While working on my Ph.D research at the University of California, I found it difficult to find intellectual genealogies that I could relate to in technology. Surveying the field for female identifying artists that have built and performed with biofeedback sensing technology took archival research, interviews, and extensive work to gather source material. This struggle and my experience in the academy inspired me to design a course that centers female identifying instrumentalists, inventors, coders, composers, and more that work with electronic music.

It was important to me that I made this class accessible to music majors and non-music majors. Due to the massive amount of electronic music we hear today and that the course interlocutors touch upon historical and technological coordinates, I found it important to be able to discuss these histories with students of all backgrounds and levels of musical training (or lack-there-of). Students learn techniques in electronic music making through studying the techniques invented by/used by the artists we are studying. They learn to search for models whether it be through critical listening or searching through archives, and apply their methods to their own music. Students learn how they can devise their own methods and aesthetics to create music that represents—and can be shared with—their own communities. I have noticed that bridging applied knowledge to larger theoretical concepts opens up a path to engaged learning and teaching that is more equitable and inclusive to a wider range of students, especially those that have been historically underrepresented in the academy.

More later!