YORK RESEARCH JOURNEYS
Dr JAY HARRISON
For most people, the creative industries and academic research are two polar opposites. For Jay Harrison, they have become two sides of the same coin.
“I would describe myself as a drummer in terms of what I'm most proficient at, I suppose. But now I work in data, policy and evidence research for the creative industries, which is something I never thought I’d do”.
A dual path
With the precision of a technician and the creativity of an artist, Jay has trodden a path that straddles both academic research and creative expression. However, this dual path has been far from clear and often demanded a high degree of adaptability and resourcefulness.
Despite the winding road, music and sound have always been Jay’s guiding principles.
“I was always fascinated by the piano, but was initially quite reluctant towards the lessons my mum made me take, but as time went on I grew to love those too. Ever since then, music, audio and sound recording was always the thing that guided me in terms of what I thought I might want to do with my life.”
Having fallen in love with music and all its technical and creative possibilities, as a teenager Jay initially set out to pursue a career in the performing arts. He soon found that perhaps it wasn’t so much about the performance or creative lifestyle as the hands-on technical creation of music he was interested in.
“I didn't want to be in the music industry necessarily. It wasn't anything to do with a particular kind of lifestyle, it was more about a love for the instrument and music and getting to spend time doing that.”
Although now a researcher, back then Jay never saw higher education as a suitable career option for himself. His interests lied elsewhere and he was initially set on working in music technology. After finishing college, Jay started an undergraduate degree in Creative Music Technology at Staffordshire University.
To his surprise, however, he found himself once again drawn to the more artistic aspects of the music industry and ended up creating several installations including liquid light projections and responsive audiovisual installations.
Still, Jay didn’t see himself as an artist.
“I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would do that kind of stuff and not because I thought anything bad about art or had a negative opinion of it. I just didn't see myself that way.”
The fact that he was able to tour around different festivals and museums for 18 months with a slate instrument, a lithophone, that he created for his undergraduate dissertation project, had still not convinced Jay that he was or could be an artist.
The reason was that he felt he lacked the vision or special message that most artists seemed to have or be driven by. For Jay, it was still more about the hands-on technical craft of making sounds and being guided by sounds rather than statements.
“I didn’t consider myself an artist because people who do exhibitions in actual galleries or have collections of works, they always appeared to have some sort of vision as to what it is that they do and what they're trying to achieve. I had just liked messing around with music and musical things, and just happened to make this thing that people liked.”
Top: Jay, aged 8, playing the piano assisted by his godfather and his godfather's daughter. Bottom: Jay playing the keyboard on stage with his band aged 18.
Top: Jay, aged 8, playing the piano assisted by his godfather and his godfather's daughter. Bottom: Jay playing the keyboard on stage with his band aged 18.
“I didn't want to be in the music industry necessarily… it was more about a love for the instrument and music and getting to spend time doing that.”
Jay playing his Electromechanical Lithophone installation.
Jay playing his Electromechanical Lithophone installation.
“...what is it about music made with these kinds of effects that is so appealing to some people? And why is it so hard for people to put their finger on what they like about it?”
Merging the technician and the artist
After his undergraduate studies, Jay was still struggling with deciding what he wanted to do with his professional life. During this time, he worked in a charity shop and as a technician at a school and college while looking for jobs that aligned with his music technology interest.
As many new graduates will testify, however, finding a job out of University can be difficult. Because of this, Jay decided to go back and do a masters in Audio Production at the University of Salford, a choice which would lead him onto an unexpected path.
It was here he first realised that asking scientific questions and applying research methods to music technology could act as a bridge, and help to merge his technical and artistic talents in a way he had previously not thought possible.
“I was really fascinated by the question of pitch modulation as a musical effect which, I realised, you could approach from either an engineering perspective or an audio production point of view. For example, what is it about music made with these kinds of effects that is so appealing to some people? And why is it so hard for people to put their finger on what they like about it?”
