Staying in-between Music Technology in Higher Education

Transcription

1 Staying in-between Music Tecnology in Higer Education (Post-modern) Callenges and Opportunities for Music Tecnology Education Carola Boem Carola Boem Centre for Music Tecnology Department of Music Department of Electronics & Electrical Engineering Slide 1 Intro - Te Questions Carola Boem Music Tecnology Education ow do we create a supporting and educationally valuable environment for students and staff in an area wic reaces not only over different scientific domains, but also over different working and investigatory metodologies, different approaces for presentation and practice, different underlying - but implicit - justificational ypoteses, different vocabularies and terminologies as well as different conceptual frameworks - not even to mention often different budgets and administrative units. Slide 2

2 Intro Te Project Betweening Tere is substantial complexity involved in providing genuinely interdisciplinary degrees ow do existing educational frameworks allow interdisciplinary degrees, suc as music tecnology, to be taugt in general degree curricula of multidisciplinary nature tend to be given as if tey fit seamlessly into our traditional, monodiscipline -based academic structure How can we face te interdisciplinary callenge of betweening, existing on all levels of academic endeavour: from teacing and learning to administration and researc a case study Music Tecnology Carola Boem Slide 3 Ca 40 visits to institutions in 2006 and a questionnaire using cognitive interviewing tecniques At te beginning.. Tere was data Meanwile, back at te.. tere is UCAS data [1] UCAS data can tell use quantitatively (not qualitatively) ow many degrees are out tere (in Britain) ow wide te perception of te subject area is, looking at degre e names wat types of degrees are available and in wic ratio Using UCAS 2006 data How many BSc s, BA s, BEng s, MEng s, etc are tere? Wic terms are being used to define tese degrees? How many joint, ow many onours degrees? Any trends or tendencies or patterns?. But before we turn to UCAS, some views on wat te discipline of Music Tecnology encompasses. Carola Boem Slide 4 and also: wat s wit all tese (post-modern) quotes around Music Tecnology? [1] UCAS Directory 2005 ttp://

3 Te (post-modern) quotes around Music Tecnology Carola Boem Slide 5 Music Tecnology : Electro-acoustic Music : increasingly reduced to mean sound engineering (or sometimes even EComp), but still used in GB as te widest of terms generally including only composition Computers and Music : generally perceived as a wide area of knowledge, but excluding sound engineering Computer Music : Sonic Arts : used more in te USA used more in GB, implying creative compositional approaces Sound Tecnology / Recording Tecnology / Sound Engineering Electronic-, Computer-, Digital Music Electro-acoustic music Computational musicology / Systematic Musicology (used more in Germany) Acoustics A bit of Interdisciplinarity: Computer Music, a full taxonomy? (Pope 1993) Carola Boem Musical teory, signal composition, and event representation and performance and 4. Digital control and sound signal syntesis and processing 2. Musical acoustics, psycoacoustics, 1.1. notation 5. Hardware Music teory, support sociology, for and computer aestetics perception, and cognition music 4.1. Sound syntesis metods Models Music teory of signals and analysis and events 2.1. Musical acoustics and psycoacoustics Hardware Language systems for DSP and digital audio Additive sound syntesis metods Temperament and tuning systems Acoustics of musical instruments and Computer Encodings and music file formats workstations Subtractive voice sound syntesis metods New musical aestetics and sociologies Input/Output Grapical notation devices systems for music Nonlinear sound Psycoacoustics syntesis metods 1.2. Composition of electroacousticmusic 3.2. Musical event description languages Pysical models Room of and acoustical spatial acoustics systems Sound and composition models and notations Note-list formats Oter 2.2. syntesis Music metods perception Computers Models of te in composition music education and performance and computer processesmusic education Music input languages Analysis and Pysiology resyntesis of earing systems Computers Sound design in and music processing education Music programming languages 4.2. Time- and frequency-domain Pitc identification signal processing Realization and production tecniques Musical Computer signal music description education languages Software arcitecture Rytm identification "Aural rendering" or "sonification" of scientific data Signal models and descriptions Time domain Timbre model perception syntesis 1.3. Algoritmic and computer -aided composition Software syntesis languages Frequency domain model syntesis 7. Computer music literature and sources 2.3. Music understanding and cognition Compositional algoritms and languages 3.4. Music notation and printing tools Ad oc syntesis Rytm tecniques understanding Bibliograpies/diskograpies Composition systems for score or sound syntesis Transcription or performance Effects and Key filters and scale recognition Studio Artificial Intelligence reports and composition Optical recognition of scores 4.3. Sound spatialization Higer-level and structures localization Performance Descriptions situations of compositions and interfaces 4.4. Macine recognition of signals and events Performing and conducting 7.4. History of electroacoustic music 4.5. Real -time processing and sceduling Gesture recognition and interfaces Real-time sceduling Score following in performance Real-time languages Expression representation and analysis Hardware arcitectures 4.6. MIDI and control processing Slide 6

