E-Melody!

5/7/2012

James Lamb writes: A couple of notes before I offer some background to my playlist. This is an honest representation of the music that accompanies and inspires my engagement with the MSc in E-Learning. It’s not a definitive collection of my favourite songs or artists, although I do love much of what is collected here. Nevertheless, I've compiled rather than created or constructed the playlist, if that makes sense. Secondly, if the sequencing of tracks seems illogical that’s because for the most part, once I sit down to study and I press ‘play’, I just let the chosen music device do its thing. So, what you will hear is an authentic representation of what I listen to and how, to an extent, I listen to it. I hope you enjoy listening to my E-Learning playlist.

E-Melody! by Elektronicheslernenmuzik on Mixcloud

Inspiration
At different times during my participation on the MSc in E-Learning I’ve sought albums that in some way represent the digital and experimental nature of the course itself. My hope has been that by listening to the likes of Air, Sebastien Tellier and The Advisory Circle I would somehow think more digitally and creatively. I’m still hoping that some of Sufjan Stevens' genius and imagination might rub off on me. I particularly took this approach during the E-Learning and Digital Cultures course where I spent an implausibly large amount of time watching Daft Punk videos whilst trying to convince myself that it represented valid research into posthumanism.

Omnipresence
There are some artists who accompany me wherever I go, whether that's wandering through the different digital landscapes of the MSc in E-Learing, walking into work or sitting on a train (and I acknowledge that these different spaces can overlap). If there was a way of retrospectively aggregating all of the tracks I've played on vinyl, cassette single and CD I think Saint Etienne would be top of my 'most popular' list, marginally ahead of The Beach Boys. In a way these constantly-played artists - and Ennio Morricone and Serge Gainsbourg fall into the same category - could easily be described as offering me inspiration as they certainly do that. My point however is that they feature in my E-Learning space not because I have sought them out, but because they are present in all of my spaces, educational or otherwise.

Disruption
One of the pleasures of listening to tracks on a digital library is that, depending on how you choose to organise your music, you don’t necessarily know what's going to come next. So when Manu Chao interrupts my calm learning space it's a sign that I need to take a break, get up and move around. And then there are tracks by Emmy the Great and High Llamas that I can't listen to without becoming totally absorbed in. Similarly unsettling is when a song begins to play that I didn’t even download: at these times I'm grateful that my wife has good taste in music, such as Erlend Oye. Nevertheless, the unpredictable arrival of these tracks disrupts my digital learning, albeit in a pleasant way. In soundtracking my E-Learning playlist in an authentic way, the inclusion of disruptive tracks seemed important.

Concentration
During the early stages of the Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning course, I struggled to concentrate on some of the recommended reading. I found some of it heavy going and it was hard to stay focused. In an attempt to remain focused I did the usual things – finding a dedicated study time and place, switching off my mobile, putting my Mac out of sight, adding an extra shot of espresso to my cappuccino. Meanwhile to block out aural distraction I would stack up a pile of ambient and orchestral CDs to assist my afternoon reading. In practice, this went beyond simply blocking out 'external' sound. With help from mum and Erik Satie I was able to construct a space where I could confront complex theories. I've followed this approach ever since and it has helped keep me on track. So, if you’re ever wandering through EH10 on a Friday afternoon and hear Amiina or Yann Tiersen, that’ll be me. Just don’t break my concentration by ringing the buzzer.

James Lamb is a Research Associate and participant on the MSc in E-Learning.

5 Comments

Jeremy Knox

7/7/2012 02:06:13 am

The intro to your description got me thinking about, probably rather obviously, the ‘playlist’. A playlist, as in a selection of tracks from my wider collection (whether randomly generated or not), is not actually something I listen to very often. It is a product, surely, of the digitisation of music, and specifically databases of mp3s (or similar), and I don’t really use iTunes or any other type of digital music storage. This seems important because of, as you say, the sequencing of tracks, and the different narratives that the succession, and juxtapositioning, of musical events creates.

Most of the time my ‘playlist’ consists of me actually selecting each track once the previous one has finished. However ,far from being entirely ‘manual’ or subjective, this process of selection more often than not involves ‘recommended’ tracks. I’ve been thinking how this might be different to a random playlist on an mp3 database, and to some of your comments about album choices. In the same way that you might know which albums a playlist might select tracks from, one might have a similar sense of ‘I know roughly what I’m going to get’ from a recommended list.

Why is all this important? I’m not sure, but there is something really interesting in your comments about disruption and surprise. I wonder how people feel about the album vs the playlist? I’m sure I read something fairly recently lamenting the idea of the album – a predetermined musical sequence, as opposed to the disruption and dislocation of the playlist. Perhaps the playlist, with its changing modes and interruptions, is better suited to the fragmented, window-hoping, disjointed practices of the digital? E-learning is perhaps not an immersive, but kaleidoscopic? Perhaps the sudden intervention of a track from a completely different album and producer, with a different sonic quality and feel, helps one to gain different perspectives, to constantly shift ones relationship to the learning task at hand?

