Project Title:
Incorporating Interactive Digital Technology into Music
Project Director and Other Associated Faculty and Staff:
James Harley, Professor, Music, Minnesota State University Moorhead, Contact: harleyja@mnstate.edu, Telephone: (218)477-2001
Mike Ruth, Professor, Graphic Communication, Moorhead State University Moorhead, Contact: uthm@mnstate.edu, Telephone: (218)477-2462
Project Design:
In the Music Department, this project will provide funds to purchase equipment to develop a technology-based student ensemble (called the New Music Ensemble). Portable digital computers will be used to process sounds and to generate sounds. In addition to application of technology to composition, students will obtain experience in providing concerts on campus and in the community.
Project Evaluation and Outcomes:
Since Prof. Harley was on leave during the 2004-2005 academic year, Prof Ryan Jackson assumed responsibility for administering the project. He worked with the music students to decide how to use the equipment to produce New Music and agreed that they would use multi-channel surround sound and integrate this into their performances as the New Music Ensemble at MSUM. After the equipment arrived, the students used this as an active learning experience to determine how to use the equipment to best compose and perform music. The Ensemble provided a Fall performance on campus and as a result the group increased in size from 9 students to 15 students in the Spring. Another indicator of success was that their attendance at the concerts doubled from 45 students in the Fall to over 100 in the Spring. Also attendance by community members increased. Through meetings of the project director with the student ensemble members, the students have expressed strong approval for the project.
Lessons Learned, Dissemination and Sustainability
The project has been very successful in attracting interest to New Music from music students, the larger student population and from other faculty. Faculty colleagues have expressed interest in further collaboration in order to add more visual elements to the ensemble performances. The Spring concert filled the auditorium with overflow attendance. Due to this success, the project director predicts that the ensemble has a high likelihood of growth in students participating and in performance attendance.
