Jakub Fiala | Goldsmiths, University of London (original) (raw)

Papers by Jakub Fiala

Ex Caelis Oblata (from Latin – ‘gifts from the heavens’) is a framework for artistic research on ... more Ex Caelis Oblata (from Latin – ‘gifts from the heavens’) is a framework for artistic research on human experiences of mystery, awe and religious reverence, focusing on the concepts of meaning in relics and cultural artefacts, aesthetics of monolithic art, and the paradigms of sound and musical encoding in the context of physical installation art. This dissertation is an attempt to summarize the research and development of this framework, including the production of an installation work harnessing the principles and techniques formulated in the research.
A number of studies are carried out concerning ecclesiastical aesthetics, linguistics and anthropology, leading to definitions of key terms and practices. The development of a sculptural data encoding and retrieval system is detailed, including a custom surface scanning technology. Finally, the first iteration of the resultant artwork is described and evaluated, drawing conclusions for future work within this aesthetic platform. The dissertation thus stands as a collection of concepts and methodologies in a number of fields such as sound design, sound installation, architecture, linguistics and computer vision, useful for a reader interested in combining technology with the aesthetics of religious, as well as sonic and installation art.

There are many existing native libraries and frameworks for audio feature extraction used in mult... more There are many existing native libraries and frameworks for audio feature extraction used in multimedia information retrieval. Many are dependent on highly optimised low level code to cope with the high performance requirements of realtime audio analysis. In this paper, we present a new audio feature extractor library, Meyda, for use with the JavaScript Web Audio API, and detail its benchmarking results. Meyda provides the first library for audio feature extraction in the web client, which will enable music information retrieval systems, complex visualisations and a wide variety of technologies and creative projects that previously were relegated to native software. The Meyda project, including source code and documentation is released under an MIT license.

"Over the last 25 years, U2 has been considered one of the most successful rock bands, which refl... more "Over the last 25 years, U2 has been considered one of the most successful rock bands, which reflects in the immense popularity of their recordings and the vast attendance at their concerts. However, few of their supporters appreciate the artistic quality of their music. One of the best examples of profound art in U2’s catalogue is Achtung Baby, released in 1991 and frequently described as their reinvention. Not only was it revolutionary in terms of the band’s presentation, but it also introduced a new era of U2’s music influenced by dance music. Furthermore, lyrical themes changed, focusing on relationships and romance, while at the same time satirizing the emerging popculture based on technology such as television. The aim of this essay is to analyse the way this lyrical context is incorporated in the musical content of Achtung Baby.

Due to the nature of musical subject, multiple approaches to analysis were used. First, spectrography was carried out in order to analyse timbre and dynamics. Second, comments from the musicians, album’s producers and engineers were considered to evaluate the role of post-production in shaping the final recording. Finally, most of the analysis was effectuated by standard musicology methods – by examining diverse audio material.

As a conclusion, Achtung Baby was largely influenced by its lyrical context on the levels of instrumentation, timbre, texture, harmony, melody, form and rhythm alike. Despite having retained certain characteristics of previous U2 albums, it is indeed a reinvention, if not a complete rebirth of U2. Moreover, it exhibits a high level of conceptuality, with a distinct narrative entangled through the whole album in both music and lyrics. Thus Achtung Baby gained the status of a cult recording, protuberant among myriads of mediocre albums of aging bands in the 90’s."

Ex Caelis Oblata (from Latin – ‘gifts from the heavens’) is a framework for artistic research on ... more Ex Caelis Oblata (from Latin – ‘gifts from the heavens’) is a framework for artistic research on human experiences of mystery, awe and religious reverence, focusing on the concepts of meaning in relics and cultural artefacts, aesthetics of monolithic art, and the paradigms of sound and musical encoding in the context of physical installation art. This dissertation is an attempt to summarize the research and development of this framework, including the production of an installation work harnessing the principles and techniques formulated in the research.
A number of studies are carried out concerning ecclesiastical aesthetics, linguistics and anthropology, leading to definitions of key terms and practices. The development of a sculptural data encoding and retrieval system is detailed, including a custom surface scanning technology. Finally, the first iteration of the resultant artwork is described and evaluated, drawing conclusions for future work within this aesthetic platform. The dissertation thus stands as a collection of concepts and methodologies in a number of fields such as sound design, sound installation, architecture, linguistics and computer vision, useful for a reader interested in combining technology with the aesthetics of religious, as well as sonic and installation art.

There are many existing native libraries and frameworks for audio feature extraction used in mult... more There are many existing native libraries and frameworks for audio feature extraction used in multimedia information retrieval. Many are dependent on highly optimised low level code to cope with the high performance requirements of realtime audio analysis. In this paper, we present a new audio feature extractor library, Meyda, for use with the JavaScript Web Audio API, and detail its benchmarking results. Meyda provides the first library for audio feature extraction in the web client, which will enable music information retrieval systems, complex visualisations and a wide variety of technologies and creative projects that previously were relegated to native software. The Meyda project, including source code and documentation is released under an MIT license.

"Over the last 25 years, U2 has been considered one of the most successful rock bands, which refl... more "Over the last 25 years, U2 has been considered one of the most successful rock bands, which reflects in the immense popularity of their recordings and the vast attendance at their concerts. However, few of their supporters appreciate the artistic quality of their music. One of the best examples of profound art in U2’s catalogue is Achtung Baby, released in 1991 and frequently described as their reinvention. Not only was it revolutionary in terms of the band’s presentation, but it also introduced a new era of U2’s music influenced by dance music. Furthermore, lyrical themes changed, focusing on relationships and romance, while at the same time satirizing the emerging popculture based on technology such as television. The aim of this essay is to analyse the way this lyrical context is incorporated in the musical content of Achtung Baby.

Due to the nature of musical subject, multiple approaches to analysis were used. First, spectrography was carried out in order to analyse timbre and dynamics. Second, comments from the musicians, album’s producers and engineers were considered to evaluate the role of post-production in shaping the final recording. Finally, most of the analysis was effectuated by standard musicology methods – by examining diverse audio material.

As a conclusion, Achtung Baby was largely influenced by its lyrical context on the levels of instrumentation, timbre, texture, harmony, melody, form and rhythm alike. Despite having retained certain characteristics of previous U2 albums, it is indeed a reinvention, if not a complete rebirth of U2. Moreover, it exhibits a high level of conceptuality, with a distinct narrative entangled through the whole album in both music and lyrics. Thus Achtung Baby gained the status of a cult recording, protuberant among myriads of mediocre albums of aging bands in the 90’s."