Michael Sean Gallagher link

8/7/2012 03:43:23 pm

James, your liner notes are some real food for thought and Jeremy, I agree with your comments as well. Even between the three of us, I am seeing the unique approaches to the compiling of music.

James, as Jeremy mentions, that your mention of disruption and surprise is significant (and altogether exotic for me, as I avoid disruption at all costs). Jeremy, as you mention, perhaps indeed the playlist is the de facto vehicle for digital learning and all its disjointed practices. Perhaps it is kaleidoscopic (great term). Perhaps this constant shift and surprise is that neural expressway for creativity and conceptualization. If so, I need to introduce more of it to my digital learning. I am fragmented visually (ten tabs at a time open, constantly switching from here to there, embedding links in posts, photshopping an image, etc.), but 'unified' aurally. Predictable even.

I am starting to realize based on this discussion (an excellent one) that I was being slightly disingenuous in my first playlist and liner notes. I don't have playlists. I have individual tracks that I play thousands of times. I don't compile, but I thought I did. I am realizing music is discreet units marking time (for me). A metronome, not a wave.

Fascinating conversation, guys.

12/7/2012 08:35:52 pm

Yes, this issue of the relation between how people listen to music alongside the e-learning activities, and how they then might ‘curate’ a playlist for others is quite interesting I think. I guess the practices James was describing didn’t involve playlists either, but this activity was solidified into a playlist for the purposes of sharing a ‘typical’ musical experience here. I think there is something interesting in this difference: how I might actually go about choosing the next track when I’m listening to music (the decision-making activities that seem to be bound up with the space I’m in, the technologies I might be using, and the ‘e-learning tasks’ I might be engaging in), and the distilled version of that sequence presented as a playlist.

Maybe this is all rather obvious, but the playlist would then seem to be a mapping of someone’s, quite complex and maybe unpredictable, navigation through various options for ‘the next track’. So the listener gets to ‘experience’ the musical sequence as a predefined, fixed, and linear path. However, that process of creating a predetermined playlist seems to strip out all that was contextual and potential in the decision making activities of the ‘producer’. When I listen to music whilst working, it is performative, the sequence of tracks emerges in a process deeply entwined with how, and where I am working – this seems to be lost when it is presented as a complied playlist.

Where James describes the sequence of his playlist as seeming to be ‘illogical’, he is perhaps describing something that is more analogous to his own experience. Letting the music device ‘do its thing’. So what listeners get with James’s playlist is something perhaps more accurate to what he himself experiences?

I’ve just had a thought – I wonder if there is a way to make listening to ‘playlists’ random for listeners. For example, the ‘playlist’ creator might identify 5 albums *as* the playlist, and what the listener gets each time they hit play is a random selection for those albums…food for thought? Not to say that the act of curating a predetermined and fixed playlist is not valuable and interesting too of course...

James Lamb

25/7/2012 08:25:20 am

Thanks for positive comment Michael and Jeremy.

'Letting the music device ‘do its thing’. So what listeners get with James’s playlist is something perhaps more accurate to what he himself experiences?'

I think you're right. The hardest part of compiling this playlist was trying to make it an authentic representation of what I listen to whilst studying and learning.

Great track though it it, Manu Chao's 'Me Gustas Tu' spoils this as a soundtrack in its own right. As I said in my liner notes, it's disruptive and seems illogical alongside the tracks either side of it. But it felt important to be honest and to try put aside what the listener might think.

For the same reason, there are two tracks by Yann Tiersen, just to acknowledge the fact that I listen to some artists more than others.

Chris Swift

27/3/2013 08:18:14 am

Hi James, I've been listening to your playlist as I type up some conference notes. First half completely passed me by as I was concentrating on writing too much. Then some songs came on that I know and love. Serge Gainsbourg first, and then two personal favourites of my own which I rarely hear anywhere else - Ennio Morricone "My Name is Nobody" and the High Llamas. The effect this had on my was cheering. I suddenly felt very happy and animated humming along to music I like. And chuffed that someone else appreciated it too.

So, for me that affirms what I thought about listening to the radio or a totally random playlist. You might go 20 mins without even hearing what is playing. Then up pops a song you can hum along to, and that lifts your mood - and possibly makes your work better because of that? Increased good mood, positive feelings, good memories, and so on? Does it soothe your brain somehow? And is that the point of music for learning? Pick music that makes you happy and has good memories or positive associations for you.

Could you have a playlist for different subjects even? To excite your imagination on a certain topic? Listen to the current French top 40 when learning French to motivate you to find out what is happening in French culture right now. Listen to music from the 30's if studying WW2. Holst "The Planets" would conjure up ideas about science and geology and planets - ideal for geography?

For eLearning I would choose Kraftwerk. There music is about man and machine so that's relevant, and the band themselves were very creative, daring, and imaginative. They'd inspire me to find out more about this topic and so would be an ideal soundtrack. Radio 3's "Words & Music" have some good playlsits too which they curate to particular subjects each week
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006x35f/broadcasts/2013/02

Chris

E-Melody!

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