Throughout the years I’ve found Bang on A Can to be an inspiration for music education. Whether their flexible ensemble structures, their hyphenated musicianship in terms of many members being both composers and performers, their people’s commissioning fund and a broad range of other initiatives, music educators could learn a lot from Bang on a Can’s forward thinking.
Most recently the Bang on a Can All-Stars founding member and bassist Robert Black is launching a project entitled Possessed that combines bass improvisation, videography, photography, audio engineering, visual artistry, in a site-specific “environmental duet” in the Moab, Utah natural habitat. Bang on A Can is currently sponsoring a way to fund the project in a style similar to Kickstarter where one can donate money at varied levels for a range of thank you gifts.
Earlier this year at the Suncoast Music Education Research Symposium IX I presented a paper on Multimedia, Intermedia, and Transmedia in the context of music education. A key aspect of the paper was the idea of considering possibilities for musical engagement and music education where music occurs in combination or juxtaposition with other art forms, media, environments, and artistic contexts.
Robert Black’s Possessed project is a great example of such possibilities. It also demonstrates the potential of interdisciplinary artistic collaboration for contemporary music and arts programs.
As we contemplate the ongoing revision of the Core Arts Standards I encourage music educators to view the other arts disciplines’ standards and consider potential collaborative projects that move beyond what typically occurs in music programs. For instance, what would a similar initiative such as Possessed look like in a local context scaled at a developmentally appropriate level? What would standards look like that embraced such collaborative initiatives?
The new Media Arts standards in particular and the emerging/developing media arts discipline in schools (media arts is hardly new to society) hold great potential for music educators who are interested in expanding into new areas and collaborating on initiatives such as Possessed. [In full transparency, I am a member of the Media Arts Writing Team]
Consider contributing to fund Possessed and also envisioning similar possibilities in your own program!