Professor Andrew Hugill University of Leicester and the Aural Diversity music project
This talk summarises Professor Hugill’s recent research into how Ménière’s disease and other forms of hearing impairment affect musicians and their music. Until very recently, most hearing instrument algorithms focused mainly on speech understanding. However, modern technology recognises that music is also an essential part of life. To examine this, we have a session on hearing and music by Professor Andrew Hugill on the consequences of Meniere’s disease and other forms of hearing impairment for musicians, their music-making, hearing care and technologies. Andrew will also talk from his own experience as a musician living with Meniere’s disease.
Professor Andrew Hugill directs the Creative Computing programme at the University of Leicester. He works in music (composition, musicology), computing and various areas of culture and cultural production. He is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His books include The Digital Musician (Routledge), now in its third edition, and Pataphysics: A Useless Guide (MIT Press), recently translated into Russian. His multimedia installation Secret Garden was viewed by 36,500 people during its recent one-month exhibition in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. He is currently undertaking funded research into balance disorders and hearing loss amongst musicians and is organising a series of musical events under the title ‘Aural Diversity’.