the idea behind inCIde

The main purpose of this project is to reconsider and adjust specific principles and rules for composing and arranging contemporary classical music concerning the limitations the implant suggests, thus improving a user's perception of the aesthetic qualities of music. Three main questions are central to our approach: 1) How can a musical work be composed by taking advantage of the cognitive and perceptual changes that may occur to the CI user’s brain? 2) How can all these music parameters be reconsidered in a meaningful compositional frame? And 3) how a composer can find the golden ratio between pushing the limits of perceptual ability while achieving a personal artistic goal within the musical work?

The main idea behind this project, is to develop a participatory process where both composers and Cochlear Implant users can interact, also during the process of composing a musical piece. In this context, we break the process of composing a multi-instrument piece of music into several successive steps (versions). The composer kick-starts this process by writing short and simple melodic and harmonic structures at the initial stages, and progressively increasing their complexity and length at subsequent stages. At the same time, cochlear implant users who actively participate as critical listeners right from stage one of the compositional process, are encouraged to make comments related to specific parts or timepoints of a version of the piece, for which they think that the content of music challenges the capacity of their hearing.

You may preview a sample of the music playback and commenting tools we use by visiting the listen & evaluation page of this website.