Sounding the Possible: Reflections and Blueprints for Digital Experiments
In May 2024, the MCICM organised an experimental workshop on digital technologies in close collaboration with The Plant, the tech lab at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS), Maastricht University.
The Plant – short for Playground and Laboratory for New Technologies – is a recently established learning hub for FASoS staff and students. As an infrastructure, The Plant aims to support researchers in engaging with new technologies and “open up new societally relevant research and education paths, through collaboration, exchange, and experimentation” (“The Plant”, n.d.).
A workshop is a productive format to stage an explorative setting in which practitioners and researchers related to classical music can discover and play with emerging digital technologies. We want to encourage practitioners to use such a format to experiment with digital technology, and share our own insights into how this is best possible – by reflecting on our own workshop, and the conversations that emerged during. The motivation to do so, we believe, rests in creating a space for discussion and introspection in which practitioners can become more conscious and aware about the potential role and effects of digital technologies on their own musical practice.
Setting the Scene
Creating proper space for a pre-discussion on previous experiences and expectations!
In the introductory discussion of the workshop, we prepared this mood for reflection and experimentation by first encouraging participants to share what digital technologies they were already using. Among them were, for example, video projections and subtitling in opera productions, recording technologies, score writing software, devices for reading scores (such as tablets), music making software, sound density measurement apps, and digital tuners. The opening discussion also enabled participants to attempt to gauge the effects of these technologies on their practices: For example, one participant questioned the effect of digital tablets on concert etiquette and routines, while another one stated that he felt students at the conservatoire relied so heavily on digital tuners that they were losing the ability to tune by ear. It also became clear what technologies participants were keen on exploring more in the future: one participant shared he would like digital tech to offer visual ways of learning and practising instrument technique; another one was interested in the role of digital devices in creating sensory and artistic experiences; yet other participants expressed a strong curiosity for learning more about AI and its potential effects for how classical music is made and performed.
Structure and Format
Providing specific topics and contexts, so that discussions and interactions become concrete and flow better!
The opening discussion primed participants for the technology playground, for which our colleagues at The Plant had designed and set up three stations. The workshop participants were to split up into groups that would rotate around the stations, so that each group would get to experiment with each technology for a certain amount of time. The experiences would then be shared in a collective plenary discussion.
We sorted the technologies/stations into three broader categories of practice to provide some context for the discussions, hoping that this would facilitate the flow of conversation:
- Experiencing music
→ Maestro VR (VR game by Symphonic Games) - Tools for practice
→ Arduino Theremin Piano (built and programmed by The Plant)
→ Music genre classifier (built and programmed by The Plant) - Communication and education
→ Podcasting station
Participants
Bringing together practitioners, researchers, and students from different institutions and generations to gain multiple perspectives!
In order to stimulate interesting discussions and include different perspectives, the participants of our workshop included staff and students from FASoS, staff and alumni from the Conservatorium Maastricht, staff from Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, and staff from the University of Arts Utrecht. The workshop proved to be an excellent format to bring together people from various institutions related to classical music and other performing arts in areas such as teaching, learning, research, and administrative roles. This way, participants could both network and profit from each others’ experiences and outlooks.
Technologies
Selecting relevant, feasible, and potentially underestimated technologies that match participants’ interests!
The selection of the technologies with which participants experimented was co-curated by our colleagues from The Plant and the MCICM team, bringing together the technical experience of the lab with our insights on potentially interesting and relevant technologies in a classical music context. During the experiments, we gained two important insights: first, while we wanted practitioners to experiment with a range of technologies, these did not always match their interest. For example, some participants perceived the Arduino Theremin Piano as “basic”, or did not realize the significance of the Arduino hardware and software that was used. Others expected to learn more about AI. Here, the tension between offering something unexpected and responding to participants’ interests needs to be carefully balanced. We recommend attempting to get some insights on preferred technologies from participants beforehand, and potentially balancing those with other, more invisible ones. Second, while the circling between stations worked well in principle, there were time management issues due to which we had to drop one station (podcasting). Less is more – we learned to pick fewer technologies in order to be able to provide proper discussion space. Of course, such a problem could be mitigated by offering a series of meetings or workshops, for example in an educational context at a conservatoire.
