Music to Think for E-learners

24/5/2012

Michael Sean Gallagher writes: My first contribution to this project is the following playlist, one I have used in some construction over the course of my entire time on the MSc in Elearning programme at the University of Edinburgh, from September 2009 to my graduation in July, 2011. Judging by the play counts of these individual tracks from my iTunes library, I was quite enthralled by this music, the reasons for which I will describe below. This playlist includes the following artists:

Daniel Lanois
Jonsi & Alex
Cliff Martinez
Sigur Ros
Pulseprogramming
Squarepusher
Kevin Shields

The Sigur Ros and Jonsi & Alex tracks are essentially one in the same artist (both stemming from Jonsi, the lead singer of Sigur Ros) and the Squarepusher and Kevin Shields' tracks both come from the same soundtrack, Lost In Translation. The others were pulled from the ether or recommended by iTunes.

Despite the fact they are ethereal, calm-inducing, voiceless (I prefer music that doesn't have actual singing as the voice distracts me from cognitive tasks) tracks, they are purpose-driven. I have used and continue to use them whenever I participate in elearning programs or activities. It is music that I use primarily for any of the following:

Reflective activities: blogging, commenting, discussing. I find the stress in elearning on reflection is very pronounced and I often find myself reflecting in places without sanctuary (silence), such as airports, train stations, commutes, hotels, etc. This music induces the calm and focus necessary to reflect with clarity.

Conceptual heavy lifting: I use this music to inspire me in the early stages of a large ambiguous project, such as a multimodal essay or a group project. It helps me focus on the agents at work in whatever I am about to do. The music lets my creativity and inspiration trump the pragmatism and practicality that will emerge as the project becomes more concrete. My music changes once it has reached this pragmatic stage. In these early stages, I like my music to soar so my thoughts can.

Music to (e)learn by by Elektronicheslernenmuzik on Mixcloud

Multimedia work: whether I am editing, uploading, arranging, or curating my images, videos, or audio, I listen to these types of tracks to focus my concentration. However, sometimes this multimedia work can be less cognitively intensive (manually intensive, just not intellectually so) so I will often come off this music in favor of something more upbeat with a faster pace. My mind is then allowed to get lost in music as my reflexive/ process-oriented work is being performed. But in the early stages of multimedia editing, when the whole of the thing has yet to take shape, I rely on this type of music to let me conceptually explore the space.

This music, being without vocals, doesn't distract but rather focuses me. It is like a pulse that I can keep time to as I work. Music, for some, is a distraction, a competing facet of our attention. For me, it is like a primer, a key in which I use to organize my thinking, my activities, my pursuits. It offers a lot of clarity in the world of infinite distraction and has me thinking about the nature of reduction. Traditionally, I have always thought that reduction, removing these competing areas of attention, was the path to clarity. Hence, no music is better than music. Now as I have advanced through several online programs, where I as the learner am forced to create whole worlds of process, of analysis, and reflection (almost from scratch), I find this reduction to not be effective. I add a layer of complexity (the music) to filter the noise. It all makes sense intellectually and feels right emotionally. Music unlocks something for me in this process.

This is music I listen to when time dissolves and when I break from this focus, hours and hours have passed. Time becomes a bit irrelevant in these fits of focused intellectual attention. Frantic inspiration, perhaps? Ultimately though, aside from what music offers for organization and clarity, it is really about the inspiration. To take unlikely variables and pair them in meaningful, creative ways. To create knowledge constructs from chaotic space, to problem solve without identifying the problem, to create. I hope you enjoy.

Michael Sean Gallagher is a research associate and graduate of the MSc in E-Learning

8 Comments

Michael Sean Gallagher link

31/5/2012 05:44:55 pm

The second track "Show Us Our Homes" from Eluvium is one that is on repeat when I travel. I sometimes would take long flights for work and would use that time to jot blog posts for the MSc course and this track was always playing on the plane. It created a unique sort of environment where I was offline, but my thoughts were fully online. It seemed strange to me to go offline (in a plane no less) to write about my elearning experiences, observations, etc. Regardless, that track was always playing. And I missed my home and my wife.

James Lamb

31/5/2012 06:31:21 pm

Hello Michael, I'm enjoying your soundtrack as I write this comment. From your liner notes:

'This music, being without vocals, doesn't distract but rather focuses me. It is like a pulse that I can keep time to as I work.'

I'm interested in the idea that vocals are somehow more distracting than instrumental music. I saw an album advertised on iTunes yesterday along the lines of 'Music to revise for exams by' (I'm not going to offer a free advert here). The selection of music was interesting and, I'm going to speculate, not based upon empirical evidence :-)

For instance, I wouldn't favour the chances of the student who attempts to revise whilst listening to Vivaldi's Four Seasons, as the album suggests. A wonderful piece of music, but surely not suited to focusing on pages of lecture notes? Forced to revise whilst listening to Vivaldi, I'd be returning for re-sits in the Autumn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOrGCZM38I

3/6/2012 10:56:49 pm

James,

Good point about that 'Music to revise exams by' not being empirically based. I am not sure I would be able to do anything conceptually challenging to Vivaldi. I think the three of us have all keyed on the notions of vocals as being/not being distracting. There is certainly a general perception that they are. Is it the primacy of language? Of words, of the human voice? I suspect that has something to do with it. Music without words is augmentative, while vocals demand attention.