4 A bit of Interdisciplinarity: Computer Music Engineering (Cammuri/dePoli/Dannenberg) Carola Boem Slide 7 [1] Cammuri, Dannenberg, De Poli, ``Instruction of Computer Music for Computer Engineering Students and Professionals,'' in Proceedings of te 1994 ICMC, ICMA, (1994), p A bit of Interdisciplinarity: Computer and Music Carola Boem Slide 8

5 A bit of Interdisciplinarity: Elements of Computer Music Moore (1990) Art Science Tecnology Carola Boem Slide 9 [1] Ricard Moore, Elements of Computer Music. Prentice Hall, 1990 A bit of Interdisciplinarity: Music Tecnology No taxonomy? Possibly too broad an area? Or encompassing parts too vocational for HE (I.e. sound engineering)? Mark Torley (Coventry) as pointed out te oddity : te degrees around music tecnology are seen as being igly vocational, altoug tere is no suc job as a music tecnologist [1] I, personally, perceive a widening gap between te scientific/engineering and te artistic aspects of tis area (tru RAE and HE politics or cultural tendencies)? One definition of "Music Tecnology : [2] tecnology involved wit te musical arts [3] Carola Boem Slide 10 Or defined troug numerous diverse HE curricula? It is te most used term in UCAS after all?..? [1] Mark Torley, Music Tecnology education wo is te customer, te student or te industry, LIMTEC [2] Wikipedia contributors, Music Tecnology," Wikipedia, Te Free Encyclopedia, ttp://en.wikipedia.org/ (accessed December 9, 2005). [3] in particular te use of electronic and digital devices to facilitate playback, recording, storage and

6 Music Tecnology Curricula in Higer Education Andrew Bates (Leeds 2003) looked at Developing and implementing an HE Music Tecnology Curriculum : Place all te ingredients in a large bowl, stir vigorously until everyting is torougly mixed togeter and serve immediately [1] Different Ingredients, different flavours, different meals Carola Boem Slide 11 [1] Andrew Bates, Paper presented at te Leeds Music Tecnology Education Conference, Leeds, November 2003 Different Ingredients, different flavours, different meals Music Tecnology [1] As in Sound Recording, Tonmeister, Record Production, etc Carola Boem Slide 12 Art (Moore, 1990) Music Tecnology As in Creative Music Tecnology, Sonic Arts, Electro-acoustic Composition, Sound Design, Electronic Music Tecnology Science Music Tecnology As in Computational Musicology, Electronic, Audio and Music Tecnology Engineering, Music Informatics, Music Tecnology Soft/Hardware Development, Digital Music. so let s turn to number-cruncing & UCAS [1] Notice: I am still anging on to te term Music Tecnology and its post-modern quotes

7 UCAS and Music Tecnology Carola Boem Using all degrees wen selecting teir category Music Tecnology 62 different Institutions 351 different degrees 63 different names (drawing already small differences togeter (ex: Music Tecnology/ies)) 131 Music Tecnology 1 Digital Music Unisave 2 2 8Unisave 3 3 5Unisave 1 4 3Unisave 4 2Unisave Unisave 6 6 1Unias Unias Unias 29 1Unias Unias Unias Unias 10 1Unias Unias Unias University/ies Sum of Degree(s) Slide 13 Average = 5.1 deg Witout matrix degrees : Av. = 3.8 degrees 59% of universities ave 1 or 2 degrees Carola Boem Slide 14

