Project | Paderborn University

Overview

Post-performative music practices in post-digital learning and educational culture (sub-project Paderborn)

Music Beyond Live Performance

Since the invention of the gramophone, there has existed music that cannot or should not be performed live. Examples include music production in (digital) recording studios, film scores, music videos, techno, virtual choirs, online platforms, music creation and learning on TikTok and similar platforms, and many more. This discussion revolves around artistic modes of expression, participation, and learning within digital music cultures and their significance for music education in the 21st century.

Asynchronous Music-making in the Shadow of Live Performances?

In the context of music education, there is a recurring tendency to prioritize live music for concert performances, for example. While TikTok and similar platforms witnessed a surge of countless remix videos during the Wellerman trend around late 2020, music educational publishers released templates for classroom singing, schoolbag percussion, or body percussion. This is not to undermine the immersive experiences of collective singing in real time or synchronous music-making before an audience. Rather, it emphasizes that asynchronous practices should receive greater attention in music pedagogical teaching and learning practices, on par with other musical cultures.

Development of a Music Pedagogical Training Program

The sub-project Paderborn focuses on postperformative practices in the context of music education. This involves an exploration of all such artistic-aesthetic practices that explicitly do not occur live, but rather online or through the mediation of digital technologies. This encompasses any form of distance, as well as hybrid and asynchronous implementations, including music exclusively reserved for the digital realm.

At the University of Paderborn, we are therefore developing a training program for music educators, aiming to consolidate these postperformative practices and make them usable for music instruction.