Dance Music, Wakefulness and Embodied Rhythm – Part 1

The project 'Dance Music, Wakefulness and Embodied Rhythm' is part of the 'Sleep and the Rhythms of Life' Network, a sequence of events organised by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH).

These four talks are taken from the 'Dance Music, Wakefulness and Embodied Rhythm' seminar:
The relationship between music and sleep is well represented by the long history of lullabies. The complementary relationship between music and wakefulness is perhaps less obvious but no less significant, and in some of its manifestations is closely associated with the other focus of this network: rhythm. This seminar will consider the relationship between electronic dance music and wakefulness, including the prolonged wakefulness that is characteristic of extended dance parties. The seminar will feature presentations representing perspectives from the psychology of music, machine aesthetics, and DJ practice, and will draw on principles of rhythmic entrainment and DJ set design, as well as the implications for rhythmic embodiment of different forms of machine aesthetics. 

Eric Clarke is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Oxford, and an Emeritus  Fellow of Wadham College. He has published on various topics in the psychology of music, musical creativity, and the analysis of pop music. Recent projects include work on music, empathy and cultural understanding; and timing in the performance of C19th orchestral and chamber music. His books include Ways of Listening (OUP 2005), Music and Mind in Everyday Life (OUP 2010), Distributed Creativity: Collaboration and Improvisation in Contemporary Music (OUP 2017), Music and Consciousness 1 & 2 (OUP 2011, 2019), and Remixing Music Studies (Routledge 2021). He is a member of Academia Europaea, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

Michael Diamond is a producer, DJ and musician based in Oxford, where he has recently completed a medical degree at Brasenose college. He regularly performs as a DJ in the UK and beyond. His latest record was the widely acclaimed jazz-influenced electronic album 'Third Culture'. He is currently resident DJ at one of the UK's longest-running electronic music clubnights 'Simple'. His academic interests lie in the intersection between music, neuropsychology and medicine including the musical and psychological mechanisms underpinning feelings of energy on the dancefloor and their potential healthcare applications.

Chair: Professor Sally Shuttleworth, Professor of English Literature at University of Oxford.