Hyperinstruments

I've just been introduced to the term "hyperinstrument". Basically, they're expanded musical instruments; "expanded" by technology. 

And I just came across this remarkable video. From 12 mins in, it's really quite incredible, and very moving. This is controversial stuff though: as you'll see if you look at the youtube comments on this video, there's a tussle going on around whether interfaces may "de-skill" musical performance. This isn't a new debate, nor one that's unique to musical performance. In academia it's sometimes called the "hard/soft automation" issue (i.e. does automation remove human capability or build on it?). 

I've done it!! What have I done?

For most of my adult life, when I've gone to gigs I've found myself, usually about a minute or so into the first song, thinking something along the lines of "wow - I must give up work immediately so I can be a full-time musician." 

So, last night I went to see the wonderful Level 42 in Croydon and, sure enough, about a minute in, the usual thought sneaked into my head. And then I realised I have given up work. In the absence of any money-earning activity other than playing in a string quartet at weddings, and given that my "day job" is a full time music technology student, I guess I'm a full-time musician. 

And about time too.

Get on yer bikes students!

I'm going to try to avoid making this blog the ramblings of an embittered middle-aged bloke - something like the dreadful "Angry Old Men" series on TV. But sometimes, given the world I'm operating in now, my worldview is going to be challenged in a way that doesn't make me happy.

So...why does the University I'm studying at seem to encourage car use and dissuade students from using bikes? WHY? The first time I turned up to the Newton Park campus I appeared to be the only person on a bicycle. It took me 15 minutes to find somewhere to lock my bike up. Meanwhile, I was passed by a more or less continuous stream of traffic - and these weren't parents' cars delivering their beloved offspring. They were mainly cars with one or two students in. The car parking facilities on campus are vast. From the air I bet the campus looks like the old Ford assembly plant at Dagenham, or the car parking at Gatwick airport; a few buildings scattered around, hermetically sealed from the malign influence of the countryside around by acres of shining metalwork. 

When I cycle up from the local station, why have I never seen a single cyclist? I was expecting to be passed by hordes of healthy-looking young people, rosy cheeked from pedaling up the hills laden with laptops and text books. 

What an opportunity missed. If we're to have any chance of tackling climate change, surely we've got to encourage students - probably more than any other group - to adopt climate-friendly transport behaviours. This should be a primary role of universities, as much as cultivating study skills, subject-specific knowledge, interpersonal competence...and all the other stuff that educationalists talk about.