abstract: Despite the wealth of folk music traditions in Portugal and the importance of the clarinet in the music of bandas filarmonicas, it is uncommon to find works featuring the clarinet using Portuguese folk music elements. In the interest of expanding this type of repertoire, three new works were commissioned from three different composers. The resulting works are Seres Imaginarios 3 by Luis Cardoso; Delirio Barroco by Tiago Derrica; and Memória by Pedro Faria Gomes. In an effort to submit these new works for inclusion into mainstream performance literature, the author has recorded these works on compact disc. This document includes interview transcripts with each composer, providing first-person discussion of each composition, as well as detailed biographical information on each composer. To provide context, the author has included a brief discussion on Portuguese folk music, and in particular, the role that the clarinet plays in Portuguese folk music culture. / Dissertation/Thesis / Seres Imaginarios 3 - Movement I - Olhapim (composed by Luis Cardoso) / Seres Imaginarios 3 - Movement II - Jana (composed by Luis Cardoso) / Seres Imaginarios 3 - Movement III - Trasgo (composed by Luis Cardoso) / Delirio Barroco - Movement I - Ouverture (composed by Tiago Derrica) / Delirio Barroco - Movement II - Fantasia (composed by Tiago Derrica) / Delirio Barroco - Movement III - Fuga (composed by Tiago Derrica) / Delirio Barroco - Movement IV - Fantasia 2 (composed by Tiago Derrica) / Delirio Barroco - Movement V - Coral (composed by Tiago Derrica) / Memoria (composed by Pedro Faria Gomes) / D.M.A. Music 2013

The boom microphone has been used to record dialogue on a film set for decades. As a boom operator it can be difficult in certain situations to acquire an ideal placement for the boom microphone. It depends on the frame and the lighting on the set. There are situations where the boom operator is forced to place the microphone underneath the actors instead of the standard overhead position. To investigate the difference between these techniques, and what audio quality attributes that affect the viewers’ choice of preference, a listening test has been constructed. The subjects were instructed to choose preferences in four trials of stimuli that had been recorded with both microphone techniques. To collect further data the subjects were also instructed to describe the differences they perceived between the stimuli. A statistically significant result was not found, except for one of the trials, the trained listeners preferred the underneath microphone technique for the second female stimuli. A difference between the techniques was difficult to determine from the answers given by the subjects. The conclusion was made that there is not a clear preference between the microphone techniques. Even though one of the trials was significant a clear difference could not be found in the analysis of the qualitative data.

Les taches de couleur au sol ont toujours existé dans l’atelier. Je ne sais comment, subitement, un jour, je lesai vues, non pas comme une saleté «pittoresque», mais comme de la peinture, une peinture sur le sol, desprolongations du tableau en dehors de ses limites. J’ai photographié ces taches de peinture comme d’autresphénomènes périphériques au tableau. La pratique photographique à l’atelier a généré des documents quiincarnaient un regard sur la peinture en train de se faire. Je pense aujourd’hui que cette activité photographiquea largement contribué à une prise de conscience de mon travail en peinture et de ce qu’il est devenu par lasuite. L’enregistrement photographique des oeuvres fait partie de ce que l’on pourrait appeler la production dedocuments pour l’archive. Ces images sont destinées à la préservation d’une mémoire, à la création de dossiersou bien à l’illustration de sites Internet ou de publications.J’ai constaté chez d’autres peintres de ma génération, que le passage au numérique a non seulement développéle travailde postproduction directement lié à l’enregistrement des oeuvres -le plus souvent assumé par l’artistelui-même-, mais qu’il a aussi facilité une activité photographique parallèle que certains artistes assimilent à dela notation ou du croquis. Photographier son propre travail implique de donner à voir, en même temps queles oeuvres, le regard que nous portons sur elles. Mais la plupart du temps, ces images sont des documents.Le devenir-oeuvre de l’archive tient à une opération par laquelle, d’après Olivier Corpet, l’archive évite à l’oeuvrede se renfermer sur elle-même, de se dégrader, voire de se perdre: l’archive peut alors lui sauver la mise, laremettre en mouvement / Stains of color on the floor have always existed in the studio. I do not know how, suddenly, one day, I saw them, not as“picturesque” mess but as painting; a painting on the floor; extensions of the painting beyond its edges. I photographedthese paint stains like other phenomena peripheral to the painting. Photographic practice in the studio generateddocuments that incarnated a way of looking at the painting being made. Today, I think that this photographicactivity greatly contributed to an emerging awareness of my work in painting and what it became thereafter.Recording artworks in photographs is part of what we could call the production of documents for archives.These images are destined to preserve a memory, create files or illustrate websites or publications.I have observed among other painters of my generation that the change to digital not only developed postproductionwork directly linked to recording artworks – most often done by the artist him/herself – but alsofacilitated a parallel photographic activity that certain artists see as similar to note taking or sketching.Photographing one’s own work involves showing both the artwork and the way we look at it. But most often,these images are documents. The archival image becomes artwork in an operation by which, according to OlivierCorpet, the archive prevents the artwork closing in on itself, from degrading itself, or even becoming lost:the archive can thus save it and put it back in motion

