In The Round: Exploring the Cultural Model of Disability in Accessible Music Improvisation

Ciaran Frame; Steph O'Hara; Alon Ilsar; Melinda Smith

Image credit: Ciaran Frame; Steph O'Hara; Alon Ilsar; Melinda Smith

• oral
• Paper PDF link
• Presence: remote
• Duration: 13
• Type: medium
• Session: Performance Through Practice

Abstract:

This paper documents the development of In The Round, a musical improvisation using Accessible Digital Musical Instruments (ADMIs) that brings together musicians with and without disability. Key learnings from the project are discussed through a poem that formed the creative foundation of the project. The poem functions as a reflective and epistemic device, unpacking different observations about the process of creating the work that evidence how we have created a culture of accessible music-making deeply linked to accessible practice, technology and creativity. Grounded in the cultural model of disability, the paper argues that accessibility in music-making emerges through interdependent relationships between people, instruments, social techniques, and temporal structures, rather than through ADMI technology alone. In illuminating this way of working, the paper offers an alternative way of communicating knowledge and contributes insights that we hope may be useful to other practitioners and instrument designers in the field.