Questions like these helped Jay formulate his masters thesis where he recruited participants to do a listening test, giving him his first taste of combining research and music technology. Although with a similar reluctance to call himself an artist, Jay did not see research or further education as a viable option and continued to look for other jobs in industry after his masters.
“I always saw education as this thing I was trying to leave behind. I never saw it as a viable career.”
After getting a job working for Hawkeye Innovations, a sports company offering tracking and broadcast technology, Jay was once again able to tap into his fundamental skill set that allowed him to understand and manipulate complex technical systems.
When the COVID pandemic hit and football came to a halt Jay was once again forced to think about his options. While always having been focused on getting practical experience, Jay admits he still saw higher education as a last resort. So when he applied for a PhD in Electronic Engineering at University of York he saw it more as a job opportunity than anything else.
“I never had this strong desire to do a PhD like a lot of people do, and I didn't have that drive to be an academic and I didn’t really know what that would mean. But, I knew that every time I’d gone to university I’d liked it and had done well.”
BRIDGING ART AND ACADEMIA
When Jay was offered the PhD position he was astonished but ready to fully embrace this new trajectory on his path, even if it meant doing the entirety of his first year in a small student flat due to COVID restrictions.
The PhD project was conducted in partnership with BBC R&D which was a major factor that attracted Jay to the position. His project focused on context aware personalised audio experiences and to his amazement, Jay found himself totally immersed in the research and even managed to get one of his studies published in a major psychology journal.
“I thought I understood things well enough that I would be able to make the analysis robust enough to go in a psychology journal. Given I have absolutely no background in psychology research whatsoever, I was pretty pleased.”
However, belonging to an engineering department, Jay felt he now had to complement the psychology research with more hands-on, technical experiments. Because of this he decided to undertake a technical measurement study and perceptual listening experiment, with the ultimate aim being to investigate how external soundscapes influence listeners’ engagement with podcasts and other forms of speech-based media.
In these experiments, the physical ear and headphones took centre stage which also made Jay think about how devices designed for sound experiences have also affected how people interact and perceive each other socially. Describing the development of the Sony Walkman in the 1970s, Jay said:
“Initially, there was this whole backlash against the use of headphones and Walkmans, where people who didn’t use them would think people who did were rude for not participating in conversation on public transport or in shops. Now, they are so normalised and it has completely changed how we consume media and interact with each other.”
Together with the survey, technical measurements and listening experiments, Jay’s path had once again led him to the intersection between technology and human experiences where he could combine the technical with the creative. Reflecting on the use of his dual skill set, Jay says it’s all probably a result of never being able to limit himself to a category.
“I sometimes wish I was someone who knew from day one what I wanted to do, cause some people seem to have this very clear idea of who they are and what they want to do for a career. I admire people who are like that. But I had always just been guided by audio and sound.”
While writing up his PhD, Jay worked as an audio forensics officer for West Yorkshire Police but ultimately ended up applying for and being accepted to a post doctoral position working with the XR Stories team and his supervisor, Professor Damian Murphy. Although an academic career was never his initial dream or plan, he credits ending up in research to his adaptability, but also to the York community.
“I've been given an opportunity to properly grow and I’ve been believed in, I suppose. Largely by my supervisor but also by the community in the AudioLab and York more widely. It's the first time in my life that I've properly felt an opportunity to develop and to prove myself. And also to be trusted to do good things.”
Asked about his old reluctance to see himself as an artist, and if he thinks an academic profile is more in line with his self image, Jay replied:
“I don't think I'd describe myself as an academic, really. I think I'm a researcher. I think I have developed research skills and competencies that have put me in a position where I know how to do some kinds of research to a reasonably good standard. And I think what I'm good at specifically is thinking creatively about research. I think that's something that comes quite naturally to me.”
Top: Jay at his PhD graduation with his partner and mother. Bottom: Jay receiving the best student paper award at the Audio Engineering Society's 2024 Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality conference in Redmond, USA.
