NOTAM, in collaboration with De Montfort University, Groupe Recherches Musicales (GRM) and Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM), have gained support for a project which aims to spread knowledge and practical use of music technology in music composition. In total, the project will receive € 192,000, out of which NOTAM’s share will be approximately € 36,000.

The project is titled The Sound Organiser Experience and consists of several activities that are important both locally and in a European perspective.

Main goals are:

• To create a European collaboration where professionals and amateurs alike can compose and share sounds, music and experiences in a pedagogical framework designed for elementary and middle school children. Composers and pupils are invited to work within professional frameworks.
• To arrange concerts in six different countries, with presentations of all works also in other countries than where they are produced. In conjunctions with the concerts there will be room for conversations and discussions between composers, pupils and the audiences, and these arrangements will be streamed on the Internet.
• To create a new computer software for this project — The Sound Organiser. The program will be make use of our experience from other NOTAM software, such as DSP for children, Hurtigmikseren and Melodimakeren, and will be developed with functionality geared toward social media. The goal is that users can help determine how the results from using the program can be mediated.

Electroacoustic techniques are now available to everyone, but there is a distinction between the approaches of professionals and amateurs. The project will help bridge this divide, and this methodical bridge-building will be NOTAM’s contribution to the project. The development of a specific design model for participatory design, integrated with technology from social media will be important in the construction of the system. The system will be revised as part of the evaluation process, and the planning and summarizing of this will also be NOTAM’s responsibility. In addition to this role in building the system, NOTAM will, in collaboration with several partners in Norway, arrange school projects, concerts and other events. The project allows for a number of interesting research assignments in music education, and we are just beginning to contemplate which opportunities are realistic to follow up.

We are looking forward to getting started — this project falls neatly in line with projects that we have been working with for the past fifteen years.