This research is a practice-based inquiry into the contribution of art to processes in which communities explore, design and proceed on sustainable ways forward. In rejecting an overly technocratic approach, this thesis follows a learning-based conception of sustainable development. Rather than transmitting predetermined solutions, social learning is about establishing a prolific framework of conditions in which people can explore for themselves what is ‘right’, sustainable and desired. Such learning shows important overlaps with art, in that it does not set out to transmit a predetermined message; instead the meaning of something is collectively made throughout the process. Where the shift from instrumental, technocratic approaches to participatory, intersubjective and open-ended approaches to sustainable development is relatively new in the social sciences, artists arguably have a longer legacy working in non-instrumental and ‘goal-searching’ ways. Subsequently, this thesis proposes a range of artful approaches that would allow educators to create spaces in which meaning is mutually created. These are the result of three research activities: the researcher interviewed artists, she participated in practices of artists, and reflected upon her own making process in which she conceived social learning as a contextual arts practice. Where this thesis takes social learning into new areas of knowledge is in the way that it conceives the meaning of sustainable development as continuously coming out of the present. Despite a professed action-oriented and experiential rendition of sustainable development, academics in the field of learning for sustainability present the concept as theoretical and abstract: it exists separated from the lived world of practice that it draws meaning from. This thesis argues that the key potential of art lies in counteracting such excessive objectification of socio-environmental issues. Through locative meaning-making, for example, meanings are derived from the here and now rather than from abstracted terms. Consequently, social learning should not strive for sustainable development as an objective, general goal in itself. Instead the learning should be conceived as an emergent process that is driven by an active vehicle, score or invitation that generates an interaction-rich environment in which meaning-making can happen. Sustainable development then threads through the fabric of whatever is happening, rather than being a focus on its own.

This submission explores the development of collaborative computer music creation and the role of the Musical Assistant, or Computer Music Designer, or Live Electronics Designer, or RIM (Réalisateur en informatique musicale) and does so primarily through the consideration of a series of collaborations with composers over the last 18 years. The submission documents and evaluates a number of projects which exemplify my practice within collaborative computer music creation, whether in the form of live electronics, tape-based or fixed media work, as a live electronics performer, or working with composers and others to create original tools and music for artistic creations. A selection of works is presented to exemplify archetypes found within the relational structures of collaborative work. The relatively recent development of this activity as an independent metier is located within its historical context, a context in which my work has played a significant role. The submission evidences the innovative aspects of that work and, more generally, of the role of the Computer Music Designer through consideration of a number of Max patches and program examples especially created for the works under discussion. Finally, the validation of the role of the Computer Music Designer as a new entity within the world of music creation is explored in a range of contexts, demonstrating the ways in which Computer Music Designers not only collaborate in the creation of new work but also generate new resources for computer-based music and new creative paradigms.

In this digital age many listeners of music now purchase albums from online digital music stores instead of buying a physical album from the record store. This has created a concern with many regarding the future of the album as a physical medium. This study investigates the impact of the possible death of the album on certain listening habits, the activity of record collecting, the creation of large-scale musical works, music consumerism, and its implications for the creative process on music as art and sound-recording quality. Three realisations have led to the problem statement. Firstly, the album might not have a future in the digital age. Secondly, downloadable songs might not be able to recreate an album experience. The third realisation is that the possible death of the album could create new, exciting challenges to artists as they strive to create art. This study is exploratory in nature - and no hypothesis was generated. The research necessitates qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual approaches. Furthermore, the investigation has led to the collection of mostly new data, constituting a “primary data design” through the implementation of qualitative listening experiments and a focus group, using full-time NMMU students between 18 and 25 years of age. It is herein argued that digital distribution might possibly have an effect on the perception of the album format and might possibly still be a relevant listening experience, valued by young people. Singles and albums are collectable; and good albums are considered artistic and comparable to the large-scale musical works of the past. If the concept of an album does not die out, then high fidelity formats should be able to re-invent the album experience. Listening experiences other than the album experience do exist, and they could generate new ways for artists to create musical art.

