audio and Electroacoustic Music Composition. It also facilitated routes to market for the creation of three spin-outs; two on locativeaudio and one social venture using game-audio technology at the University of Manchester.

In 2020, I embarked on ASPECT UK SUCCESS/ARC accelerator programme, to spin-out my academic research via "Keep•It•Human", a Digital Game Ecosystem for Collaborative Altruism. This social venture looks at novel ways of engagement between people and the ownership of opportunities to ignite local and global change. It also highlights the potential of what academic research in the Arts, Social Sciences and the Humanities is capable of, when compared to STEM subjects.
My research is placed at the intersections of Physical and Digital creativity where I design immersive musical experiences with game engines. It focuses on the understanding of the relationships between digital technologies and the Self. Ultimately, I build interactive worlds for people to see something new about themselves through, placing sound and music at the core of the experience. Throughout my practice, I unlock new forms of storytelling around concepts of Co-presence, Corporeality, Spatiality and Interactivity with technology, to perceiving and experiencing our mutual belonging. I explore how to escape the power of rationality, as in Dali's paintings, to experience the human condition and the uncanny. In my works, I create digital twins linked to their real counterparts, who morph as the music story progresses. I apply Japanese Noh Theatre techniques to my creative practice, in particular, the way ‘time’ is mastered during (game) play and how the Noh Mask can transcend the perception of the Self to reveal new aspects of human identity.
As an educator, students often give greater value to the fact that I push them to take risks in their artistic practices, and that I do so leading by example. I learn a lot by talking to my students. Especially from those whose creative spirit is generous and who want to change the world for the better.
NOVARS Research Centre is specialised on digital audio across music, science and engineering. Since I joined University of Manchester, I have supervised cross-disciplinary Portfolios in musical composition and molecular chemistry, DNA/RNA, state-space physical models, biometrics, visual anthropology and IoT, to mention a few. My dual background in music and economic sciences has clearly paid off to lead PhD journeys to a good port and to identify and seduce the right scientific co-supervisors to become involved.
At NOVARS, I built a culture of return-and-collaborate after postgraduates leave. This prevents our collective research to lead to unfulfilled cycles. In 2007, we started with research on Spatial Audio, to embark on new ecosystems focused on Interactive game-audio in 2008, audification in 2009, locative-audio in 2011, analogue synthesis in 2016 and social entrepreneurship in 2018. Do you want to be part of our new chapter?

I am currently working on audio cryptography and steganography applied in he context of the augmented city. If you would like to see progress, please visit my research diary here:http://cryptography.audio

Research Interests and Thesis I conduct

Specific research interests and areas of supervision:

I am specifically interested on portfolio proposals in musical composition involving Immersive Media Environments (I only accept highly experimental proposals though). I am also very keen to shape and discuss proposals across the disciplines of music creativity, sciences and engineering, as long as they bring a new perspective to existing research. Along these lines, applicants should think of proposals embracing specific technologies for music creativity, including machine learning, biometrics, IoT, biochemistry, architecture and mathematics and DNA-RNA. I will be keen to facilitate conversion to research with strong potential to spin-out or with clear routes to market, especially when it comes to Social Ventures. University of the Manchester is one of the best places in the world to undertake interdisciplinary research. We have a strong record of matching co-supervision across other schools in areas of computer science, machine learning, molecular chemistry and visual anthropology.

PhD Students I currently supervise:

• Chris Rhodes (EPSRC), UK- Sonifying the self: Biological Data as the New Paradigm for Interactive Music Composition with Machine Learning for biometrics- Co-supervised match by Dr Richard Allmendinger (AMBS)
• Hongshuo Fan (GigaHerz Prize), China - Interactive multi-media performance systems in the IoT era (Internet of Things and Machine Learning for music)
• Harry Ovington, UK- World Audification; Environmental Datasets and Indigenous Instrumentation as a Basis for Sculpting Electroacoustic Compositions. Co-supervised match by Dr Rupert Cox (visual Anthropology)
• Tasos Asonitis (EPSRC), Greece: From the Perspective of the Machine: Sonification and Visualisation of neural network embeddings as a cutting-edge resource for audiovisual composition and a means to illuminate the process of machine learning". Co-supervised match by Dr Richard Allmendinger (AMBS)

PhD Students I have supervised as first at UoM (now Dr)

