SARC’s inauguration in 2004 represented a landmark contribution to Northern Ireland’s research and creative landscape in the areas of sound and music. Conceived only a few years after the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, SARC joined an ever growing set of initiatives and infrastructure aiming to promote artistic research, outreach and impact with local, national and international communities. From the outset, there was a impetus to contribute to post-conflict circumstances particular to Belfast while connecting and contributing to international developments in terms of how areas of research that cut across the arts, humanities, science and technology have impact outside academia.

As research activities developed in the centre, a wide range of impact, public engagement and outreach work emerged reaching local, national and international communities. Our impact is social, cultural, in health and well being, in equality, inclusion and diversity, framed by the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Below is a list of Impact Case Studies submitted to the Research Excellent Framework exercise. These case studies focus on specific types of research and have consistently been graded at the highest level in REF.

REF 2021

Reassembled, Slightly Askew

Reassembled, Slightly Askew (RSA) is an immersive audio-theatre piece developed during a 5- year period of collaborative artistic research, which has reached audiences in Canada, England, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and the USA through public performances, medical training sessions and high-profile media coverage. RSA has significantly enhanced public awareness of the challenges of living with acquired brain injury (ABI) in all 6 countries. The work has also impacted the professional practices of artists and healthcare workers by harnessing the wider potential of immersive audio storytelling to provide empathetic and embodied understandings of invisible disabilities, and by offering medical professionals a deeper understanding of the patient experience in situations where this is difficult or dangerous to access directly (i.e. coma, hemiparesis). Professor Paul Stapleton

REF 2014

Sounds of the City: Engaging Communities in Sonic Arts

This case study demonstrates how new approaches to collaborative sonic arts lead to increased awareness of the role of sound and its relationship to place in everyday life. This new understanding of the aural world resulted in the preservation and presentation of past and present cultural heritage specific to two intergenerational participating communities. The impact of the research is specifically articulated through a community project and exhibition entitled “Sounds of the City” commissioned by the new Metropolitan Arts Centre (Belfast) and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2012. Professor Pedro Rebelo

Transforming the Musicality of Young Players

The case study shows how short chamber compositions by composer Piers Hellawell have transformed the musical experience of young musicians within the on-going Chamber Music 2000 project in England. Circles of impact radiate from his provision of practicable new chamber work for ensembles: children from 8 to 16 have explored the challenging demands of performing contemporary music created for them in an individual and exciting idiom. They have participated in new experiences in communal music-making; they have processed new notated instructions and encountered unfamiliar sound-combinations; they have become part of a collaboration with professional artists during coaching. Through these experiences young musicians have been equipped to give a world premiere in an international venue, a life-enhancing experience. Professor Piers Hellawell

Sonic Art for Public Ears - Enabling Children as Designers

This work impacted on children between the ages of 8 and 14. Since 2011 over 90 children living in Northern Ireland have benefitted from day-long workshops, taking place at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen's University Belfast (SARC). The program has been running annually since 2011. The children have benefitted in exploring digital sound technologies, learning to understand ways in which these shape and influence ways of listening to music and our environment. The children acted as content designers in the area of digital sound technologies. The impact is centred on empowering children to design content using technologies, such as iOS and sound diffusion. Professor Franziska Schroeder

Using German Protest Song in Political Education

David Robb's research into folk and protest song has an impact on a wider public through its promotion at music clubs and festivals and in its use in political education in schools. The context for the impact is the general political climate in Germany since the Second World War where protest song has been supported at a national level as `democratic' heritage. Questionnaires from a recent workshop revealed how teachers have made use of Robb's recent on-line research project to promote a democratic consciousness amongst pupils. His research has also influenced the song repertoires of folk groups and performers. Dr David Robb

Ongoing impact actives are embedded in the majority of research projects at SARC. Explore some of the projects to find out more.

Performance without Barriers

Rooted in the social model of disability, seeing disability as arising from attitudes in society and the design of our environment this group explores the role of technology in removing the access barriers encountered by some disabled musicians in creative pursuits.