Antidepressants are generally believed to exert their clinical efficacy by enhancing 5-HT transmission. Interestingly, sustained administration of selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) strongly suppresses in the first few days the firing activity of 5-HT neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), thereby severely hampering the increase of 5-HT in target regions. Remarkably, the firing activity of 5-HT neurons gradually recovers over the time course of treatment and this recovery is believed to be accounted for by the desensitization of 5-HT1A somatodendritic autoreceptors. Here, we sought to investigate whether additional mechanisms might contribute to the dynamic regulation of excitability of 5-HT neurons during the course of SSRI treatments. Borrowing from the well-described homeostatic strengthening of glutamatergic synapses onto cortical pyramidal neurons following prolonged periods of inactivity, we hypothesized that a similar homeostatic-like regulation of synaptic strength might be operant on 5-HT cells during an SSRI treatment. To test this possibility, we used whole-cell electrophysiological recordings on acute midbrain slices to monitor glutamatergic synapses onto 5-HT neurons. We found that a two-day treatment with the SSRI citalopram induced a robust reduction in both the amplitude and frequency of AMPAR-mediated mEPSCs. We also show that this depression in synaptic strength, induced by an SSRI, is transient since excitatory drive onto 5-HT neurons was enhanced by 7 days of treatments. Altogether, these results document a dynamic regulation of glutamatergic synaptic transmission during the time course of a prolonged treatment with an SSRI. Further elucidation of the cellular and molecular mechanisms driving this synaptic plasticity might identify novel pharmacological target to shorten the delay of antidepressant action.

This thesis examines case studies and historical accounts taken from different periods of the history of recording technology, and addresses questions concerning the impact of mediatization, manipulation, and mediation on listeners' and performers' approaches to music. The project considers the development of the idea of "copies without originals," and of the ideological frameworks that have been used to describe and classify recorded sound. The first case study covers the early days of the phonograph and its development in Victorian society, then contrasts the values and motivations of those early years with modern-day rock performance and its own value systems. Moving into the mid-twentieth century, a chapter of this thesis is devoted to the work of Glenn Gould, and the possibilities for tape manipulation that the Canadian pianist explored during the period of his career that was focused on the recording studio. Lastly, this project examines the innovative, user-driven methods of music-making that are gaining momentum today, including Bjork's "Biophilia" app album, and the emergence of a new genre of popular music in Asia that uses vocal synthesizers in place of live performers. By exploring these case studies alongside the works of scholars in musicology, media studies, sound theory, film and television, and popular music studies, this thesis demonstrates how cultural need, individual innovation, and social involvement interact to direct the development and application of emerging media technologies.

Exchange–spring systems have been proposed as one method of addressing the media trilemma, where a balance must be maintained between thermal stability, writeability and signal to noise ratio. High anisotropy films coupled to low anisotropy films, in bit patterned media (BPM), via the exchange interaction allow the reversal mechanism to be tailored such that thermal stability is maintained whilst the switching field remains realisable in terms of available write elements. Understanding how the exchange interaction is mediated by through exchange break layers (EBL) is key in successfully creating an optimal exchange spring structure based on Co/Pd thin films for applications such as BPM.The work presented in this thesis shows that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) ofCo/Pd magnetic multilayers can be tuned by varying the Ar ion energy during deposition, usingremote plasma sputtering. This provides a novel method of tailoring the PMA without affecting the film composition and reduces the need for post fabrication processing. It is demonstrated that the reduction in PMA is due to chemical intermixing at the multilayer interface as the Ar ion energy is increased. This provides a method of creating two phase or graded exchange–spring materials for data storage or spin torque applications. In–situ anisotropy tuning was used to create hard and soft magnetic phases using Co/Pd multilayers to explore the effect of an exchange break layer (EBL) on exchange coupling. The relative coupling was investigated using Pd and Ta as the exchange break layer in two–phase anisotropy systems. The exchange–spring effect was found to extend 4 nm in the case of a Pd, whereas in the case of a Ta EBL only a 0.5 nm layer exhibited the same effect. These results highlight the importance of the choice of material for the EBL on the effective performance of the exchange–spring.

This research covers collaborations in a studio recording environment and the interrelations between conflict and creativity. The aim was to find what the relationship between creativity and conflict is in a studio recording environment and what different ways there are of managing conflict and the purpose of this was to further the understanding of these concepts and their place, for engineers, producers and musicians to make better use of moments of conflict. A literary review was made to outline and present the key elements of collaborations in studio recording, previous research on creativity and definitions of conflict and creativity. Examining this literary review brought forward a few concepts that then came to be the base on which this study lies. An ethnographic study was conducted with the band Baron’s Court. The band was observed while recording an album and later interviewed to share their experience of the recording session and their thoughts about this topic. There were trends and patterns found in the footage from the observation and in the interviews that allowed for elaborations on how different creative approaches can impact the kind of conflict that might occur and the different ways of managing conflict. The trends and patterns were compared to the findings in the literary review.