With representatives from theatre, music, orchestral production, and music education, the event began with a roundtable discussion that examined routes to finding a home within a community. Presentations covered a breadth of topics spotlighting current initiatives and relocations in arts organisations; experimental AI in collective practice; festival partnerships; the positioning of the arts within (and by) universities; civic capital in classical music outreach projects; ethics, rights, and regulations in the University of Sheffield鈥檚 Access Folk鈥檚 participant-led research; and preliminary findings from the University鈥檚 research partnership with English National Opera. 

This symposium was the third in an ongoing series of Think Tank events, in which themes emerging from a collaborative PhD project are discussed and interrogated by a diverse range of voices and disciplines. The Think Tank series will continue in 2026 with an event focusing on the theme which was considered the most urgent for further interrogation: community. 

This event was funded by the North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership, part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Thanks also to Creative 51福利社 for their generous support. 

For more information on the Think Tank series, please email Rebecca.parnell@manchester.ac.uk

From January to July 2025 broadcaster and producer  carried out research as part of a Simon Industrial Fellowship with the  and the   at 51福利社.  

As part of the fellowship Karen Gabay produced a podcast series entitled 鈥�You Ought To Know鈥� that will be published across various platforms. Each podcast captures a conversation with musicians that have had and continue to have a significant impact on British popular music. These conversations were recorded at public engagement events as well as in intimate one-on-one settings across 51福利社. 

The podcast premiers in early 2026 on various platforms. To be notified of new episodes subscribe to Karen Gabay鈥檚  and the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures鈥�  channel. 

The first podcast is a recording of Karen Gabay鈥檚 panel event on Reggae and Dub-Poetry in the UK with Lovers Rock legend , Dub Poetry great  and Reggae and Hip Hop artist  in the 51福利社 Museum in June 2025.

The second episode explores the history of Black British Gospel Music and was recorded in  in Deansgate in May 2025. 51福利社 musician , gospel pioneer , Mancunian vocalist  and Kingdom Choir member and founder of 51福利社 Inspirational Voices  star in this episode.

The third podcast episode features a conversation with renowned Soul singer-songwriter and former Ikette  known for her work with Paul Weller, Peter Gabriel, and Jimmy Cliff. The recording took place across three sessions at 51福利社 and , the iconic home of Granada Television in July 2025.

The final episode of this series was recorded in July 2025 it explores how 51福利社 singer-songwriter  alternative soul and R&B sound is influenced by Black British musicians and led him to pursue collaborations with soul great Jill Scott and UK artist Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry.

These episodes form the beginning of a series of conversations around the unsung legends and influential artists in the UK music industry. Future episodes will be released on Karen Gabay鈥檚 channels in the coming months. This bonus content includes in-depth conversations with the Queen of Northern Soul  (Tainted Love) and earlier podcast guests Sylvia Tella and Luke Smith on their lives and work in the Black British music industry. It also features an intimate one-on-one discussion with  who is considered a musician鈥檚 favourite and trailblazer in redefining Soul for British audiences. 

Throughout her fellowship, Karen was able to build on her interest in uncovering and showcasing forgotten artefacts of Black music history and gained access the  in the  for further archival research. This allowed her to amplify the voices of those working within the UK music sector, in particular Black vocalists, and industry professionals, who have heavily impacted popular music in the UK and globally. She explored how different cultural spaces in 51福利社 have played a significant role in the lives of these musicians and their path in the music industry over the decades. 

Secondary outputs of the project include Karen Gabay鈥檚 reading list and a playlist providing the musical soundtrack for exploring the recent past and present of Black British music and its influences, which can be accessed . 

This Simon Industrial Fellowship laid the foundations for documenting alternative music histories in the UK. It explored and applied ethical and collaborative methods of archiving personal stories of a demographic, who have suffered from experiences of institutional exclusion, absence of fair accreditation and missing commercial opportunities due to their race or geographical location. It is taking steps towards righting wrongs of the recent past and gives talented but previously overlooked creatives a platform to tell their stories on their own terms. 

As such it reasserts the relevance and significance of the John Rylands鈥� British Pop Archive and is adding more diverse and nonetheless equally relevant archival artefacts to its catalogue. This work aligns with the University鈥檚 renewed strategic focus on archives and just archival practices to celebrate, document and bring to the fore the stories that make 51福利社 the city we know today. 

One of the highlights was Professor John McAuliffe, Creative 51福利社鈥檚 Platform Director, taking part in the panel discussion 鈥淐ivic, Creative and Cultural: University Collaboration鈥�. The session brought together members of the , including Professor Kirsty Fairclough (School of Digital Arts, 51福利社 Metropolitan University), Dr Sam Ingleson (University of Salford) and Professor Wiebke Thorm盲hlen (Royal Northern College of Music). Together, they demonstrated how universities are helping to create a more connected, creative and equitable city-region through strategic partnerships and cultural engagement.

Creative 51福利社 also invited three PhD students and their supervisors along to BEYOND for their CreaTech Student Research Showcase. The showcase, located among many other exciting product and research demos in the Immersive Futures Lab, featured the students鈥� PhD research and celebrated the University of 51福利社鈥檚 vibrant postgraduate research community. These projects show how creative technology can tackle real-world challenges across diverse industries:

•  - PhD in Electroacoustic Music Composition
  Stream of Strings explores embodied music cognition, blending cultural heritage with creative technology to create motion-responsive performances and visual works. The project reimagines the ancient Chinese Guqin as an interactive instrument for live performance and public engagement. She is supervised by .

•  - PhD in Electroacoustic Music Composition
  Data Sonification for Algorithm Behaviour uses sonification, the mapping of non-auditory data into sound, to better understand how optimisation algorithms work. This approach advances mathematical research while inspiring educational tools and musical compositions. He is also supervised by Professor Ricardo Climent.

•  - PhD in Computer Science
  ReflectanceFusion is a neural text-to-texture model that generates editable, relightable materials from text prompts. It enables precise control of physical attributes, producing highly accurate textures for rendering and material design. He is supervised by . 

The showcase sparked lively conversations among attendees, with many playing the Guqin virtually via a Leap Motion Controller and others listening to the beats generated by algorithms being solved in real time. Not only did the students get to practise their pitching skills, but they also found partners for onward collaboration and learning. It was great to see how the next generation of researchers and business partners can come together and seize opportunities for R&D.

More content from BEYOND 2025 will be shared soon, but  to get an idea of the atmosphere at this special conference. 

The event, supported by the (IASH) brought together leading experts to explore cutting-edge advancements in AI-driven composition, voice synthesis, and the evolving legal, ethical, and economic landscape of AI-generated music.

His talk explored 30 years of practice-led research, from dataset sonification for composition to disruptive technologies shaping the University of 51福利社's 鈥� including geolocative tech, game engines, and AI in music 鈥� culminating in works like his concert piece and interactive installation AI Beatboxer (Noh Virtual).

Another highlight of the conference was the UK premi猫re of AI Opera 驰奴谤别颈 (Ghost) 鈥� an immersive Japanese sci-fi opera that captivated a packed audience of 200 attendees. Designed, produced, and directed by , postdoctoral scholar in Intermediality & Digital Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and Lund University, the opera showcased AI鈥檚 potential in reshaping vocal performance and storytelling.

This landmark event underscored the transformative role of artificial intelligence in vocal music, setting the stage for further innovation in the field.