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Posts Tagged ‘research’

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New Beginnings

In My Work on January 6, 2012 at 11:06 am

The new year brings a whole new slate of projects and ideas, and a lot of freedom to do things that I may have had to say “no” to because of a packed schedule. To start, I am joining a reading group on critical pedagogy, organized by Michael MacDonald at the University of Alberta Centre for Teaching and Learning. I met him at ICTM this summer, and I really wanted to learn more about his research. The intimate connection between teaching and learning is extremely important to address in any form of online education, but especially music education, broadly speaking. Our first book is Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, and my copy just arrived in the mail. It will be interesting to see what participating in a reading group via skype will be like.

This month I will be working on research proposals and grant applications, and as a result, lots of reading and writing. It is always difficult to anticipate what the future will bring, but you won’t know until you try.

So here’s to diving right in!

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Music Knowledge Conference III

In music-esque, My Work on May 18, 2010 at 12:36 am

(Sorry for the radio silence, I have been away for the first half of May on travels to East Asia, and the last two weeks in April were rather packed.)

There were many interesting projects that I encountered, each in my mind contained great implications and lessons learned for the future music information landscape. What they all have in common, is a musical community. Where they differ is the context with which such communities exists, and are engaged. I am sharing a few highlights below, in no particular order or for particular reasons. They reflect the diversity of nationalities and research interest that was present at the British Forum for Ethnomusicology.

Heather Maclaughlan studied the Copy-Tachin musicians of Burma, which is essentially the music of emulating western pop artists, the more accurately, the better. I’m curious to learn of how this phenomenon is influenced by the existing Burmanese government. In particular, the lengths with which these musicians go to smuggle instructional videos on how to play guitar, the parts to make their own electronic instruments, and the way they did it prior to the availability of the internet and after sounds like a wonderful and untold story. It’s not only a great example of the creativity with which individuals confront the digital divide, but a case with which to study the impact of evolving information policy and access.

Kiku Day practices and teaches Shakuhachi (Japanese flute). More interestingly, she conducts lessons via skype. YouTube has been all the rage along with all the other public forms of social media. Click to read more highlights.

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March: Progress Update

In Reflections on March 3, 2010 at 1:10 pm

March is highlighted by chance opportunities and my ability to capitalize on them, while managing my regular commitments. I love the challenge of seizing up a short-lived opportunity, and creating the foundation of future work. Doing this requires a certainly level of comfort with putting different hats on, which is what a good generalist is able to do effectively. My mind has gotten into a groove that’s very much like the sweet spot every car engine has when it reaches a certain speed: maximum speed with the highest level of efficiency. It does require regular maintenance, like getting enough sleep, taking breaks away from work, and trusting your own ability to work ‘smarter’, not just ‘harder’.

At my KMDI talk, I met the co-founder of a tech start-up that deals with music and computation. My area of expertise is a little ‘softer’compared to the technical know-how they have. I am interested in the flow of information from the ‘front’end (interface design, visual communication, visual flow, etc) and the structure of information and knowledge for the user (information architecture, knowledge classification, etc.). Ultimately, we deal with the same ‘stuff’, just different objectives that compliment each other. Knowing how small the community dealing with technological research specific to the music domain is, it was a pleasure to learn that they are based in the city.

In other news, the On-Demand Book Service (ODBS) got a huge injection of money to move some of the current projects forward. The catch? We need to spend all of it before March 31st. I admit, it’s a nice problem to have.

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