AI tools increasingly shape how we discover, make and experience music. While these tools can have the potential to empower creativity, they may fundamentally redefine relationships between stakeholders, to the benefit of some and the detriment of others. In this position paper, we argue that these tools will fundamentally reshape our music culture, with profound effects (for better and for worse) on creators, consumers and the commercial enterprises that often connect them. By paying careful attention to emerging Music AI technologies and developments in other creative domains and understanding the implications, people working in this space could decrease the possible negative impacts on the practice, consumption and meaning of music. Given that many of these technologies are already available, there is some urgency in conducting analyses of these technologies now. It is important that people developing and working with these tools address these issues now to help guide their evolution to be equitable and empower creativity. We identify some potential risks and opportunities associated with existing and forthcoming AI tools for music, though more work is needed to identify concrete actions which leverage the opportunities while mitigating risks.
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This thesis contextualises the portfolio of relevant works that Than van Nispen created during the period of his Master of Music studies from 2014 to 2016.The projects described involve interactive live instrumental music, which is the subject of the thesis, and the interactive music is mainly based on video-game music methods. The projects that do not have an interactive system for the music at least have a set of rules for play and interaction for, or with the music.A focus of this Master of Music studies is the exploration of solutions for interactive music, based on game music methods, with the use of traditional music notation.
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“In-Between” is the title of this conference. If I am right, it focuses on the role of the artist as a middle-man, or middle-woman, between art and learner. It focuses, maybe, on the way artists are capable to transfer knowledge, skills, attitudes, insights, emotions of an artistic nature. And it focuses, maybe, on the way experiences from the domain of the arts may be transferred through the mechanism inherent in the domain of education; two domains which sometimes seem to have a rather problematic relation because the arts are seen as a domain of beauty, of expressivity, of individuality, of freedom, of creativity, whereas education is seen as the domain of standardization, of group work, of compliance to rules, and of mastering the existing.
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This project aims to develop a measurement tool to assess the inclusivity of experiences for people with varying challenges and capabilities on the auditory spectrum. In doing so, we performed an in-depth exploration of scientific literature and findings from previous projects by Joint Projects. Based on this, we developed an initial conceptual model that focuses on sensory perception, emotion, cognition, and e[ort in relation to hearing and fatigue. Within, this model a visitor attraction is seen as an “experienscape” with four key elements: content, medium, context, and individual. In co-creative interviews with experts by experience with varying challenges on the auditory spectrum, they provided valuable insights that led to a significant expansion of this initial model. This was a relevant step, as in the scientific and professional literature, little is known about the leisure experiences of people with troubled hearing. For example, personal factors such as a person’s attitude toward their own hearing loss and the social dynamics within their group turned out to greatly influence the experience. The revised model was then applied in a case study at Apenheul, focusing on studying differences in experience of their gorilla presentation amongst people with varying challenges on the auditory spectrum.Societal issueThe Netherlands is one of the countries in Europe with the highest density of visitor attractions. Despite this abundance, many visitor attractions are not fully accessible to everyone, particularly to visitors with disabilities who sometimes are not eligible to ride due to safety concerns, yet when eligible generally still encounter numerous barriers. Accessibility of visitor attractions can be approached in various ways. However, because the focus often lies on operational and technical aspects (e.g., reducing stimuli at certain times of the day by turning o[ music, o[ering alternative wheelchair entrances), strategic and community-focused approaches are often overlooked. More importantly, there is also a lack of attention to the experience of visitors with disabilities. This becomes apparent from several studies from Joint Projects, where visitor attractions are being visited together with experts by experience with various disabilities. Nevertheless, experience is often being regarded as the 'core product' of the leisure sector. The right to meet, discover, develop, relax and thus enjoy this core product is hindered for many people with disabilities due to a lack of knowledge, inaccessibility (physical, digital, social, communicative as well as financial) and discrimination in society. Additionally, recreation entrepreneurs still face a significant gap in reaching the potential market of guests with disabilities and their networks. Thus, despite the numerous initiatives in the leisure sector aimed at improving accessibility on technical and operational fronts, often people with disabilities are still not being able to experience the same kind of enjoyment as those without. These observations form the pressing impetus for initiating the current research project, tapping into the numerous opportunities for learning, development and growth on making leisure offer more inclusive.Benefit to societyIn total, the current project approach comes with a number of enrichments in terms of both knowledge and methodology: a mixed-methods approach that allows for comparing data from different sources to obtain a more complete picture of the experience; a methodological co-design process that honours the 'nothing about us without us' principle; and benchmarking for a group (i.e., people with challenges on the auditory spectrum) that despite the size of its population has thus far mostly been overlooked.
In recent years, organizations across Europe, and the Netherlands in particular, have increasingly supported efforts to enhance the sustainability of festivals such as the European Climate Pact, launched by the European Commission as part of the European Green Deal, European Festivals Association and Green Deals Circular Festivals in the Netherlands (European Union [EU], 2025). As a result, festivals across Europe are growing their environmental stewardship and serving as prototypes for wider societal transitions towards sustainability (Calvano, 2024; Irimiás et; al., 2024). However, festival organizers and other stakeholders still face challenges in developing effective communication strategies that truly activate more sustainable behaviour among festival goers (Harms et. al., 2023). Generic, one-size-fits-all approaches are often applied, yet they tend to have limited impact. This is also due to the diverse nature of music festivals, ranging from indoor to outdoor settings, single-day events to multi-day experiences, and from urban to rural locations, all of which shape the audience, context, and communication needs in unique ways (Tölkes & Butzmann, 2018; Dodds et. al., 2020). Essentially, festivals are ideal for informing, experiencing and activating sustainable behavioural change through effective communication before, during and after festivals. It is therefore crucial that a more targeted approach is utilized where messages can be tailored to make communication more effective (Temmerman & Veeckman, 2024). To address pressing sustainable and social challenges within the festival sector, NHL Stenden (NHLS) will collaborate with ESNS and Thansk on a design research project. In partnership with a network of festival organizers, industry professionals, and experts, the project will explore effective communication strategies for sustainability. The goal is to develop an actionable, research-informed roadmap that supports music festivals in enhancing their sustainability communication tailored to the sector’s dynamic and diverse nature.
expressiveness, performance, musicians, skills, educationUsing the genre of Improvisational theatre as a basis, my research aims to design and develop instructional strategies that would help students enhance their expressive skills and achieve the flexibility to adapt their motor behavior to the musical piece. Embodying diverse characters and physicalities, as well as affective states or fictional realities through improv theatre exercises should enable them to expand their expressive range and, therefore, better convey their interpretation to their audience. Through this process, this study also seeks to gain an understanding of the effect this type of training may have on musicians' performance experience, as well as its implications in other areas of their development.