Jeremy Knox

31/5/2012 07:07:39 pm

Really enjoyed this playlist Michael, sonically inspiring stuff. I wasn’t familiar with most of these artists, so it was a pleasure to hear lots of really interesting tones – I was reminded of Steve Reich / Philip Glass type arrangements. I found myself agreeing with the ‘no vocals’ sentiment for particular situations. I wonder, is there something about different levels, or modes, of listening here? I don’t think ‘background music’ is the right term, but there is something about the way sound works to enmesh itself in your environment, becoming another element in the construction of space around you, perhaps more subtly than vocal music does.

Your comments on reflective activity, especially about the commuting spaces got me thinking about the role of sound in the spatial. Interesting to think how a soundtrack can play a role in building a new space, forming a new airport or train station around you, reordering and disordering the space. The transformative effects of soundtracks on your environment…

I found myself nodding to your ideas on ‘reduction’ too. Perhaps it is about building a constructively complex space, rather than seeking some kind of unattainable pure state. I rather like that idea that it is slightly deceptive to think that some kind of pure, unadulterated space exists, in which we can achieve some kind of deeper clarity. Perhaps it is through the building of useful complexity that this clarity is realised, and a soundtrack is part of such a production, another layer of complexity fabricated around the elearning space.

Michael Sean Gallagher

3/6/2012 11:11:15 pm

"Interesting to think how a soundtrack can play a role in building a new space, forming a new airport or train station around you, reordering and disordering the space. The transformative effects of soundtracks on your environment…"

Most certainly, this process of transforming space that you describe. I reorder unfamiliar space to find that emotional/cognitive balance so I can function. It allows me to switch from purely reflexive survival mode (how to get from Point A to B, how to get through Customs, etc.) to a more cognitive state, functioning both physically and mentally. That is what I always do for learning as well. Heighten the cognitive and subdue the reflexive a bit.

"I rather like that idea that it is slightly deceptive to think that some kind of pure, unadulterated space exists, in which we can achieve some kind of deeper clarity. Perhaps it is through the building of useful complexity that this clarity is realised, and a soundtrack is part of such a production, another layer of complexity fabricated around the elearning space."

Absolutely, I always see music as additive, augmentative in that it adds that layer of additional complexity necessary to actually 'see' something. Like 3-D glasses (or just glasses period). Looking for an austere reduction (ie, silence) doesn't do it for me especially when I am tackling some heady topics.

Clara

6/6/2012 08:43:39 am

Aloha all

Michael, I thoroughly enjoyed this compilation - thank you. I listened (or not listened... I 'backgrounded'?...) this while doing emails, admin tasks, some light reading and then playing World of Warcraft (I found I had a much calmer approach to being mobbed by the bad guys!).

I'm really intrigued by the point you've all made about the issue of voice. At first I found myself nodding agreement - I, too, have trouble focussing on words while there's vocals (perhaps something to do with our processing capability for language?). But I likewise have trouble listening to classical music. Too many pieces are things i studied for exams or concerts, and I can't help but pay them the same sort of attention as vocals. This conversation has helped me realise that if I do listen to classical music, it tends to be pieces I haven't played myself - things I don't attend to in the more scrupulous way.

And I also realised, the same is true of voice. It's not that it matters that it is a voice per se, but that it demands language processing attention from me. So, for instance, foreign language tracks (Run Lola Run) or music where the voice is more of an instrument than a speaker (Gregorian chants, Teeth and Tongue etc) are complementary to my working rather than competing for my attention.

I also found your point, Michael, about creating a sound environment while traveling fascinating - bringing structure and familiarity to fluid, unfamiliar spaces. It reminds me of when I work from home and declare 'I'm going into the office' when I bring a certain set of windows up on my laptop (email, WebCT, Twitter), but then I am 'going out to play' when another set are up (comic feeds, WoW, Scrabble etc). is sound the aural equivalent of that cue set? Are we training ourself (almost Pavlov style) to respond in certain ways by re-using particular soundscapes?

Much to mull over as I contemplate my own playlist!

C.

6/6/2012 05:19:15 pm

You can manage to sit still whilst listening to the Run Lola Run OST? Kudos! Of course, I'm assuming you're sitting down whilst playing World or Warcraft and so on?

I take your point though, and that was my thinking with Vivaldi. I could switch on commercial radio and the majority of tracks - with vocals - would be wallpaper that I could ignore (although I'm not saying I would choose to study with them playing in the background). However if I was to put on Classic FM - where they seem contractually obliged to play The Four Seasons (Vivaldi, not Valli) or Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker once each hour (which is a good thing), my engagement with study is broken and my focus is on the music not what's on the screen.

So, I don't think it's as simple as vocals are distracting whereas instrumental music allow for more focus.

6/6/2012 06:24:20 pm

Ah but I'm usually course building while listening to Run Lola Run, and it feels like I am frantically dashing through a confusing maze, particularly with that sense of dejavu as I try to avoid the mistakes from my last attempt at building. I'm also usually building at the last minute, so there's that sense of a horrific and impending deadline. So Run Lola Run is really the perfect soundtrack to the experience :)

Yet, it's also my preferred soundtrack for train travel, starting out the window, it feels like flying - in a peaceful way but with a sense of massive momentum. <shrug> I'm not sure our relationship with music is a straightforward one!

Music to Think for E-learners

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