Dr Sophy Smith

My research focuses on inter/multi/transdisciplinary collaboration, primarily, but not restricted to professional arts practice.  I also work extensively as a composer and performer on professional collaborative arts projects both nationally and internationally.  I have had a number of articles and chapters published in international journals including Organised Sound, International Journal of Art, Culture and Design Technologies and Arts in Society.  My first book Hip-Hop Turntablism, Creativity and Collaboration is to be published with Ashgate (2013).  The book develops an analytical methodology for hip-hop team turntable composition, relating to both the process of creation and the completed musical work.  As Programme Leader for the IOCT's innovative transdisciplinary Masters in Creative Technologies (MA/MSc), my work with students at the convergence of the e-sciences and digital arts and humanities and this is reflected in her pedagogic research interests. 

Institute of Creative Technologies

Music Technology and Innovation Research Centre

Performance Research Group

Intermediality and Performance Research Group

Click here for a full listing of Sophy Smith's publications and outputs.

• Creative collaboration
• Turntablism
• Hip-Hop
• Collaborative approaches to arts practice
• Social media and arts practice
• Performance Arts
• Composition
• Creative Curricula
• Trans/multi/interdisciplinary teaching and learning

Performance Technologies, Digital Cultures, Turntablism, Creative Collaboration, Composition, Transdisciplinary Research, Research Methods for Creative Projects, Research Methods in Practice and Major Project.

BA Hons Music and Inter Arts, MA Contemporary Performing Arts, PhD Music Technology

Masters in Creative Technologies (MA/MSc)

DMU Teacher Fellow (2015)

HEA Senior Teacher Fellow (2015)

Smith, S. (2011) “An analytical methodology for Hip-Hop turntable routines”,  Seventh International Conference on Music Since 1900, Lancaster July 2011.  Accepted paper.  Attendance funded by IOCT.

Smith, S. (2010) “The creative use of online social media to increase public engagement and participation in the professional arts through collaborative involvement in creative practice”, ARLIS UK & Ireland Conference, Edinburgh, July 2010.  Invited paper.  Attendance funded by organisers.

Smith, S and Fisher, S (2010) “Putting the Audience in the Picture: Involving Audience as Creative Process”, Audiences NI Annual Conference, Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, March 2010. Attendance funded by organisers.

Smith, S. (2009) “The creative uses of Facebook as a tool for artistic collaboration”, Electronic Visualisation and the Arts conference, London, July 2009. Peer reviewed.  Published conference proceedings.  Attendance funded by IOCT.

Smith, S. (2009) “The creative use of online social media to increase public engagement and participation in the professional arts through collaborative involvement in creative practice.” Computers and the History of Art conference, London, Nov 2009. Peer reviewed. Published conference proceedings.  Attendance funded by organisers.

Passow B.N., Gongora, M. A., Smith, S. and Hopgood, A. A. (2009) “Supervised Control of a Flying Performing Robot using its Intrinsic Sound”, World Congress on Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE 2009).

Passow B.N., Gongora, M. A., Smith, S. and Hopgood, A. A.  (2009) “Managing Uncertainty in Sound based Control for an Autonomous Helicopter”, IEEE Symposium Series on Computational Intelligence 2009.

Other forms of public presentation

Performances:

The Voyage, London Festival 2012

The Giant is Coming, Assault Events, Touring Northern Ireland

Chaser, Motionhouse Dance Theatre. Touring Internationally 2008 to present.

Underground, Motionhouse Dance Theatre. Touring Internationally 2008 to present.

Alibi, Assault Events. Touring Northern Ireland .

Scattered, Motionhouse Dance Theatre. Touring Internationally 2009 to present, UK, EU, China and America.

Cascade, Motionhouse Dance Theatre. Touring Internationally 2010 to present, UK and EU .

Area of expertise; creative collaboration, composition, performance arts, inter/multi/transdisciplinarity, inter/transdisciplinary curriculum development, social media and arts practice. 

• Lu Zhang, Full-Time PhD Student (1st supervisor)
• Jacqui Norton, Part-Time PhD Student (1st supervisor).
• Matthew Applegate, Part-Time PhD Student (2nd supervisor).
• James Kelly, Part-Time PhD Student (2nd supervisor).

• Alibi - Arts Council Northern Ireland grant (CI)
• Feedback - University of Ulster Access Agreement Fund (CI)
• Dirty Evangelica - Sectoral Dramaturgy Fund, through the Arts Council Northern Ireland (CI)
• HEIF5 - Intelligent Questionnaire Methodology (CI)

Associate Editor in Volume 6, Issue 2 of The International Journal of the Arts in Society.

• Arts in Society

• Leonardo Special Edition for Electronic Visualisation and the Arts

Audience attendance figures (ongoing)

Festival Performances (Chaser/Underground/Cascade) 2010-2011:110 performances, to total audience of 46,420.

Festival Performances (Chaser/Underground/Scattered) 2009-2010:23 performances, to total audience of 23,307.

The Voyage.  Expected audience of 10,000 over 4 performances.