POST-DOCTORATE "SOUND SPACES / SPATIALISATION" IN THE ERC G3S PROJECT (GENERATIVE SPATIAL SYNTH[...]

European Commission; France; Sur place; EUR 40 000 - 60 000; Plein temps

Résumé du poste

Une institution de recherche à Paris propose un post-doctorat de 5 ans dans le cadre du projet G3S, axé sur la création sonore et l'IA. Le candidat collaborera avec une équipe internationale pour explorer les approches génératives de la spatialisation sonore, développant à la fois des modèles théoriques et pratiques, tout en produisant des publications de premier plan.

Prestations

Contributions aux coûts de transport et de restauration

Encadrement par des chercheurs expérimentés

Participation à des événements scientifiques

Qualifications

• Doctorat requis avec des compétences en musique et en technologies.
• Expérience en recherche-creation dans le domaine musical.
• Publications internationales dans le domaine de la spatialité.

Responsabilités

• Contribuer au projet G3S par des recherches sur la spatialisation sonore.
• Produire des livrables et diriger des événements scientifiques.
• Développer et tester des prototypes basés sur l'apprentissage automatique.

Connaissances

Utilisation avancée de Max

Utilisation avancée de Pure Data

Connaissance de l'audio spatial

Création musicale

Rigueur scientifique

Formation

Doctorat en musique ou informatique

Description du poste

Organisation/Company Université Paris 8 Research Field Arts Engineering » Sound engineering Computer science » Informatics Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Positions Postdoc Positions Country France Application Deadline 10 Jul 2025 - 00:00 (Europe/Brussels) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 35.5 Offer Starting Date 1 Sep 2025 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon Europe - ERC Reference Number 101199875 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The position offered is a five-year post-doctorate as part of the ERC Advanced Grant G3S project.

Presentation of the G3S project

Machine learning is particularly well suited to dealing with ill-defined problems, where complexity precludes direct solutions; it is therefore of vital importance in the field of music creation, where compositional knowledge is far from explicit. Until now, the generation of sound spaces has often been neglected in the application of AI to music and sound, whereas 3D spatial audio is the subject of major industrial developments and standardisation.

The ERC Advanced Grant project G3S (Generative Spatial Synthesis of Sound and Music), designed by and for musicians and sound creators, will explore generative approaches to spatialization based on machine learning, to break away from the standards that format our ways of creating or perceiving spatiality, by opening up to all the ways and processes of spatial audio. It is positioned in an original way at the rarely explored intersection of spatialisation and AI, the latter considered in a frugal, local and open source way, and within the framework of an international collaborative research and creation network.

From a large set of varied musical pieces proposing a construction of the sound space, from which we will recover the sound engines (represented by the operations on the signal), their multichannel recordings and the semantic descriptions of spatiality, we will train low-dimensional learning models, combining existing neural techniques. These models will be used to generate sound spaces and to explore them by means of user requests, either functional (describing the desired processing) or imitating an audio result, or semantic (describing the desired space). The spatial engines selected by the user can be exported in the form of plugins.

Over five years, the G3S project will implement and articulate four major research objectives: 1) the design of a unified operational representation of existing spatialization engines 2) the proposal of a thesaurus and quantitative measures to describe the spatiality of sound 3) the generation of sound spaces from machine learning 4) the design of user interfaces to explore spatial audio. We will produce open source environments, compatible with audio standards and shared with the computer music community; we will validate them by commissioning composers, creating works, workshops and concerts.

Details of assignments

As part of the project team under the scientific responsibility of P.I. Prof. Alain Bonardi, you will be associated for five years with two other post-docs to carry out original, high-level research, exploring generative approaches to sound spatialisation based on machine learning, largely founded on research-creation methods. The team will also include four PhD students (each working on a subject corresponding to one of the four research objectives mentioned above).

The general duties of your post will involve contributing to :

• research and research-creation carried out as part of the G3S project;
• setting up and running the international collaborative research and creation network with which the G3S project will be in regular contact;
• producing project deliverables, including publications and communications;
• organising and running major scientific, musical and dissemination events to help evaluate and disseminate the results of the project;

This post-doctorate opportunity is focused on the theme of 'Sound spaces/spatialisation in the context of electroacoustic and mixed music', which is one of the three areas of the G3S project (the other two being 'Interactions and interfaces' and 'Machine learning and generativity'). The 'Sound Spaces' domain will be explored from multiple angles: from the construction of sound engines (operations on signals at different levels of representation) to the qualitative or quantitative description of spatiality (use of existing descriptors or creation of new descriptors, either on output signals or from microphone recordings).

