Connectionists: NIPS 07: Music, Brain & Cognition Workshop

[David R. Hardoon]

Apologies for cross posting and please forward to whom ever this may  
be of interest to.

             NIPS'07 Workshop - Whistler, BC, December 7-8, 2007

                                         Music, Brain & Cognition
      Day 1: "Learning the Structure of Music and its Effects on the  
Brain"
      Day 2: "Models of Sound and Cognition"

======================================================

http://homepage.mac.com/davidrh/MCBworkshop07/


Call for contributions
------------

We call for paper contribution of up to 8 pages to the workshop using
NIPS style. The accepted papers will be available for downloading from
this site. Selected papers will be considered for publication in a  
special
issue of “Journal of New Music Research”.

Day 1
- Machine learning based models for learning the structure of music
- Models for predicting style of performers
- Analysis and models of fMRI/EEG/MEG scans from musical stimuli  (as  
opposed to
   simplistic auditory stimuli)
- Predicting music generated patterns in fMRI/EEG/MEG
- Strategies for embedding representations of musical experience into  
generative
   music / performance systems
- Methods for generative musical performance and composition
- Generative music and/or performance systems based on models of  
brain functioning
- Similar and further models for learning and analysing the structure  
of music

Day 2
- Computational models of cognitively inspired sound processing
- Top down control of musical processing of pitch, onset, timbre
- Models of musical memory, saliency, attention
- Models of music development and learning
- Computer aided sound design
- Models as above, applied to other domains (e.g. speech and vision)  
with potential
   application in music

Accepted papers will be either presented as a talk or poster (with  
poster spotlight)

Papers should be submitted to the organisers D.Hardoon at cs.ucl.ac.uk,
hpurwins at iua.upf.edu and please indicate if you wish to present on  
day 1 or day 2 and
whether you only wish to present a poster.


Important Dates
------------

Deadline for submissions:   October 10, 2007
Notification of acceptance:   October 31, 2007
Workshop taking place:        December 7-8, 2007


Description
------------

Music is one of the most widespread of human cultural activities,  
existing in some form
in all cultures throughout the world. The definition of music as  
organised sound is widely
accepted today but a naïve interpretation of this definition may  
suggest the notion that
music exists widely in the animal kingdom, from the rasping of  
crickets' legs to the songs
of the nightingale. However, only in the case of humans does music  
appear to be surplus
to any obvious biological purpose, while at the same time being a  
strongly learned
phenomenon and involving significant higher order cognitive  
processing rather than
eliciting simple hardwired responses.

A two day workshop will take place at NIPS 07 (Vancouver, Canada) and  
will span topics
from signal processing and musical structure to the cognition of  
music and sound.  In the
first day the workshop will provide a forum for cutting edge research  
addressing the
fundamental challenges of modeling the structure of  music and   
analysing its effect on
the brain. It will also provide a  venue for interaction between the  
machine learning and the
neuroscience/brain imaging communities to discuss the broader   
questions related to modeling
the dynamics of brain activity. During the second day the workshop  
will focus on the modeling
of sound, music perception and cognition. These have provide, with  
the crucial role of machine
learning, a break-through in various areas of music technology, in  
particular: Music Information
Retrieval (MIR), expressive music synthesis, interactive music  
making, and sound design.
Understanding of music cognition in its implied top-down processes  
can help to decide which
of the many descriptors in MIR are crucial for the musical experience  
and which are irrelevant.

The organisers of the workshop are investigators for three main  
European projects;  Learning
the Structure of Music (Le StruM), Closing the loop of Evaluation and  
Design (CLOSED),
Emergent Cognition through Active Perception (EmCAP) Mention.

The target group is of researchers within the fields of (Music)  
Cognition, Music Technology,
Machine Learning, Psychology, Sound Design, Signal Processing and  
Brain Imaging.


For more details, please go to http://homepage.mac.com/davidrh/ 
MBCworkshop07/
Day 1 - http://homepage.mac.com/davidrh/MBCworkshop07/Day_1.html
Day 2 - http://homepage.mac.com/davidrh/MBCworkshop07/Day_2.html


Organisers
------------

Day 1
* David R. Hardoon               (University College London)
* Eduardo Reck-Miranda      (University of Plymouth)
* John Shawe-Taylor             (University College London)

Day 2
* Hendrik Purwins                  (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
* Xavier Serra                         (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
* Klaus Obermayer                (Berlin University of Technology)


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"Who dares... wins"

Dr. David R. Hardoon
The Centre for Computational Statistics & Machine Learning
Intelligent Systems Research Group
Dept. of Computer Science
University College, London
Gower Street
London, UK WC1E 6BT

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7679 0425
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7387 1397
Email: D.Hardoon at cs.ucl.ac.uk
www: http://homepage.mac.com/davidrh/