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School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science

Dr Anna Xambo Sedo

Anna

Senior Lecturer in Sound and Music Computing

Email: a.xambosedo@qmul.ac.uk
Room Number: Eng 405

Profile

Dr Anna Xambó Sedó (she/her) is a researcher and an experimental electronic music producer. Her research and practice concern human-computer interaction (HCI), sound and music computing (SMC), new interfaces for musical expression (NIME), live coding, and web audio looking at designing and evaluating networked algorithmic spaces that support collaboration, participation, non-hierarchical structures and do-it-yourself (DIY) practices for SMC. She is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of the UK Research and Innovation's (UKRI) Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project “Sensing the Forest: Let the Forest Speak using the Internet of Things, Acoustic Ecology and Creative AI" (2023-2025). She has also worked as the PI for the UKRI Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's Human Data Interaction Network Plus funded project “MIRLCAuto: A Virtual Agent for Music Information Retrieval in Live Coding” (2020-2021).

She is open to discussing new collaborations related to creative AI, with particular interest in generative audio of non-mainstream music genres, algorithmic sound-based music systems, and citizen science/DIY projects that aim to improve societal aspects of unprivileged communities through the use of sound-based music and acoustic ecology systems.

Since 2016, she has co-founded and taken leading roles in several organisations for promoting and improving the representation of women in music technology: Women in Music Tech (2016-17, Georgia Tech); WoNoMute (2018-2019, NTNU/UiO); WiNIME (2019-2022, NIME); and EECS Women in Higher Education Network (2024-, QMUL).

Teaching

Interactive Digital Multimedia Techniques (Postgraduate)

This is a Master's level course in developing real-time interactive digital media systems. The course will focus on graphics and sound programming, with a secondary emphasis on basic electronic hardware design for sensors and human-computer interfaces. The course will employ widely-used development environments including Arduino, Processing Max/MSP and Jitter, Processing. Course material will be delivered through a combination of lectures, interactive lab sessions, and individual/group exercises (both in and out of class). Generally speaking, each class period will consist of a combination of lecture and interactive lab session.

Digital Media Social Networks (Undergraduate/Postgraduate)

Online social networks and digital media services such as Facebook, twitter, Flickr, YouTube are changing the way we interact with the Internet and receive our news, content and recommendations. In this module, you will be introduced to the concepts around measurement, analysis, usability and privacy aspects of OSNs.

The module will bring together a number of studies from different measurement studies on the topic, designs for new systems, and the directions that such networks are taking with the new digital media plans. You will develop a deep understanding and analysis approach to learning specifically about Social Media and their properties.

Research

Research Interests:

HCI, sound and music computing, NIME, live coding, web audio, sound interaction, creative sonic AI, diversity in computing, diversity in music AI

Publications

Jawad, K., & Xambo Sedo, A. (2024). Feminist HCI and narratives of design semantics in DIY music hardware. Frontiers in Communication, 8. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2023.1345124

Xambo Sedo, A., Roma, G., & Magnusson, T. (2023). Editorial: Live Coding Sonic Creativities. Organised Sound, 28(2), 147-148. doi:10.1017/S135577182300047X

Xambo Sedo, A. (2023). Discovering Creative Commons Sounds in Live Coding. Organised Sound, 28(2), 276-289. doi:10.1017/S1355771823000262

Champlin, A., Knotts, S., Chicau, J., Xambo Sedo, A., Corfiel, M., & Saladino, I. (2023). Community Report: LivecoderA. In Proceedings of the International Conference of Live Coding. Utrecht, The Netherlands. doi:10.5281/zenodo.7845610

Goudarzi, V., & Xambó, A. (n.d.). Ear to Waipapa Taumata Rau. In NIME 2022. PubPub. doi:10.21428/92fbeb44.8b20f442

Xambo Sedo, A., & Goudarzi, V. (2022). The Mobile Audience as a Digital Musical Persona in Telematic Performance. In NIME 2022. PubPub. doi:10.21428/92fbeb44.706b549e

Roma, G., Xambo Sedo, A., Green, O., & Tremblay, P. A. (2021). A General Framework for Visualization of Sound Collections in Musical Interfaces. Applied Sciences, 11(24), 11926. doi:10.3390/app112411926