8 Te Matrix Degrees [1] Carola Boem Slide 15 Term coined by M.Torley (Coventry/Staffordsire) Te Degrees: wat s in a name Carola Boem Slide 16 Arts and Media Informatics/Music Audio and Music Tecnology Audio and Video Engineering Audio Electronics Audio Engineering Audio Tecnology Computational Musicology Computer Science wit Music (popular, digital, etc) Computer systems and music tecnology Computing and Music Computing wit Music Creative Music Tecnology Creative Music Tecnology and Sound Recording Digital Music Electronic and Audio Engineering Electronic music Electronics wit Music Information systems/music Information tecnology and multimedia Music Composition and Tecnology Music Informatics Music Multimedia and Electronics Music Tecnology and Innovation Music Tecnology and/wit Audio Systems design Music Tecnology Music Tecnology Software Development Music Tecnology wit Popular Music Music wit Computing Sonic Arts Sound Design Tecnology Sound Engineering Tonmeister [1] UCAS Directory 2006 ttp:// etc

9 Te Degrees: wat s in a name UCAS Subject Categories for Music Tecnology (1) wit number of degree names using tis term Music Tecnology 131 Electronic Music 31 Creative Music Tecnology 20 Music Production 5 Commercial Music 1 Top 6 Categories from degree names (2) Digital Music 1 Audio Music Tecnology 0 Music Acoustics 0 Music Recording 0 Music Systems Engineering 0 Music Tecnology Systems 0 Carola Boem Slide 17 Degree Qualification Majority of qualifications are BSc 1% Total: 351 2% 0% Degree Types BSc (195) BA (137) 3% BEng (10) MEng (6) 39% BMus (2) BA MA (1) BSc BEng 55% MEng BMus Carola Boem MA Slide 18

10 Degree Qualification: Joint vs Single Majority of degrees around Music Tecnology are joint degrees 11% 29% 60% Joint Degrees Single Degrees Rest Carola Boem Slide 19 Degree Names Occurrences of Terms in Degree Name 16.3% 1.0% 1.3% 1.6% 41.9% 3.2% 6.4% Music Tecnology Media Tecnology Electronic Music Sonic Arts Creative Music Tecnology Audio Tecnology Music Production Recording Sound Engineering Rest 7.0% Carola Boem 9.9% 11.5% Slide 20

11 Terms vs Degree Types Music Tecnology Media Tecnology Electronic Music Sonic Arts Creative Music Tecnology Audio Tecnology Music Production Recording Sound Engineering Rest BA BSc BEng Meng Bmus MA Carola Boem Slide 21 Types of subject accumulation witin a degree A) Contributions from more tan one department but wit aving glue courses dealing wit bot areas as one discipline Suc as BEng over two departments B) Contributions from more tan one department, wit students being left to accumulate teir interdisciplinarity Suc as usual Joint Honour degrees C) Contributions from one department only, but wic brings in staff expertise from relating disciplines Suc as many Single Honours BSc Music tecnology degrees D) Mixture of te above Or boundaries between te above are not discrete Carola Boem E) Any of te above wit exclusion of specific areas Suc as Creative Music Tecnology generally not encompassing Computational Musicology and vice versa Slide 22

12 Te student s perspective Carola Boem Slide 23 Jon Gummery (Tames Valley) as been carrying out researc into te perceptions and professional prospects of Music Tecnology students. (BA Music Tecnology). Important for evidence of canging attitudes and ow students view te Music Tecnology degrees From is researc I want to draw out some aspects relevant to t is topic: tere as been a steady fall in te number of tose wo want to work in music recording and production. (63% in 2002 decreasing to 28% in 2004, oter categories: composer, performer, self employment, film/tv/ratio/media work) Students seem to be increasingly becoming more open-minded to te wide range of diverse job prospects tat a music tecnology degree can support. OR: Are universities still riding te bubble of a past economically important music industry? All ( ) graduates interviewed found te broad curriculum to be (Increasingly) relevant and bene?cial in teir employment. Te ig proportion using tese skills in teir current employment suppor ted tis view. [1] Jon Gummery, Te perceptions of employability amongst music tecnology students, LIMTEC 2005 A somewat lengty conclusions about University and te Post-modern Quotes finally Carola Boem Slide 24 Music Tecnology s last decades of economic success in one area of its knowledge/practical domain ave sparked a steep increase in te HE degrees offered in Britain Te degrees in teir entirety reflect te diversity of its subject area(s) Universities ave been very successful building on tis demand and students tend to want to maintain te interdisciplinary caracter of tis subject Do Matrix degrees sow rater a demand and academic interest by students or desperateness by Universities? Question remains, as Mark Torley as asked wo is te client, te student or te industry [ 1] And if tere is a demand for interdisciplinarity and broadness, ow can we accommodate tis educationally [1] Mark Torley, Music Tecnology education wo is te customer, te student or te industry, LIMTEC 2005