Top: Jay at his PhD graduation with his partner and mother. Bottom: Jay receiving the best student paper award at the Audio Engineering Society's 2024 Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality conference in Redmond, USA.
“You have to be open to not being completely sure what will happen or what you want to do… work hard and try to adapt your way of thinking, then you can find yourself doing stuff that you never thought you'd be capable of.”
Breaking down stereotypes
Today, Jay’s postdoctoral position focuses on policy, where his research contributes to making a real-world impact to the creative industries as a whole through data driven insights. Among other things, he and his team work to support regional innovation companies in accessing expertise in, for example, visual and audio effects.
The fact that research is highly integrated with and contributes to the local community, is something that Jay wishes more people knew.
“People can sometimes have a perception about academic research that it's siloed or detached from the wider world. That does happen sometimes, but there are an incredible number of different ways in which research – and the people doing the research as part of a university – can be embedded into society and working as part of a local community. Through living it, experiencing it and being privy to it, I now have a much greater appreciation of how truly valuable that is.”
As someone who has always declined to walk the paths of fixed categories, Jay’s journey to becoming a researcher highlights the often stereotypical views about academia, but also what being open to changing your views might give you.
“You have to be open to not being completely sure what will happen or what you want to do. I think the message is that if you just work hard and try to adapt your way of thinking, then you can find yourself doing stuff that you never thought you'd be capable of.”
Whether an artist, academic or researcher, allowing himself to be guided by sound has served Jay well and he is excited about where this might take him next.
“I suppose one part of me thinks I should have it all figured out by now. But, actually, I've found myself thinking that there's probably still a great deal of growth to do and finding out where I’m headed next.”
Explore our research
Jay Harrison is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at XR Stories.
His and the University's work aims to boost the creative industries through collaborations across research, partnerships and technical expertise.
Find out more about XR Stories and how work such as the York and North Yorkshire Creative Industries evidence report is helping to shape the future of creative industries in the region.
YORK RESEARCH JOURNEYS
DR JAY HARRISON
For most people, the creative industries and academic research are two polar opposites. For Jay Harrison, they have become two sides of the same coin.
“I would describe myself as a drummer in terms of what I'm most proficient at, I suppose. But now I work in data, policy and evidence research for the creative industries, which is something I never thought I’d do”.
A dual path
With the precision of a technician and the creativity of an artist, Jay has trodden a path that straddles both academic research and creative expression. However, this dual path has been far from clear and often demanded a high degree of adaptability and resourcefulness.
Despite the winding road, music and sound have always been Jay’s guiding principles.
“I was always fascinated by the piano, but was initially quite reluctant towards the lessons my mum made me take, but as time went on I grew to love those too. Ever since then, music, audio and sound recording was always the thing that guided me in terms of what I thought I might want to do with my life.”
Having fallen in love with music and all its technical and creative possibilities, as a teenager Jay initially set out to pursue a career in the performing arts. He soon found that perhaps it wasn’t so much about the performance or creative lifestyle as the hands-on technical creation of music he was interested in.
“I didn't want to be in the music industry necessarily. It wasn't anything to do with a particular kind of lifestyle, it was more about a love for the instrument and music and getting to spend time doing that.”
Although now a researcher, back then Jay never saw higher education as a suitable career option for himself. His interests lied elsewhere and he was initially set on working in music technology. After finishing college, Jay started an undergraduate degree in Creative Music Technology at Staffordshire University.
To his surprise, however, he found himself once again drawn to the more artistic aspects of the music industry and ended up creating several installations including liquid light projections and responsive audiovisual installations.
Still, Jay didn’t see himself as an artist.
“I never thought of myself as the kind of person who would do that kind of stuff and not because I thought anything bad about art or had a negative opinion of it. I just didn't see myself that way.”
The fact that he was able to tour around different festivals and museums for 18 months with a slate instrument, a lithophone, that he created for his undergraduate dissertation project, had still not convinced Jay that he was or could be an artist.
