New book chapter: Composing by Hacking, Technology Appropriation as a Pedagogical Tool for Electronic Music

With my good friend Raul Masu, we wrote a chapter for the new Routledge book Teaching Electronic Music. Raul and I contest the adoption of closed and proprietary music technologies in the classroom and endorse the use of open-source solutions, which are focused on collective growth and knowledge sharing. By highlighting the benefits of open-source solutions and technology hacking, in this chapter, we propose an alternative model for electronic music teaching that is centered on user-modifiable open technologies rather than closed, proprietary solutions.

Composing by Hacking: Technology Appropriation as a Pedagogical Tool for Electronic Music

We propose an approach to electronic music teaching centered on user-modifiable open technologies rather than closed, proprietary solutions. This approach offers students the theoretical knowledge and technical skills to 1) develop critical thinking about the convoluted relations between humans and technologies and 2) resist neoliberal ideologies that are infiltrating many forms of technologies. We draw parallels between hackers and electronic music composers, who appropriate technologies by subverting original meanings and in turn construct new ontologies. Through the case study of an open-source maker platform adopted in a classroom, we identify the pedagogical benefits of open-source solutions and appropriation.