Manuella Blackburn

Biography

Dr Manuella Blackburn is an internationally recognised and multi award-winning composer of sound-based music and digital arts. She has been working with sound for over 15 years and has created projects for fixed media, instruments and electronics, installations, and music for film and audio-visuals. Her music is published on the Montreal-based label, Emprientes DIGITALes and she has received over 250 performances and exhibitions world-wide.
Dr Blackburn’s fixed media research has been extensively awarded in international competitions including: Musicworks (1st Prize, Canada, 2019), Computer Space Award (1st Prize, Bulgaria, 2017), Musica Nova, (1st Prize, Czech Republic, 2016), International Computer Music Association European Regional Award (Australia, 2013), Gaudeamus Music Prize (Finalist, Netherlands 2012), METAMORPHOSIS competition (1st Prize, Brussels, 2012), Musica Viva, (1st Prize, Portugal, 2010) and Digital Arts Awards (Grand Prize, Japan, 2007).

Dr Blackburn has held academic posts at Liverpool Hope University, The Open University and Keele University.

Research and scholarship

Manuella’s research interests focus on three primary areas: sampling and intertextual procedures, intercultural creativity, and compositional methodologies. She has published numerous journal articles, conference papers and book chapters on these topics and has given keynote addresses at the NAMHE Music – Learning – Technologies conference, (Glasgow, 2013) and the Women Since 1900 Conference (Liverpool, 2013) and the Musicological Society of Australia (Perth, 2018).
Dr Blackburn’s research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in an Early Career Fellowship (intercultural Creativity in Electroacoustic Music: Integrating Indian Music Cultural Sound Emblems in new works) in 2012-13, an ED&I Engagement Fellowship (Overcoming Sonic Stalemates: Representing Cultural Diversity in Sample Packs) awarded in 2021 and follow-on funding (Enabling Sustainable Impact of the AHRC ED&I Fellowship Programme) awarded 2021-2022 which resulted in a commissioned report of the AHRC’s ED&I Engagement Fellowship pilot scheme.
She is currently researching representation practices in sound libraries and sample packs, and has recently completed a sound-based work on the Fairlight CMI series II sound library.

Manuella also researches inclusive practices within research funding systems and opportunities. She has fed into policy changes within funder's EDI statements and action plans and is currently on the advisory board for the UKRI / BA funded EDI Caucus (EDICa) which explores career trajectories of underrepresented groups employed within the research and innovation sector.

Teaching

Dr Blackburn is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA, awarded 2019) which recognises experienced educators in academia. This achievement recognises excellence in teaching leadership, management and organisation, as well as recognising innovation in learning and teaching practices. Dr Blackburn's work in embedding collaboration into course design and building content for learning software for digital creativity has been acknowledged in this context.

She currently teaches:
- Dialogues in Art, Technology and Society
- Dissertation
- Digital Sampling
- Commercial Sound Applications

Supervision

Lizzy Hardman (AHRC CDA) 'Confronting canonicity and promoting diversity: Gender and contemporary concert programming'

Collaborations and grants awards

Grants
AHRC PhD Doctoral Studentship (2007-2010): Composing from Denis Smalley’s spectromorphology

AHRC Early Career Fellowship (2012): Intercultural Creativity in electroacoustic music: Integrating Indian music cultural sound emblems into new works

AHRC EDI Engagement Fellowship (2020-2021): Overcoming Sonic Stalemates: Representing Cultural Diversity in Sample Packs

AHRC Follow-on (2021-2022): Enabling Sustainable Impact of the AHRC ED&I Fellowship Programme)