Between Technology and Creativity, Challenges and Opportunities for Music Technology in Higher Education

A presentation at Bath Spa College University in June 2001 gave me the occasion to rethink the existing Challenges and Opportunities of Music Technology within Higher Education today. To integrate an interdisciplinary field, such as Music Technology, into an academic discipline-segregated structure, such as that existing in our Universities, provides, in many ways, more
challenges than opportunities: in research as well as teaching and administration. This report will present an overview of this situation, fed by my personal and professional experiences working with or in various academic institutions. Several working groups and workshops, such as the EC funded CIRCUS project (Content Integrated Research into Creative User Systems), the invited EPSRC Music Technology workshop as well as the invited EC "creativity and technology", have addressed relating issues of teaching creative and music technology courses in HE, with the result of giving it an even broader perspective. Although this is within a European context, most issues are possibly restricted to the British continent. In this light, this report tries to provide a deeper understanding into the inherent problems and the immense potential in which this discipline is currently standing: a potential which many universities are managing to exploit to a great academic benefit. The report will cover an initial attempt of defining the area of "music technology" within a realistic academic context, and subsequently look at some challenges of teaching this discipline within HE institutions. The changing face of research funding opportunities are sketched and described, and a conclusion based on this discussion is given.