Lekshmy Hema Nair

Research Student - PhD  

Thesis Title

Network Analysis of Musical Improvisation in Australia

Research Project

The process of generating new musical pieces in real time and assessing them in quick succession is termed as ‘musical improvisation’. Musical improvisation thus offers a model to study instinctive creativity under considerable certain temporal constraints over different instances. However, the improvisatory practices undertaken by musicians, even for solitary artists, depends significantly on interaction and collaboration. Thus, there is an evolving relationship which emerge between the networks of musicians and the musical styles they draw upon in their improvisatory practice. Therefore, this makes network analysis for musicians in Australia a significantly relevant research topic providing us with an outline of possibilities into music and culture. The current project aims at characterizing the changes involved in Australian music, especially improvisatory practices using network analysis. The main objective of the project involves quantitative analysis into what context accounts for achievement in musical improvisation and how sociomusicology (musicological analysis like social interactions, interviews etc.) affects conventional improvisatory practices of musicians. The outcomes could help us to render conclusions on how particular movements in a network may relate to individual or whole network level connectedness and in due course understand its influence on musicians that they draw upon for their improvisatory practice.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Engineering: Electronics and communication Engineering,(Anna University), 2015
• Master of Technology: Signal Processing, (Sreechitra Thirunal College of Engineering), 2019

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