The reason was that he felt he lacked the vision or special message that most artists seemed to have or be driven by. For Jay, it was still more about the hands-on technical craft of making sounds and being guided by sounds rather than statements.
“I didn’t consider myself an artist because people who do exhibitions in actual galleries or have collections of works, they always appeared to have some sort of vision as to what it is that they do and what they're trying to achieve. I had just liked messing around with music and musical things, and just happened to make this thing that people liked.”
Top: Jay, aged 8, playing the piano assisted by his godfather and his godfather's daughter. Bottom: Jay playing the keyboard on stage with his band aged 18.
Top: Jay, aged 8, playing the piano assisted by his godfather and his godfather's daughter. Bottom: Jay playing the keyboard on stage with his band aged 18.
“I didn't want to be in the music industry necessarily… it was more about a love for the instrument and music and getting to spend time doing that.”
Merging the technician and the artist
After his undergraduate studies, Jay was still struggling with deciding what he wanted to do with his professional life. During this time, he worked in a charity shop and as a technician at a school and college while looking for jobs that aligned with his music technology interest.
As many new graduates will testify, however, finding a job out of University can be difficult. Because of this, Jay decided to go back and do a masters in Audio Production at the University of Salford, a choice which would lead him onto an unexpected path.
It was here he first realised that asking scientific questions and applying research methods to music technology could act as a bridge, and help to merge his technical and artistic talents in a way he had previously not thought possible.
“I was really fascinated by the question of pitch modulation as a musical effect which, I realised, you could approach from either an engineering perspective or an audio production point of view. For example, what is it about music made with these kinds of effects that is so appealing to some people? And why is it so hard for people to put their finger on what they like about it?”
Questions like these helped Jay formulate his masters thesis where he recruited participants to do a listening test, giving him his first taste of combining research and music technology. Although with a similar reluctance to call himself an artist, Jay did not see research or further education as a viable option and continued to look for other jobs in industry after his masters.
“I always saw education as this thing I was trying to leave behind. I never saw it as a viable career.”
After getting a job working for Hawkeye Innovations, a sports company offering tracking and broadcast technology, Jay was once again able to tap into his fundamental skill set that allowed him to understand and manipulate complex technical systems.
When the COVID pandemic hit and football came to a halt Jay was once again forced to think about his options. While always having been focused on getting practical experience, Jay admits he still saw higher education as a last resort. So when he applied for a PhD in Electronic Engineering at University of York he saw it more as a job opportunity than anything else.
“I never had this strong desire to do a PhD like a lot of people do, and I didn't have that drive to be an academic and I didn’t really know what that would mean. But, I knew that every time I’d gone to university I’d liked it and had done well.”
Jay playing his Electromechanical Lithophone installation.
Jay playing his Electromechanical Lithophone installation.
“...what is it about music made with these kinds of effects that is so appealing to some people? And why is it so hard for people to put their finger on what they like about it?”
BRIDGING ART AND ACADEMIA
When Jay was offered the PhD position he was astonished but ready to fully embrace this new trajectory on his path, even if it meant doing the entirety of his first year in a small student flat due to COVID restrictions.
The PhD project was conducted in partnership with BBC R&D which was a major factor that attracted Jay to the position. His project focused on context aware personalised audio experiences and to his amazement, Jay found himself totally immersed in the research and even managed to get one of his studies published in a major psychology journal.
“I thought I understood things well enough that I would be able to make the analysis robust enough to go in a psychology journal. Given I have absolutely no background in psychology research whatsoever, I was pretty pleased.”
However, belonging to an engineering department, Jay felt he now had to complement the psychology research with more hands-on, technical experiments. Because of this he decided to undertake a technical measurement study and perceptual listening experiment, with the ultimate aim being to investigate how external soundscapes influence listeners’ engagement with podcasts and other forms of speech-based media.