Experimenting with the Arduino Theremin Piano (ATP)
The Arduino Theremin Piano is a self-built musical instrument that The Plant had set up. They used the Arduino ecosystem that allows one to combine modular hardware and software to create electronic devices such as the ATP. Pitch and volume of the Theremin Piano are controlled by proximity and motion, very much like a traditional theremin. However, instead of using radio frequencies, the ATP uses ultrasonic sensors or infrared sensors to detect hand movements. The ATP served as an example of an instrument that requires digital components and skills (such as a board, wires, sensors, and coding) to work - as opposed to many classical instruments, which are composed of materials like wood or brass. It also offered playful physical experimentation and intervention through its weird rudimentariness, drawing attention to the complexity of building such a digital instrument from scratch.
Experimenting with the Music Genre Classifier
The Music Genre Classifier was a device that consisted of a microphone and software to recognise different kinds of music genres. Participants were invited to play any kind of music from their smart devices to the microphone, after which the software would - based on samples of various musical genres that it had been fed with before by the colleagues of The Plant - attempt to place the piece or excerpt into a musical genre. The success rate of this varied; in order to provide more precise results, the sample would have needed to be extended further for the algorithm to work properly. However, the music genre classifier prompted interesting discussions about the purpose of such a technology (e.g., using such a technology to diversify and propose more repertoire, develop more inclusive algorithms for music recommendation etc.).
Experimenting with Maestro VR
The Plant had also prepared VR head-sets and controllers for the participants to play an open-access demo of Maestro VR, a game developed by Symphonic Games (then still in early access). In Maestro VR, players become an orchestra conductor, using their own hands and body to lead the virtual orchestra.
During the game, it quickly became clear that this was the least “interactive” technology in terms of group discussion - in a talk after, the technology however sparked most controversy or criticism. Participants shared how they felt separated from their environment and immediate surroundings, how it placed them in “their own bubble” - a strange experience, as one participant said, “because music is actually something that we do together”. It was also noted, by another participant, how this technology tried to replicate “some kind of musical experience” in a gamified way - instead of attempting, for example, to offer a new musical or aesthetic experience altogether. Other participants commented critically on the replication of stereotypes in the game, such as depicting classical music being an elitist or aloof art form.
Making Room for Experiences and Phasing Out
Coming together at the ending and exchanging experiences, thoughts, and remaining questions!
After exploring these stations, the groups came back together for reflection or post-discussion. This proved vital in comparing experiences, tapping into each other’s insights, and uncovering unexpected connections. Sharing opened space for new perspectives and helped process the diversity of interactions with digital technologies. This was the moment in which also the values and conventions of classical music were exposed, raising questions for its re-imagining depending on each participant’s background, expertise, and assumptions.
Points of Discussion: Thoughts from the Workshop Participants
To give you an idea about the specific insights we gained during the workshop, let us summarise the most pertinent points from the post-discussion. This gives a good impression of what kinds of issues and tensions emerge in the format of such a workshop.
- Even the most “revolutionary” technologies - such as AI - are not expected by practitioners to undo routines and conventions radically, but rather change and shift the practice in a gradual manner. We have seen these developments also with other technologies in other fields; e.g. the introduction of computers to office work. This is not unique to (classical) musical practice.
- Digital technologies can - should?- occupy an artistic role, and not merely present an attachment or tool to use functionally. For example, video projections or subtitles can also generate or create new aesthetic and artistic experiences. So: what is the artistic potential of such technologies?
- The participants were very aware of the changing role of older digital technologies, such as CDs. These have, e.g., different usages and functions today: CDs nowadays have come to occupy a promotional function. Practitioners should stay open towards these changing roles.
- Digital technologies are, to a certain extent, unable to reproduce or pick up the “feeling” of playing or of being with an instrument. Take for example the vibrations. These “hapticalities” are an essential part of making music that these technologies cannot cater to; as the ATP and the VR experience showed, digital technologies miss the same level of “the subtlety of interaction”. To put frankly, technologies can be dumb and clumsy in comparison to the technical complexity that musicians show at their instruments. Musicians have so many more skills that these technologies cannot relate to adequately or in similar ways.
- Following from this previous point, practitioners need to (or should?) be better involved in the development of such digital technologies. In order for them to be really useful, there has to be a need for these technologies from the perspective of practitioners.
- In the workshop, the technologies acted more as a channel or way through which participants shared specific ideas of music-making, such as togetherness, or hapticality and subtlety. While the technologies we presented to them may not have a functional role for the participants, they did allow them to talk about what is important in their musical practice. The technologies became discursive tools to share ideas about music-making and experiencing music.