13 Music Tecnology and Interdisciplinarity.. still concluding.. Tis area is still struggling to come to terms wit te different metodologies of its own user community [1] Te rapid increase of degrees in tis area demonstrates ow muc is appening at te brinks of te traditional academic disciplines Even te label for tis interdisciplinary subject indicates conflicts of interests for a number of different stakeolders. Interdisciplinary inquiries are (Mourad, 1997) efforts to pursue knowledge witout being essentially constrained by te structure and content of a single discipline, including subject matter, predominant teories, typical metods, or primary scools of tougt. Tey imply a general desire to conceive knowledge and teoretical practice in new ways. [2] ( and terminologies ) Carola Boem Slide 25 [1] C Boem, Betweening: How to put te and between Music and Tecnology, LIMTEC 2005 and and Boem, Music Tecnology in Higer Education, in: Te Idea of Education, ed. by Tom Claes Inter-Disciplinary Press, Vol ISBN [2] Roger P. Mourad,Jr., Postmodern Interdisciplinarity, Te Review of Higer Education 20.2 (1997) ttp://muse.ju.edu/journals/review_of_iger_education/v020/20.2mourad.tml#astnote Carola Boem Slide 26 Some controversial post-modern views about Music Tecnology, Interdisciplinarity and HE and yet still trying to conclude Concept 1: Te age of specialisms is new, do we really need deep specialisms witout broad interdisciplinarism? Early modern natural pilosopers were more often tan not dilettantes in teir experiments and umanists by education. It is unlikely tat a new Leibniz sould emerge today. But it is possi ble tat, if e were alive now, e would still try to open gates. (Arika, 2005) [1] Concept 2: Te project of modernity in University education may ave failed Te project of modernity stems from te 18 t century (age of enligtenment), aiming at developing objective science, universal morality and law, and autonomous art according to teir inner lo gic. (Habermans, 1983) [2] Concept 3: Current disciplinary system may be becoming brittle [1] (Sperber) We need a post-modern acceptance of fragmented but self-organising areas of knowledge, in wic particular foundations would emerge in te course of te inquiry rater tan be predetermined in te fo rm of discipline-bound teories, metods, and scools of tougt. (Mourad, 1997) [3] [1] Noga Arika, History of disciplines and disciplines in istory, in: ( Sperber, 2005). [2] Habermas, J. (1983). Modernity --An incomplete project. In H. Foster (Ed.), Te anti-aestetic: Essays on postmodern culture (pp. 3-15). Port Townsend, WA: Bay Press. [3] Roger P. Mourad,Jr., Postmodern Interdisciplinarity, Te Review of Higer Education 20.2 (1997)

14 Music Tecnology and Post-Modern Education..final page, really Carola Boem Te tree options for Educational Systems: Are we in need of post-modern university frameworks? (Roger P. Mourad, Jr) Sould we accommodate new concepts of fragmentational knowledge And self-organising areas of interdisciplinary domains of knowledge Creating foundations were needed in te inquiry rater tan preordained and culturally engrained Or is tere possibly more merit, certainly less resistance, of absorbing (exclusive) parts of an interdisciplinary domain witin a traditional discipline Acceptance of EComp in HE Music Culture (e.g. RAE) can be seen as an example. And as a tird possibility, is tere evidence of tis interdisciplinary domain becoming its own separate discipline, wit its own scool of metodologies, approaces and practices. And is tere a benefit in tat? Slide 27 Te End. finally!! If you want to stay in touc wit te project Betweening or contribute to our upcoming questionnaire send me and or visit our website at ttp:// carola@music.gla.ac.uk Tank you Carola Boem Slide 28