The Musical Subject, Technoculture And Curriculum In The Postmodern Condition

Abstract

Through an engagement with the notion of 'globalisation' and 'subjectivity', I argue that the politics of musical knowledge involved in global empires not only defines and enframes the global musical subject, but subverts impulses towards democratic practices. The subjectifying experiences thus provided require music education's engagement with the state of musical knowledge in the postmodern condition-a critical awareness of the revolutionising of the arts, music, and communication through digital aesthetics. Technological ordering processes impinge upon institutional sites such as schools through curriculum prescriptions where discourses of official music educational knowledge are conditioned and unquestioned. Musical production is increasingly framed on technology's terms. I interrogate technology in the New Zealand music curriculum, exemplifying the political construction of musical knowledge within the global neoliberal policy environment. Collective memory involves a politics of knowledge, no less a politics of musical knowledge. The sites of construction of community in the musical organisation of collective memory require interrogation for ideological purposes. Critical philosophical questions therefore need to be brought to the music educators' table about technology. Heidegger's questioning concerning technology exposes ontological questions concerning technology's role in the ordering and construction of musicality as a site of identity-'being musical' and the protection of musicality become critical issues. Enlightenment metanarratives of individualism, autonomy and freedom are reinvoked suggesting the wisdom of Lyotard's (1984) claim that postmodernism is modernism in its "nascent state".

A Labor of Love: A Rationale and Second Grade Music Curriculum for a More Just and Equitable World

“…(Barrett, 2002;Jorgensen, 2005) Broadening a child's perspective to consider the world situates the curriculum in the realm of global education. (Apple, 1988;Ho & Law, 2009;Jones, 2007;Mansfield, 2004;Papstephanou, 2005) The framing of music in social contexts closely aligns with the work of many scholars who call for a more global alternative to the dominance of White European classical music that overwhelmingly marginalizes and silences the music of other cultures. (Alperson, 1991;Elliott, 2005;Regelski, 2006;Small, 2011) Robinson and Hendricks (submitted) described my experience as a Black man from the South who encountered and wrestled with my blackness while The curriculum map (Appendix A) is organized into nine sections:…”

Certainties and Censure: Teacher Education in a Changing Terrain

“…In scrutinising the politics of identity, we may question, for example, the connections and consequences of 'hybrid cyber-identities' (Wolmark, 1999, p. 241) inscribed through the proliferation of new media and cybermedia. What is necessary, with cyberspace, is a revealing, a 'bringing forth out of unconcealment ... aletheia' (Heidegger, 1993, p. 318) profound issues involving identity in a technologised age (see Grierson, 2001;Grierson & Mansfield, 2004;Mansfield, 2004). Such issues appear vital in the 'education' of a culturally and politically informed learning subject.…”

Adopting a Student-Centered Teaching Approach in the Private Studio

“…As private teaching usually involves working one-on-one with students, teachers have opportunities to include as many of their students’ musical interests and cultural identities into their instructional choices. Mansfield (2004, 43) writes, “As music educators, we ought not to neglect identities and cultural dynamics, because such a neglect fails to account for the significant social practices of musical representation and expression.” One of the advantages of private teaching is the freedom to modify and customize lessons for each student.…”