Professor Mick Grierson
Title
Professor and Research Leader - UAL Institute for Creative Computing
College
University of the Arts London
Email address
Tags
Researcher Research

Biography
Mick Grierson is Research Leader, UAL Creative Computing Institute. His research explores new approaches to the creation of sounds, images, video and interactions through signal processing, machine learning and information retrieval techniques.Mick is also the director of the Daphne Oram Collection, and co-founder of the Daphne Oram Trust. Hardware and software based on his research has been widely used by world leading production companies, tech start-ups and artists including the BBC, Channel 4, Massive Attack, Sigur Ros, Christian Marclay, Martin Creed, Jai Paul and many others.
He is Principal Investigator on the £1million Artificial Intelligence project MIMIC, which is a partnership between Durham University, Sussex University, Goldsmiths College, and Google’s Project Magenta.
He is Academic Research Lead for the £1million 2018-2020 Wellcome Trust Hub, in collaboration with Heart n Soul, RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre and UCL CRAE
He is also Principal Investigator for the Institute of Coding's £1.4 million Future Projects Fund Project, "Creative Solutions to Digital Transformation", in collaboration with FutureLearn, Lancaster University, Goldsmiths College, NESTA and the Made Smarter Commission.
Mick is supervising PhD students in the following areas:
Applications of machine learning in the creative arts, including generative machine learning systems for image, video, sound and music generation; signal processing and information retrieval systems for image, video, sound and music analysis and synthesis; interactive systems design for film, video music, sound art, experimental cinema, installation art, physical computing, augmented and mixed reality; accessibility, co-design and co-research methods in HCI.
Grants and awards
(Figures indicate amount awarded to UAL)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council, MIMIC - Musically Intelligent Machines Interacting Creatively, £806,693.00, (2018-2021)
- Arts and Humanities Research Council, MIMIC - Musically Intelligent Machines Interacting Creatively, £806,693.00, (2018-2021)
- Wellcome Trust, The Hug: People with and without Learning Disabilities and Autism looking at what it means to live well, £211,255.28, (2018-2020)
- Institute of Coding, Creative Solutions to Digital Transformation
Research Outputs
Article
- Bernardo F, Zbyszynski M, Grierson M, Fiebrink R. Designing and Evaluating the Usability of a Machine Learning API for Rapid Prototyping Music Technology (2020)
- Bernardo F, Grierson M, Fiebrink R. User-Centred Design Actions for Lightweight Evaluation of an Interactive Machine Learning Toolkit (2018)
- Yee-King M, Grierson M, d'Inverno M. Evidencing the value of inquiry based, constructionist, learning for student coders (2017)
- Broad T, Grierson M. Autoencoding Blade Runner: Reconstructing Films With Artificial Neural Networks (2017)
Book Section
- Grierson M. Creative Coding for Audiovisual Art: The CodeCircle Platform (2018)
- Fiala J, Yee-King M, Grierson M. Collaborative Coding Interfaces on the Web (2016)
- Kirk P, Grierson M, Bodak R, Ward N, Brander F, Kelly K, Newman N, Stewart L. Motivating Stroke Rehabilitation Through Music: A Feasibility Study Using Digital Musical Instruments in the Homes (2016)
Conference, Symposium or Workshop item
- Chapko D, Grierson M. Amplifying Voices: Co-researchers with Learning Disabilities Use a Co-designed Survey to “have a conversation with the public” (2020)
- Chapko D, Frumiento P, Edwards N, Emeh L, Kennedy D, McNicholas D, Overton M, Snead M, Steward R, Sutton JM, Jeffreys E, Long C, Croll-Knight J, Connors B, Castell-Ward S, Coke D, McPeake B, Renel W, McGinley C, Remington A, Whittuck D, Kieffer J, Ewans S, Williams M, Grierson M. “We have been magnified for years - now you are under the microscope!": Co-researchers with learning disabilities created an online survey to challenge public understanding of learning disabilities (2020)
- Broad T, Grierson M. Searching for an (un)stable equilibrium: experiments in training generative models without data (2019)
- Akten M, Fiebrink R, Grierson M. Learning to See: You Are What You See (2019)
- Grierson M, Yee-King M, McCallum L, Kiefer C, Zbyszynski M. Contemporary Machine Learning for Audio and Music Generation on the Web: Current Challenges and Potential Solutions (2019)
- Akten M, Fiebrink R, Grierson M. Deep Meditations: Controlled navigation of latent space (2018)
- Zbyszynski M, Grierson M, Yee-King M, Fedden L. Write once run anywhere revisited: machine learning and audio tools in the browser with C++ and emscripten (2017)
- Berio D, Akten M, Leymarie FF, Grierson M, Plamondon R. Calligraphic Stylisation Learning with a Physiologically Plausible Model of Movement and Recurrent Neural Networks (2017)
- Zbyszynski M, Grierson M, Yee-King M. Rapid Prototyping of New Instruments with CodeCircle (2017)
- Yee-King M, Grierson M, d'Inverno M. STEAM WORKS: Student coders experiment more and experimenters gain higher grades (2017)
- Bernardo F, Zbyszynski M, Fiebrink R, Grierson M. Interactive Machine Learning for End-User (2017)
- Akten M, Grierson M. Collaborative creativity with Monte-Carlo Tree Search and Convolutional Neural Networks (2016)
- Akten M, Grierson M. Real-time interactive sequence generation and control with Recurrent Neural Network ensembles (2016)
- Broad T, Grierson M. Light Field Completion Using Focal Stack Propagation (2016)
- Olowe I, Barthet M, Grierson M, Bryan-Kinns N. FEATUR.UX exploiting multitrack information for artistic visualization (2016)
- Grierson M, Kiefer C. NoiseBear: A Wireless Malleable Instrument Designed In Participation with Disabled Children (2013)
- Grierson M, Kiefer C. NoiseBear: a wireless malleable multiparametric controller for use in assistive technology contents (2013)
- Grierson M, Kiefer C. Better Brain Interfacing for the Masses: Progress in Event-Related Potential Detection Using Commercial Brain Computer Interfaces (2011)
Teaching
Current research students
- Angus Main, Co-designing with AI: Design Approaches to Creativity Support with Imbedded Artificial Intelligence (Lead supervisor)
- Jussi Nybom, Data Driven Approaches to Narrative Personalisation Through Psychologically Motivated Models (Working Title) (Lead supervisor)
Subjects
Creative Computing