Monash researcher and musician receives $1M ARC Future Fellowship to make music more accessible to people with disabilities
Dr Alon Ilsar from Monash Sensilab – a joint initiative between the Faculty of Information Technology and Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture – has received an esteemed Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship worth over $1 million to transform musical culture and participation.
Dr Ilsar will work with musicians who have physical disabilities to co-design accessible digital instruments integrating gestural technologies, AI and inclusive design.
By producing new instruments, co-design frameworks, performances and artistic, technical and cultural knowledge, his project will expand who can create, perform and lead in music-making.
It will also have a wider impact by informing inclusive education, therapy and policy, fostering greater global collaborations, strengthening social wellbeing and positioning Australia as a leader in accessible technology and inclusive music-making.
“Dr Ilsar’s Fellowship recognises his remarkable record of bringing research, creativity and community together to challenge conventional ideas about who can make music and how. The Fellowship is a fantastic achievement and it is exciting to see Ilsar’s passion opening a new frontier in accessibility,” said Professor Ian Burnett, Dean of the Faculty of Information Technology.
For more than two decades, Dr Ilsar’s work using AirSticks, a groundbreaking gestural electronic instrument, has explored how movement, technology and creative collaboration can make music more inclusive.
His research has brought together artists, researchers, educators and community organisations to deliver innovative performances and immersive experiences, with his work appearing at the Sydney Festival, Vivid Sydney, TEDxSydney, the Sydney Opera House, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the MET, Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival and other international music and technology events.
Creative performances around the world such as Conduit Bodies, Sound Tree, In the Round, Cymbalism, You’re An Instrument and Concerts of the Future form part of the project’s evolution across live performance, VR and participatory music-making.
Dr Ilsar’s work has received widespread recognition from the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition, SIGGRAPH Asia, the Green Room Awards and The Guardian.
Through continuing partnerships with education institutions, arts organisations, community groups and musicians, Dr Ilsar is helping to change the narrative around who can make music, how it can be performed and what a musical instrument can be.
Dr Ilsar’s next major public performance will take place at Melbourne Recital Centre on 4 December as part of Alter State Festival, where he will collaborate with emerging artist Nicole Tsoulenes, dancer Dr Melinda Smith and current SensiLab PhD candidate Steph O’Hara on a new Creative Australia-funded work, Beyond the Bones.