Caitlin Rowley’s research focuses on the documentation of creative practice and ways in which the normally private, unseen spaces and activity of the composer’s studio and notebooks may become visible to the general public. She is also working on a project experimenting with AI failure as a productive experience for the user, testing how faulty code produced by LLMs for the visual music programming language Pure Data can support intermittent coders in learning and using this open-source language.
Since 2021, Caitlin has worked on the Cyborg Soloists music technology research project, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship directed by Dr Zubin Kanga and based at Royal Holloway, University of London, currently holding the role of Research Contracts and Knowledge Manager. For Cyborg Soloists, her research has primarily explored working with the Bela Mini nanocomputer (projects have included From the Exquisite Dark with Josh Spear, and the Twigstrument). While undertaking her PhD, she worked as a Research Assistant on various projects at Bath Spa University, including documentation strategy for the object theatre project Objects Without Borders, and working on impact case studies for the 2021 REF.
She is an active member of Bath Spa University’s Open Scores Lab research group, and has collaborated several times with her Bastard Assignments colleague Dr Josh Spear on conference presentations and publications relating to creative collaboration and DIY events. She is also a member of the Centre for Audiovisual Research research group at Royal Holloway, University of London.
In January 2026, Caitlin was awarded her PhD in interdisciplinary composition, for her practice-based project ‘Studio/Stage: Entangling private and public creative spaces through interdisciplinary composition’, supervised by Professor James Saunders and Dr Robert Luzar. Her thesis and portfolio can be found online in Bath Spa University’s research repository. Information on her Masters’ research projects – At the Borders of Music, Art and Text: Exploring an interdisciplinary approach to composition (2013-14, supervised by Dr Sam Hayden) and A Sketchbook of Mushrooms: Visual art as a tool for notated composition (2012-13, supervised by Dr Dominic Murcott) – can be found elsewhere on this site, and her early work on Erik Satie is still available online as Erik Satie’s Crystal Ball.
Research interests
Caitlin’s research interests include:
- documentation of creative practice, particularly as material for public-facing artistic work
- generative creative spaces (studio/notebooks)
- AI failure as a productive experience
- the everyday
- private experiences (composition practice, memory, the private experience of performing)
- creative risk-taking
- fear as a creative tool
- post- and inter-disciplinary composition
- the music of Erik Satie
Publications and conference papers
- View a full list of Caitlin’s publications and conference papers
- She writes informally (and somewhat erratically) about her areas of interest and work in progress on this website’s blog
Some notable recent examples of Caitlin’s publications and presentations include:
Presentation at Innovation in Music 2026 conference, Aalborg University, Denmark, 14 June 2026.
Peer-reviewed article co-written with Zubin Kanga, Mark Dyer and Jonathan Packham, published in Tempo, 78(308), pp. 55-69 in April 2024.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040298223000967
Presentation at 9th Music and/as Process Conference: Music and Interdisciplinary Practice, Online, 17 September 2022; repeated by invitation at the Goldsmiths Music and RMA Music and/as Process Study Group ‘Music and Interdisciplinary Practice’ study day, Goldsmiths, University of London, 24 February 2023.
A response to Matthew Sergeant and James Saunders’ ‘What do composers do all day?’ (‘translated as ‘Was machen Komponistinnen den ganzen Tag?’), published in MusikTexte 173 (May 2022).
Chapter in Brooks, W. (ed.) Experience Music Experiment: Pragmatism and Artistic Research. Ghent: Orpheus Institute (Orpheus Institute Series).
With Josh Spear. Video presentation at the 8th Music and/as Process Conference: Networked Collaborative Processes 2021, Online, 25 June 2021.