• Falk Morawitz (Germany)- Molecular Sonification, composition and social awareness.  Co-supervised match by Prof Gareth A Morris, School of Chemistry
• Julián Ávila- Sausor (Spain)- Spectral Diffusion and Spectral Energy in Electroacoustic Composition
• Richard Scott (UK) - Hybrid Strategies for Electroacoustic Music Composition and Improvisation
• Mario Duarte (Mexico) - Biological Processes applied to musical composition
• Haruka Hirayama (Japan) - Live Interactive Composition across alternative medium 
• Andrew Garbett (UK) - Live Interactive Composition (with orchestral forces)
• Rosalia Soria (Mexico) - State Space Models / Physical Models and interactive mixed composition
• Jose Ignacio Pecino Rodriguez (Spain) - Procedural Audio in game-engines and Locativeaudio applied to Music Composition – Founder at SonicMaps.xyz
• Kaho Cheung (Hong Kong) - Rapid Transit Systems (a portfolio of music compositions)
• Manuella Blackburn (UK) - Applied Spectromorphology to Compositional Processes
• Mauricio Pauly (Costa Rica) - A portfolio of musical compositions – Founder at Distractfold
• Josh Kopecek (UK) - A portfolio of Live Interactive Composition – Founder at Echoes.xyz
• Sam Salem (UK) - 50% co-supervised with Prof Berezan - A portfolio of Acousmatic Composition – Founder at Distractfold
• Mark Pilkington (UK) (GigaHerz Prize)- - 50% co-supervised with Prof Berezan - The Audiovisual Contract and Composition

I particularly welcome proposals for PhD supervision in areas of Interactive Music, game-audio, procedural-audio applied in three contexts:

• Dynamic or mosaic-type real-time scores for mixed composition portfolios (instruments and live computing), employing typo-morphology. Examples of my research in this area are 'Russian Disco' and 'Xi' for timbila.
• Realtime immersive game-audio including interface design and the use of physics, graphics and audio engine technologies. Example of my research: 'Ho - A sonic expedition to Vietnam',  '[5]' orPutney (for game-audio and augmented and virtual reality)
• Locativeaudio composition connecting the city with the concert hall. Refer tohttp://locativeaudio.org

Examples above: http://www.electro-acustica.com

I am keen to consider novel proposals from composers/ musicians with dual background in engineering and computer science (e.g. audio steganography or audio cryptography applications to composition)

Courses I deliver

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES:

A) Composition & Computer Music areas:

• MUSC10311 Sonic Invention A or MUSC10312 Sonic Invention B
• MUSC20161 Fixed and Interactive Composition
• MUSC20162 Interactive Media Composition (sometimes seen as 20060) 
• MUSC30300 Composition Portfolio, Electroacoustic or Vocal, Instrumental
• MUSC30352 Game Audio II (Special Option)
• MUSC30352 Electroacoustic composition (Special Option in Composition)

Reshaped, merged or on hold

• MUSC20172 Sound and Digital Entertainment: GameAudio I (2010-2016)
• MUSC20812 Acoustics (course director) - 2007-2010
• MUSC20151 Sound Design – 2006-2012 

POSTGRADUATE COURSES 

MusM in Electroacoustic Composition - serving as Programme Director since 2009

• MUSC40242 Interactive Tools (includes GameAudio and sensors technology)
• MUSC40211 Fixed and Interactive Composition 
• MUSC40120 Portfolio of Compositions
• MUSC40260 Electroacoustic Repertoire Study (2014 only) 

RICARDO WAS COMMISSIONED BY

Amores Grup de Percussio, Spanish Brass Luur i Metalls, Joven Orquesta de la Generalitat Valenciana, Pedro Carneiro, Xelo Giner - Kazuhisa Ogawa, Ensamble Las Rosas, Esther Lamneck- Elizabeth McNutt, Carlos Gil, Kontakte Group de Percussio, Darragh Morgan, Miquel Bernat, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid (for Horacio Franco)

Listening area: Click here

Hobbies: I like cycling and meeting friends in Berlin (to play ping-pong, buy DDR stuff or eat Vietnamese food). I used to jump hurdles (athletics), run cross-country and practice windsurfing.  I enjoy encrypting things. In 2011 I joined the 'cycle to work' scheme and deeply regret not having done this before!