Throughout the project, the research work on sound spaces will be closely linked to the work on machine learning and interfaces for exploring generated proposals: you will explore a generic framework for modelling operations on signals, opening up the possibility of manipulations and reformulations by generative processes, as well as a set of descriptions of spatiality.

ACTIVITIES

Over the five years of the project, you will be able to consolidate your experience as a young researcher, contribute to publications in the most reputed conferences and journals in the fields covered, grow your international research network (thanks in particular to the project's collaborative network) and meet industrial R&D players.

The general activities of your post-doctorate will be in line with the general missions defined above:

• conducting your post-doctoral research and research-creation, in collaboration with other post-doctoral and doctoral students, under the scientific responsibility of the P.I. of the ERC G3S project. You will take part in the development and musical and sound testing of machine learning-based prototypes for exploring spatiality;
• work on the various project deliverables:
  • production of open source software
  • production of high-level international publications;
• the organisation of workshops for a variety of audiences, study days, leading symposia on the themes of the project, and professional or amateur concerts using the results of the project.

The activities specific to your post-doctoral research will combine theoretical and practical work relating to the exploration of spatiality, in relation with professional artists and, more broadly, user communities. Working more particularly with the two PhD students who will be working on generic operational modelling and the description of sound spaces, you will be required to take part in the collection of pieces with electronics (from the international collaborative network) contributing to the learning of our models, to constitute a significant state of the art in the field, and to build models and prototypes that will be evaluated in our 3D dome and in concert situations.

Where to apply

E-mail [e-mail]

Requirements

Research Field Arts » Other Education Level PhD or equivalent

Research Field Computer science » Informatics Education Level PhD or equivalent

Research Field Engineering » Sound engineering Education Level PhD or equivalent

Skills/Qualifications

• advanced use of Max and Pure Data environments;
• scientific rigour, open-mindedness and commitment to the team are expected;
• a good level of musical training, experience of creating music and/or sound is desirable;
• knowledge of the principles and methods of spatial audio.

Specific Requirements

• You have a university doctorate in either music or IT, in both cases with strong skills in computer music.
• You have a great deal of experience of research and creation, in which technologies are considered not in themselves but as levers opening up new ways of creating music and sounds, in a context of experimental music, in the studio and in concert.
• Your doctoral thesis dealt with spatial audio and its processes, and you have a great deal of knowledge and experience in this area.
• You are the author or co-author of international publications in the field of spatiality.
• You have experience of working in a team on collective research projects.

Languages ENGLISH Level Excellent

Research Field Arts » OtherEngineering » Sound engineeringComputer science » Informatics Years of Research Experience 1 - 4

35h30 per week, contribution to transport costs and catering costs (crous).

All our positions are open to people with disabilities.

The position will be based in the Paris region.

Selection process

To apply, please send a CV and covering letter (in French or English) to :

- Alain Bonardi, Professor of Computer Science and Musical Creation, Principal Investigator of the ERC Advanced Grant G3S Project (Generative Spatial Synthesis of Sound and Music), [e-mail]

The MUSIDANSE research unit (Esthétique, musicologie, danse et création musicale) is made up of teacher-researchers, doctoral students and researchers, mainly from the music and dance departments of Université Paris 8. The unit's research programmes and activities focus largely on musical and choreographic creation, approached from a variety of viewpoints and methods. The multiplicity of subjects and the diversity of approaches reflect the complexity of our times and the place of music and dance in the world.

The artistic productions and practices on which the researchers work (works, actions, events, interactive devices, works in situ or in 'transition', etc.) invite approaches that are both sensitive and theoretical. Encouraged by the cross-fertilisation of methods and an open-minded approach to musicology and dance studies, the analysis of artistic projects and the practices that underpin them aims to provide an in-depth understanding of creative processes and artistic gestures, as they develop in themselves and in their interaction with the social, ecological, economic and political issues of our time.

Several of the researchers are also artists and develop research-creation projects. By exploring the relationship between aesthetic reflection, the acquisition of technical or technological knowledge and socio-cultural content, MUSIDANSE encourages the construction of links between analytical reflection and artistic experimentation. The research and creation methods employed within the unit are designed to develop a way of thinking about and practising music, sound, dance and movement that is capable of adapting to both historical objects and the most contemporary artistic productions.

MUSIDANSE is a host team for doctoral students enrolled in the EDESTA doctoral school. It has forged strong links with its immediate environment (EUR ArTeC, CRR d'Aubervilliers, ComUE Paris Lumières, etc.) and is also part of national and international networks.

Since 2020, MUSIDANSE has been made up of four in-house teams: Creation and Interaction (C.et.I); Composition, Interpretation, Performance and Improvisation (CISI); Centre de recherches en informatique et création musicale (CICM); and Dance, Gesture and Body.