Xambó, A. (2021). Virtual Agents in Live Coding: A Short Review. doi: 10.48550/arxiv.2106.14835

Xambo Sedo, A., Roma, G., Roig, S., & Solaz, E. (2021). Live Coding with the Cloud and a Virtual Agent. In NIME 2021. PubPub. doi:10.21428/92fbeb44.64c9f217

Xambó, A. (2021). A Live Coding Session With the Cloud and a Virtual Agent. In NIME 2021. PubPub. doi:10.21428/92fbeb44.7299536b

Xambo Sedo, A. (2021). Virtual Agents in Live Coding: A Review of past, present and future directions. eContact!, 21(1). Retrieved from https://cec.sonus.ca/

Xambo Sedo, A., Støckert, R., Jensenius, A. R., & Saue, S. (2020). Learning to Code Through Web Audio: A Team-Based Learning Approach. Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 68(10), 727-737. doi:10.17743/jaes.2020.0019

Xambo Sedo, A., Martín, S. R., Roma, G., & Editors, G. (2020). Guest editors' note special issue on web audio. AES: Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, 68(10), 701-702.

Jawad, K., & Xambo Sedo, A. (2020). How to Talk of Music Technology: An Interview Analysis Study of Live Interfaces for Music Performance among Expert Women. In Ø. Brandtsegg (Ed.), Proceedings of the International Conference on Live Interfaces (pp. 41-47). Trondheim, Norway.

Støckert, R., Bergsland, A., & Xambó, A. (2020). The Notion of Presence in a Telematic Cross-Disciplinary Program for Music, Communication and Technology. In Music Technology in Education (pp. 77-101). Cappelen Damm AS - Cappelen Damm Akademisk. doi:10.23865/noasp.108.ch3

Xambó, A., & Roma, G. (2020). Performing audiences: Composition strategies for network music using mobile phones. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 55-60).

Xambo Sedo, A., Støckert, R., Saue, S., & Refsum, A. (2019). Facilitating Team-Based Programming Learning with Web Audio. In A. Xambo Sedo, S. R. Martín, & G. Roma (Eds.), Proceedings of the Web Audio Conference 2019 (pp. 2-7). Trondheim, Norway: NTNU.

Freeman, J., Miller, M., Magerko, B., Moore, R., Edwards, D., & Xambó, A. (2019). Using earsketch to broaden participation in computing and music. In SMC 2016 - 13th Sound and Music Computing Conference, Proceedings (pp. 156-163).

Xambó, A., Saue, S., Refsum, A., Støckert, R., & Brandtsegg, Ø. (2019). Nime prototyping in teams: A participatory approach to teaching physical computing. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 216-221).

Xambó, A., Font, F., Fazekas, G., & Barthet, M. (n.d.). Leveraging Online Audio Commons Content for Media Production. In Foundations in Sound Design for Linear Media (pp. 248-282). Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9781315106335-10

Xambo, A., Lerch, A., & Freeman, J. (2018). Music Information Retrieval in Live Coding: A Theoretical Framework. COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL, 42(4), 9-25. doi: 10.1162/comj_a_00484

Pauwels, J., Xambo Sedo, A., Roma, G., Barthet, M., & Fazekas, G. (2018). Exploring Real- time Visualisations to Support Chord Learning with a Large Music Collection. In Proceedings of the 4th Web Audio Conference (WAC). Berlin, Germany.

Xambo, A., Pauwels, J., Roma, G., Barthet, M., & Fazekas, G. (2018). Jam with Jamendo: Querying a Large Music Collection by Chords from a Learner's Perspective. In 2018 CONFERENCE ON INTERACTION WITH SOUND (AUDIO MOSTLY): SOUND IN IMMERSION AND EMOTION (AM'18). doi:10.1145/3243274.3243291

Roma, G., Xambó, A., Green, O., & Tremblay, P. A. (2018). A Javascript Library for Flexible Visualization of Audio Descriptors. In J. Monschke, C. Guttandin, N. Schnell, T. Jenkinson, & J. Schaedler (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Web Audio Conference. Berlin, Germany: TU Berlin.

