Music and Sound Cultures

Arabian Gulf Pearl Divers’ Songs Inspire Fusion Music Fusion-music ensemble Boom.Diwan honors the historical Arabian Gulf way of life with a blend of traditional rhythms and vocals with jazz improvisation.

Welcome, Dr. Gus Xia!

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Gus Xia has joined the Affiliated Research roster at MaSC. He will be contributing to help improving machine learning models of traditional music from the Gulf region.

Dr. Gus Xia is an associate professor of machine learning at MBZUAI, as well as an affiliated faculty at NYU Shanghai, CILVR at the Center for Data Science. He received his Ph.D. in the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in 2016, and he was a Neukom Fellow at Dartmouth from 2016 to 2017. Xia’s research is very interdisciplinary and lies in the intersection of machine learning, HCI, robotics, and computer music. Some representative works include interactive composition via style transfer, human-computer interactive performances, autonomous dancing robots, and haptic guidance for flute tutoring.

Xia is also a professional Di and Xiao (Chinese flute and vertical flute) player. He plays as a soloist in the NYU Shanghai Jazz Ensemble, Pitt Carpathian Ensemble, and Chinese Music Institute of Peking University. In 2022, Xia and his students held a Music AI concert in Dubai.

It is with great excitement that we announce the arrival of Rose Chen ( Chan) as the newest member of our team at MaSC. She joins us as a research assistant, bringing her unique expertise and boundless enthusiasm to our projects.

Rose graduated from NYU Abu Dhabi in 2024 with a double major in Social Research and Public Policy (SRPP) and Music Study, along with a minor in Heritage Study. In addition to assisting with ongoing research initiatives, Rose will take the lead in coordinating our social media platforms, continuing the legacy of keeping our audience connected and engaged. With a strong passion for preserving and sharing cultural traditions, Rose will also play a pivotal role in enhancing our digital archives and supporting upcoming fieldwork.

Please join us in giving Rose the warmest welcome to the MaSC family. We look forward to seeing the wonderful contributions she will make to our community!

Carlos Guedes and Dr. Slavica Ceperkovic (Seneca Polytechnic Institute in Toronto) presented “Music of Crafts” VR experience at the International Council of Museums Conference (ICOM) in Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art, December 1-3. Under the title of “The Future of Museums and Museology Practices in a Changing World,” this conference brought together museum specialists and curators from around the world.

The VR experience designed by Dr. Ceperkovic, is the latest iteration of MaSC’s work in experimental ethnography and takes the spectator on a virtual visit to the Abu Dhabi’s House of Artisans where several artifacts developed by the artisans can be appreciated. The 3-minute, short-version presentation of the main presentation at the conference won the third prize.

Immersing yourself in our VR experience here: Video Walkthrough VR Experience for Music of Crafts (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuxSZtjxSVw)

Thank you, Safeya Alblooshi!!!

It is with sadness but with our hearts full of gratitude that we announce that Safeya Alblooshi terminated her appointment as a Kawader research fellow at MaSC. This fixed-term three-year appointment has come to an end, and we could not be more grateful to Safeya (Saf) for her great contributions.

Saf started with MaSC in Fall 2021 and has operated substantial improvements in our group’s modus operandi. In the support to the most visible side of our activity, she designed and thoroughly maintained our beautiful website and she was responsible for MaSC’s presence in social media (Instagram and Facebook). Behind the scenes, Saf provided support to our extensive field recording sessions, by setting up the equipment, doing the recordings, and making sure that everything was properly stored and archived. She diligently worked with the NYUAD library to create our new perpetual archive of Taarab music from Zanzibar, which will soon be made available.

As a researcher, Safeya Alblooshi pursued her interests on urban soundscape analysis and its creative manipulations by expanding the work she did in her capstone project Narrated Liquid Contaminants (2021). This culminated in a sound installation and a research paper, “Sounding-Out Mina Zayed,” where she explores the evolution of the soundscape at Port Zayed in Abu Dhabi by investigating the sonic metaphors within the socio-cultural landscape, using the concept of "sounding-out" to define and envision the past, present, and future of this location and reflect on its evolving identity through created soundscapes.

As an artist, Saf’s creative collaboration in our two installations Music of Crafts and Formation of Soofcontributed to their extensive success in the presentations at Qasr al Hosn, COP 28, London Design Biennale, and Dubai Design Week. During her tenure at MaSC she also evolved as an emerging Emirati sound artist with presentations at Forum IRCAM in New York, Alserkal Avenue, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Festival X, Sharjah Art Foundation, and she successfully curated last year’s ElectroFest, a festival of electronic music at NYUAD.

Finally, Saf always had the best chocolate available at her desk to make the group’s long working sessions more pleasant.

For all this, we are extremely grateful to Safeya Alblooshi and wish the best of luck for the future!

Thank you, Safeya Alblooshi!! | Music and Sound Cultures Thank you, Safeya Alblooshi!! November 24, 2024Honors & Grants, [email protected] It is with sadness but with our hearts full of gratitude that we announce that Safeya Alblooshi terminated her appointment as a Kawader research fellow at MaSC. This fixed-term three-year appointment has come to an en...

The Formation of Soon travels to this year’s edition of the Dubai Design Week opening on the 5th of November and will be on view through the 10th, at Dubai Design District, in collaboration with the House Of Artisans and Qasr Al Hosn

Together with Qasr Al Hosn/House of Artisans, Music and Sound Cultures will open Formation of Soof Dubai Design Week (Nov. 5-10, 10AM-10PM). Formation of Soof is an award-winning installation that represented the Abu Dhabi Pavilion at last year's London Design Biennale. Check it out if you can!

Our Leiwah recording session earlier this summer with the members of the Liwa Maritime Ensemble led by Mubarak Al Otaiba at the NYUAD Arts Center Black Box