In these experiments, the physical ear and headphones took centre stage which also made Jay think about how devices designed for sound experiences have also affected how people interact and perceive each other socially. Describing the development of the Sony Walkman in the 1970s, Jay said:
“Initially, there was this whole backlash against the use of headphones and Walkmans, where people who didn’t use them would think people who did were rude for not participating in conversation on public transport or in shops. Now, they are so normalised and it has completely changed how we consume media and interact with each other.”
Together with the survey, technical measurements and listening experiments, Jay’s path had once again led him to the intersection between technology and human experiences where he could combine the technical with the creative. Reflecting on the use of his dual skill set, Jay says it’s all probably a result of never being able to limit himself to a category.
“I sometimes wish I was someone who knew from day one what I wanted to do, cause some people seem to have this very clear idea of who they are and what they want to do for a career. I admire people who are like that. But I had always just been guided by audio and sound.”
While writing up his PhD, Jay worked as an audio forensics officer for West Yorkshire Police but ultimately ended up applying for and being accepted to a post doctoral position working with the XR Stories team and his supervisor, Professor Damian Murphy. Although an academic career was never his initial dream or plan, he credits ending up in research to his adaptability, but also to the York community.
“I've been given an opportunity to properly grow and I’ve been believed in, I suppose. Largely by my supervisor but also by the community in the AudioLab and York more widely. It's the first time in my life that I've properly felt an opportunity to develop and to prove myself. And also to be trusted to do good things.”
Asked about his old reluctance to see himself as an artist, and if he thinks an academic profile is more in line with his self image, Jay replied:
“I don't think I'd describe myself as an academic, really. I think I'm a researcher. I think I have developed research skills and competencies that have put me in a position where I know how to do some kinds of research to a reasonably good standard. And I think what I'm good at specifically is thinking creatively about research. I think that's something that comes quite naturally to me.”
Top: Jay at his PhD graduation with his partner and mother. Bottom: Jay receiving the best student paper award at the Audio Engineering Society's 2024 Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality conference in Redmond, USA.
Top: Jay at his PhD graduation with his partner and mother. Bottom: Jay receiving the best student paper award at the Audio Engineering Society's 2024 Audio for Virtual and Augmented Reality conference in Redmond, USA.
“You have to be open to not being completely sure what will happen or what you want to do… work hard and try to adapt your way of thinking, then you can find yourself doing stuff that you never thought you'd be capable of.”
Breaking down stereotypes
Today, Jay’s postdoctoral position focuses on policy, where his research contributes to making a real-world impact to the creative industries as a whole through data driven insights. Among other things, he and his team work to support regional innovation companies in accessing expertise in, for example, visual and audio effects.
The fact that research is highly integrated with and contributes to the local community, is something that Jay wishes more people knew.
“People can sometimes have a perception about academic research that it's siloed or detached from the wider world. That does happen sometimes, but there are an incredible number of different ways in which research – and the people doing the research as part of a university – can be embedded into society and working as part of a local community. Through living it, experiencing it and being privy to it, I now have a much greater appreciation of how truly valuable that is.”
As someone who has always declined to walk the paths of fixed categories, Jay’s journey to becoming a researcher highlights the often stereotypical views about academia, but also what being open to changing your views might give you.
“You have to be open to not being completely sure what will happen or what you want to do. I think the message is that if you just work hard and try to adapt your way of thinking, then you can find yourself doing stuff that you never thought you'd be capable of.”
Whether an artist, academic or researcher, allowing himself to be guided by sound has served Jay well and he is excited about where this might take him next.
“I suppose one part of me thinks I should have it all figured out by now. But, actually, I've found myself thinking that there's probably still a great deal of growth to do and finding out where I’m headed next.”
Explore our research
Jay Harrison is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at XR Stories.
His and the University's work aims to boost the creative industries through collaborations across research, partnerships and technical expertise.
Find out more about XR Stories and how work such as the York and North Yorkshire Creative Industries evidence report is helping to shape the future of creative industries in the region.
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