Immersion and Inclusive Music Performance

专业音乐界，特别是西方古典音乐界，往往是白色和男性，而且最肯定的是：它不包括许多残疾音乐家。（17年3月），约书亚科斯曼《旧金山纪事报》（The San弗朗西斯科Chronicle）的音乐评论家写道：“古典音乐是如此的白色和男性：多样性的时代已经到来“，敦促世界各地的管弦乐队变得更具包容性，并解决表演者缺乏种族和性别多样性的问题。科斯曼检查了管弦乐队的时间表，发现在旧金山弗朗西斯科交响乐团2017-18赛季的音乐中，有50多位作曲家的音乐，只有一位女性作曲家。科斯曼甚至没有谈到需要包括残疾作曲家或表演者！我们的研究团队希望了解残疾青年音乐家所面临的问题，并通过为残疾人和残疾人音乐家设计沉浸式音乐表演体验，我们允许思想和表演经验的交流。需要更多的研究来建立沉浸式环境的最佳设计标准和方法，例如，使轮椅上的钢琴家体验成为“健全”的表演者。有许多有才华的年轻音乐家，他们演奏乐器达到专业标准，但由于残疾，他们不认为专业的音乐生涯是他们的选择。残疾（即耳聋或软骨发育不良，一种短肢侏儒症）并不妨碍人们成为音乐家。然而，这确实意味着这些音乐家以不同的方式接近他们的乐器和学习音乐（聋人音乐家通过身体感觉学习;软骨发育不全的音乐家必须改变乐器位置）。失聪的残疾女音乐家伊芙琳·格兰尼爵士是古典音乐界的一个罕见的例外，对许多有抱负的残疾年轻音乐家来说是一个巨大的鼓舞。当其他艺术领域试图扩大他们的活动时（北方爱尔兰的重播剧院：www.replaytheatreco.org/theadventurecollective是为有严重和多重学习困难的人制作包容性节目的杰出例子），音乐界往往会落后。我们的研究小组将探讨残疾青年音乐家面临的一些问题。在项目开始时，我们的德雷克音乐合作伙伴，在音乐和残疾领域拥有超过25年的经验，将确定3个身体残疾的音乐家谁想要与3个健全的专业音乐家合作，从大雨独奏合奏（HRSE），贝尔法斯特唯一的当代音乐合奏选择。HRSE以其富有远见的节目，音乐灵活性和包容性的精神而闻名。我们的技术合作伙伴，沉浸式内容设计师BeAnotherLab，将通过参与式设计方法，开发沉浸式技术，让残疾人和健全的音乐家体验另一个人的现实。在两个紧张的工作坊阶段，残疾音乐家在专业音乐环境中体验工作，而健全的音乐家体验成为残疾音乐家意味着什么。通过共同创造沉浸式体验，例如使用虚拟现实（VR），我们将残疾音乐家放在前台，推动沉浸式体验的发展。我们的目标是让残疾人和健全的音乐家交流，让更广泛的公众体验残疾音乐家在我们社会中面临的社会排斥。最终的展示将结合音乐会、沉浸式体验装置以及关于研究、设计过程、原型以及未来观众潜力和表演艺术发展的公开辩论。

The professional music world, specifically that of Western classical music, tends to be white and male, and most certainly: it does not include many disabled musicians.Even recently (March'17), Joshua Kosman (The San Francisco Chronicle's music critic) wrote 'Classical so white and male: Time is overdue for diversity', urging orchestras world-wide to become more inclusive and to address the lack of ethnic and gender diversity among performers. Kosman had examined schedules of orchestras and found that in the San Francisco Symphony's 2017-18 season with music by more than 50 composers only one female composer was featured. Kosman does not even talk of the need to include disabled composers or performers !It is timely to rethink attitudes towards inclusion and disability in Western Classical music performance.Our research team wants to understand the issues that disabled young musicians face, and by designing immersive music performance experiences for abled and disabled musicians we allow for an interchange of ideas and performance experiences. More research is needed to establish the best design criteria and methods for immersive environments that would enable, for example, a wheelchair bound pianist to experience being an 'able-bodied' performer. There are many talented young musicians who play instruments to a professional standard but, due to a disability, do not feel that a professional music career is an option for them. Disabilities (i.e. deafness, or hypochondroplasia, a form of short-limbed dwarfism) do not preclude people from becoming musicians. It does, however, mean that these musicians approach their instrument and learning of music in different ways (the deaf musician learning through body sensations; a musician with hypochondroplasia having to alter instrumental positioning). The profoundly deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie, female and disabled, is a rare exception in the world of classical music and a great inspiration for many aspiring, disabled young musicians.While other arts fields attempt to widen their activities (Northern Ireland's Replay Theatre: www.replaytheatreco.org/theadventurecollective is an outstanding example for making inclusive shows for people with profound and multiple learning difficulties), the music world tends to lag behind.Our research team will explore some issues that disabled young musicians face. At the start of the project our Drake Music partner, with over 25 years' experience in the area of music and disability, will identify 3 physically disabled musicians who want to collaborate with 3 able-bodied professional musicians, selected from Hard Rain Soloist Ensemble (HRSE), Belfast's only contemporary music ensemble. HRSE is known for their visionary programming, musical flexibility and inclusive ethos. For this proposal, we will not work with severe mental disability as this would require a larger scope and different support system.Our technical partner, immersive content designer BeAnotherLab, will develop, through participatory design methods, immersive technologies that allow disabled and able-bodied musicians to experience the reality of another. Throughout two intense workshop phases, disabled musicians experience work in a professional music setting, while able-bodied musicians experience what it means to be a disabled musician. By co-creating immersive experiences, through the use of for example Virtual Reality (VR), we put disabled musicians at the foreground, driving the development of the immersive experiences. Our aim is to allow for an exchange of disabled and able-bodied musicians and for the wider public to experience the social exclusions that disabled musicians face in our society. The final showcase will be a combination of a concert, an immersive experience installation, and a public debate about the research, design processes, prototypes, and about the potentials for future audiences and developments in the performing arts.