Taylor, R., Rostami, A., Šimbelis, V., Lee, Y. S., Jo, K., Weisling, A., . . . McCarthy, L. ( 2018). Demo hour. Interactions, 25(5), 10-13. doi:10.1145/3241949

Roma, G., Xambo, A., & Freeman, J. (2018). User-Independent Accelerometer Gesture Recognition for Participatory Mobile Music. JOURNAL OF THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY, 66(6), 430-438. doi:10.17743/jaes.2018.0026

Xambo, A., Roma, G., Shah, P., Tsuchiya, T., Freeman, J., & Magerko, B. (2018). Turn- Taking and Online Chatting in Co-located and Remote Collaborative Music Live Coding. JOURNAL OF THE AUDIO ENGINEERING SOCIETY, 66(4), 253-266. doi: 10.17743/jaes.2018.0024

SKACH, S., XAMBO, A., TURCHET, L., Stolfi, A., STEWART, R. L., & BARTHET, M.H. E. (2018). Embodied Interactions with E-Textiles and the Internet of Sounds for Performing Arts. In ACM Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interactions. Stockholm, Sweden. doi:10.1145/3173225.3173272

Weisling, A., & Xambo, A. (2018). Beacon: Exploring Physicality in Digital Performance. In PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWELFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TANGIBLE, EMBEDDED, AND EMBODIED INTERACTION (TEI'18) (pp. 586-591). doi:10.1145/3173225.3173312

Xambó, A. (2018). Who are the women authors in NIME?-improving gender balance in NIME research. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 174-177).

Weisling, A., Xambó, A., Olowe, I., & Barthet, M. (2018). Surveying the compositional and performance practices of audiovisual practitioners. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 344-345).

Xambo, A., Roma, G., Lerch, A., Barthet, M., & Fazekas, G. (2018). Live Repurposing of Sounds: MIR Explorations with Personal and Crowd-sourced Databases. In Proc. of the New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), 3-6 June, Blacksburg, VA, USA..

Freeman, J., Magerko, B., Edwards, D., Miller, M., Engelman, S., Moore, R., . . . McKlin, T. ( n.d.). Apprentissage avec EarSketch. Revue Francophone Informatique & Musique. doi:10.56698/rfim.458

Xambó, A., Shah, P., Roma, G., Freeman, J., & Magerko, B. (2017). Turn-taking and chatting in collaborative music live coding. In ACM International Conference Proceeding Series Vol. Part F131930. doi:10.1145/3123514.3123519

Roma, G., Xambó, A., & Freeman, J. (2017). Handwaving: Gesture recognition for participatory mobile music. In ACM International Conference Proceeding Series Vol. Part F131930. doi:10.1145/3123514.3123538

Roma, G., Xambó, A., & Freeman, J. (2017). Loop-aware Audio Recording for the Web. In F. Thalmann, & S. Ewert (Eds.), Proceedings of the International Web Audio Conference. London, United Kingdom: Queen Mary University of London.

Xambo, A., Drozda, B., Weisling, A., Magerko, B., Huet, M., Gasque, T., & Freeman, J. ( 2017). Experience and Ownership with a Tangible Computational Music Installation for Informal Learning. In PROCEEDINGS OF THE ELEVENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TANGIBLE, EMBEDDED, AND EMBODIED INTERACTION (TEI'17) (pp. 351-360). doi:10.1145/3024969.3024988

Xambo, A., Hornecker, E., Marshall, P., Jorda, S., Dobbyn, C., & Laney, R. (2017). Exploring Social Interaction With a Tangible Music Interface. INTERACTING WITH COMPUTERS, 29(2), 248-270. doi:10.1093/iwc/iww019

Jewitt, C., Price, S., & Xambo Sedo, A. (2017). Conceptualising and researching the body in digital contexts: towards new methodological conversations across the arts and social sciences. Qualitative Research, 17(1), 37-53. doi:10.1177/1468794116656036

Jewitt, C., Xambo, A., & Price, S. (2017). Exploring methodological innovation in the social sciences: the body in digital environments and the arts. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 20(1), 105-120. doi:10.1080/13645579.2015.1129143

Xambó, A. (2017). Embodied Music Interaction: Creative Design Synergies Between Music Performance and HCI. In Digital Bodies (pp. 207-220). Springer Nature. doi: 10.1057/978-1-349-95241-0_14

Moore, R., Edwards, D., Freeman, J., Magerko, B., McKlin, T., & Xambo, A. (2016). EarSketch: An authentic, STEAM-based approach to computing education. In ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings Vol. 2016-June.

