Digital Dilemmas
A call out to the Digital Participation debate, introducing issues specific to our Music Arts Pod schools programme with disengaged pupils.
Here at High Peak Community Arts we have recently been involved in discussions on digital participation in the East Midlands Participatory Arts Forum and at ArtWorks Alliance. With John Whall from Derby’s Quad planning a Digital Participation Conference for later in the year, it has turned our reflections to our own digital conundrums here in the Music Arts Pod.
The Music Arts Pod is a project we run with two High Peak secondary schools and the Key Stage 2 & 3 Pupil Referral Unit in Buxton. The schools identify pupils, mainly in year 9, who are disengaged from their learning and we build a creative programme geared to their needs and interests. We aim to break negative cycles of behaviour with positive choices and achievement, and we work with the schools to map a baseline of information to compare young people’s progress through the year. The programme is built around weekly sessions with two professional musicians from different disciplines (footnote 1) and includes visits to Manchester’s Band on the Wall venue at the beginning and end. At the start this visit takes the pupils out of their usual environment and into a professional setting. They work with the same musicians they have met in school, but also a technician at the venue. These professionals have a cultural credibility which hooks participants in and the trip works well as a focus for planning individual goals for the year. Then they work towards the second trip at the end – preparing material that is going to be used in a showcase day.
The project sessions themselves are a juggling act to meet a wide range of needs. We use every tool we can get our hands on to engage pupils – including a lot of digital techniques. We have a set of 5 iPads, with musical, art and video apps, and for progress we have laptops with Logic and Ableton software, midi keyboards and sound cards. The musicians also bring in specialist tools like a loop station, chaos pad and the brilliant Ototo (footnote 2).
Now here’s the rub: iPads are a brilliant quick-start tool to get pupils achieving quickly and the apps on these tablets are so powerful that there is a lot they can learn by digging deep – BUT, used at the most simple level, most music apps have easy settings which largely make music for you, and it is quite easy to ‘look busy’ for half an hour, or an hour, and have something to show for it, but not actually learn a great deal at all.
For every young person who gets hooked by an activity and goes on a journey of discovery there is another who is stalled at the point where the effort starts. Most participants in Music Arts Pod are experts in flying under the radar, looking busy and becoming invisible to teachers’ attention. Our musicians then have to risk the rapport they have careful built up and start applying pressure.
At this point in time, our key piece of work is to map the progress steps through the apps and tools we use, so that participants can see a path. The whole project is driving towards having finished work to showcase at the end, and we want to make sure that every participant gets there.
From the discussions at EMPAF and ArtsWork Alliance it is clear that everyone experiences these barriers and so we are happy to be exploring the potential solutions. There is frustration that the ‘digital’ term is applied so loosely, and to cover so many areas - from marketing and online content hosting, right through to the real meat of programming and physical computing.
We believe digital tools are a disruptive influence on the participatory sector, but many are so new and constantly changing that it is hard for organisations to keep up. Digital participation is not a box to tick, but a topic to think long and hard about – networks and open discussions are the only way, so get in touch if you want to discuss!
Footnotes:
1
Our artists:
Lucy Jackson - MC, singer, songwriter and slam poet who has worked with Contact Theatre and in community / education across the Northwest.
Mitchell McLeod – largely self-taught digital musician, specialising in youth and community work and running an online channel for up and coming urban musicians.
Gareth Carbery. Professional DJ, music tech tutor and instrumentalist, working for Brighter Sound, the BBC, the Together Trust, amongst others.
Kristian Gjerstad. A music technology specialist who creates handmade switches to programme with computer software. Also works for Drake Music and SEN settings across Manchester.
2
Ototo: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/905018498/ototo-make-music-from-anything?ref=category