Conference Themes​

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Across the musical spectrum, from Arvo Pärt to Orange Juice, starting from zero is a common occurrence in the world of music.  

 

Whether we’re starting with a blank slate, writing the rules over again, making it up as we go along, or coming up with a grand plan, the history of music is also a history of innovation. How often do we get the chance to build something exactly the way we want it, to make all those fine grained adjustments that will make a project just right. The perfectly structured track, the perfectly balanced mix, the perfectly designed and executed performance. The new piece of technology that does exactly what we designed it to do.

 

For Innovation In Music 2025, we want to explore what happens when you get the chance to start something new or when you get to start something over, by rebooting or resetting things. Our call this year is broad, here are some perspectives to think about ‘New Beginnings’...

 

• Innovating from the ground up.

• Taking a fresh look in order to improve on what’s gone before. 

• ‘Fail better’. How do we really learn from past projects and past mistakes to take a great idea forward? What happens when the walls come crashing down, but we want the project to keep moving forward? 

• Circuit bending as ‘musical hotwiring’. When we inherit a project that someone else has made, and we want to take it off in a new direction… how can we take the hotwiring approach and apply it to other areas of musical practice - in composition, performance and production? And how can we do this at scale?

• As AI promises / threatens to give the music industry a near-total makeover, what would a new industry look like? What kind of checks and balances might we need to safeguard a new industry?

• As spatial audio continues to open up new perspectives for listening and production, how will this technology create a new beginning in how we approach the composition of music?

 

This conference theme can be broadly interpreted, and we encourage presentations on all kinds of ‘innovation in music’, related to topics such as:

 

• Innovative production, recording, mixing and mastering techniques

• Innovative approaches to composition, songwriting and performance

• Innovative approaches to music business, events, management and enterprise

• Innovations in music technology

• Innovative approaches to music research

• Innovative approaches to promoting diversity, equality and representation in music

• Innovative approaches to sustainability and sustainable practices in music

Presentations are by default in the format of 15-minute talks, followed by 5 minutes Q&A. Abstracts should give a summary of original research and an outline of the presentation to be given, and be 300-500 words. After the conference, presenting authors will be invited to submit a full paper (4,000-6,000 words) for peer review and inclusion in the book of proceedings, published by Routledge.

 

Venues

Bath Spa University is hosting Innovation in Music 2025 across two venues in Bath: our beautiful campus at Newton Park and Burdall’s Yard, a great venue in Bath city centre.

 

Discover Bath

Known as the ‘Original Wellbeing Destination’, Bath is an elegant city full of traditional heritage, contemporary culture and green spaces.

Bath has been a wellbeing destination since Roman times, and the waters at the ancient Roman Baths and the modern Thermae Bath Spa (the only natural thermal hot springs in the UK you can bathe in) are still a big draw today. It’s a compact, welcoming city centre with many places to eat and drink, and a wide range of independent shops, museums and galleries.

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Newton Park

Situated at the edge of Bath, Newton Park is steeped in history. It was designed by the
well-known landscape architect Capability Brown in the 18th century, laid out on land
containing the 14th century keep and gateway of St Loe's Castle, a fortified medieval
manor house.
We will be running a coach on Saturday and Sunday mornings to pick up all conference
delegates from Bath city centre and bring everyone to Newton Park for 9am

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Burdall’s Yard

The conference will start with a concert at Burdall’s Yard in the city centre of Bath. https://www.burdallsyard.co.uk
See ‘Concert’ tab for more information.

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Insider tips

There’s a great pub culture in the city; here are some that you might want to check out during the conference weekend:

In the city centre, there are lots of pubs that would work well for meeting up in the evenings:

 

The Bell (a range of beers and live music)

 

The Star (a real ale pub that was featured in a Guardian article a couple of years ago... https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2022/apr/22/a-great-cotswold-walk-to-a-great-pub-the-star-bath-somerset)

 

The Raven (good food, especially pies and chips)

 

The Salamander (10 seconds from The Raven)

 

Hall & Woodhouse (a big, modern bar with a roof terrace)

 

Other places to eat:

 

Solina (great Italian food on Grand Parade. They don’t take bookings, but it’s pretty big) 

 

Comptoir+Cuisine (French cuisine on George Street – recommended)

 

Bandook (Indian food on Milsom Place)

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Schedule​

 

The conference schedule can be accessed as a live online spreadsheet, or downloaded as a pdf document.

 

(Note that any necessary last minute schedule changes will be implemented immediately in the online spreadsheet, but may not immediately be reflected in the downloadable pdf)

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