/Make Your SoundLab/ is a collaborative project helping people with learning disabilities express themselves musically and collaborate with other people using readily available musical technologies.
The first step in doing this will be to evaluate a number of technologies from gestural controllers, to iPad and other touch based devices together with a wide range of apps and other enabling software to work out which combinations of technologies are best for different groups of users and in different working environments. The project will then look at building a software framework to enable educators to make the best use of these technologies without having to be a technical expert.
The first SoundLab workshop, in June 2014, investigated which different technologies would help people to make music, and tried to discover what kind of music the participants wanted to make, and why. Everyone was able to try out any or all of the available technologies (Kinnect, Tether, Leap Motion, IK Multimedia iRing) to see how they worked for them and if they found them useful in achieving their own goals in making music. Interviewing participants gave the team a great insight into motivations and also how some of the technologies might help. One participant, Lily, was clear that she wanted to make proper beats that didn’t seem childish, and that she was willing to take her time to make sure the tracks she developed were the best they could be. Wayne, already very familiar with the iPad as a tool for music making, seemed as determined as ever to try everything to see how it might fit with his way of making tracks.
The second workshop happened about about a week later, and involved a larger group of participants. Over 40 people took part, with a big mix of motivations for music making among the group. Some were writing musicals, someone wanted to do skiffle using iPads, and quite a few wanted to make dance music or DJ. In this session, the team learned that working with a large group over a much longer time is really different to the short workshop sessions. They also started to see that people making music together at the same time, like a band, is something that the participants were interested in. They used the Kinnect to trigger drum patterns and this was really successful – many different people wanted to have a go and it seemed to encourage dancing as a way to get into the music and do the triggering at the same time. They learnt quite quickly that visual feedback is very important for the Kinnect experience: if a player can see their body motions on a screen, they begin to understand how the music is being triggered by their own movements, without too much explanation.
The team
- Heart n Soul is widely acknowledged as a leader in the field of inclusive practice, creating space for artists with and without learning disabilities to come together and make high quality work
- EVIE, the Embodied AudioVisual Interaction Group at Goldsmiths, provides a strong track record in the area of research-led music and music technology design
- Public Domain Corporation provides interactive experiences and technology for the games and digital arts sectors.
Visit the Make Your SoundLab website | Hear the team talking about their work
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