Freeman, J., Magerko, B., Edwards, D., Moore, R., McKlin, T., & Xambo, A. (2015). EarSketch: A STEAM Approach to Broadening Participation in Computer Science Principles. In 2015 RESEARCH IN EQUITY AND SUSTAINED PARTICIPATION IN ENGINEERING, COMPUTING, AND TECHNOLOGY (RESPECT).

Xambó, A., Jewitt, C., & Price, S. (2014). Towards an integrated methodological framework for understanding embodiment in HCI. In Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings (pp. 1411-1416). doi:10.1145/2559206.2581276

Xambó, A., Roma, G., Laney, R., Dobbyn, C., & Jordà, S. (2014). Soundxy4: Supporting tabletop collaboration and awareness with ambisonics spatialisation. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 40-45).

Xambo, A., Hornecker, E., Marshall, P., Jorda, S., Dobbyn, C., & Laney, R. (2013). Let's Jam the Reactable: Peer Learning during Musical Improvisation with a Tabletop Tangible Interface. ACM TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTER-HUMAN INTERACTION, 20(6). doi:10.1145/2530541

Xambó, A., Laney, R., Dobbyn, C., & Jordà, S. (2013). Video Analysis for Evaluating Music Interaction: Musical Tabletops. In Music and Human-Computer Interaction (pp. 241- 258). Springer Nature. doi:10.1007/978-1-4471-2990-5_14

Bogdanov, D., Haro, M., Fuhrmann, F., Xambo, A., Gomez, E., & Herrera, P. (2013). Semantic audio content-based music recommendation and visualization based on user preference examples. INFORMATION PROCESSING & MANAGEMENT, 49(1), 13-33. doi:10.1016/j.ipm.2012.06.004

Xambó, A., Laney, R., Dobbyn, C., & Jordà, S. (2012). Towards a taxonomy for video analysis on collaborative musical tabletops. In Electronic Workshops in Computing. BCS Learning and Development. doi:10.14236/ewic/hci2012.110

Roma, G., Xambó, A., Herrera, P., & Laney, R. (2012). Factors in human recognition of timbre lexicons generated by data clustering. In Proceedings of the 9th Sound and Music Computing Conference, SMC 2012.

Bogdanov, D., Haro, M., Fuhrmann, F., Xambó, A., Gómez, E., & Herrera, P. (2011). A content-based system for music recommendation and visualization of user preferences working on semantic notions. In Proceedings - International Workshop on Content- Based Multimedia Indexing (pp. 249-252). doi:10.1109/CBMI.2011.5972554

Xambó, A., Laney, R., Dobbyn, C., & Jordà, S. (2011). MULTI-TOUCH INTERACTION PRINCIPLES FOR COLLABORATIVE REAL-TIME MUSIC ACTIVITIES: TOWARDS A PATTERN LANGUAGE. In International Computer Music Conference, ICMC Proceedings (pp. 403-406).

Milne, A. J., Xambó, A., Laney, R., Sharp, D. B., Prechtl, A., & Holland, S. (2011). Hex player—a virtual musical controller. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 244-247).

Haro, M., Xambó, A., Fuhrmann, F., Bogdanov, D., Gómez, E., & Herrera, P. (2010). The Musical Avatar: A visualization of musical preferences by means of audio content description. In Proceedings of the 5th Audio Mostly - A Conference on Interaction With Sound, AM '10. doi:10.1145/1859799.1859813

Xambo, A., Laney, R., & Dobbyn, C. (2011). TOUCHtr4ck: Democratic Collaborative Music. In TEI 2011: PROCEEDINGS OF THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON TANGIBLE EMBEDDED AND EMBODIED INTERACTION (pp. 309-312).

Laney, R., Dobbyn, C., Xambó, A., Schirosa, M., Miell, D., Littleton, K., & Dalton, S. (2010). Issues and techniques for collaborative music making on multi-touch surfaces. In Proceedings of the 7th Sound and Music Computing Conference, SMC 2010 (pp. 39).

Roma, G., & Xambó, A. (2008). A tabletop waveform editor for live performance. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression (pp. 249-252).

Grants

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