S. Order

The liminal music studio: between the geographical and the virtual

Abstract The dramatic anthropological shifts in music production practices in the post-analogue world have been primarily driven by the ever-increasing functionality of digital audio technologies. Technologies are pertinent actors in the music production process, more than ever before. A new trend in music production is a move towards the mobile tablet computer as a production tool. This article emerged from my own practice-led research into music production on a tablet computer whilst travelling, and at international destinations. Using evocative autoethnography, I diarised my mobile music production, concluding that mobility positively impacted creativity. Reflection led me to ask: What factors are at play and could a theorisation of mobile production practice be articulated? Mobility is more than transplanting music production to another place. Rather, mobility asks us to reconsider fundamental notions central to musical practice. Space and environment become cognitive stimuli, echoing the seminal work by Mel Rhodes on creativity. Rhodes popularised the term ‘press’ to describe the multi-factorial impact of experience on human creativity. This study theorises a multi-sensorial approach where human mobility and connection with place enhance musical creativity. Second, music data mobility amplifies production options. The connected mobile musician can absorb the perceptual richness of physical travel and also the stimuli of the electronic ether. Where is creativity? This article proposes that creativity for the mobile musician is experienced in a liminal space between the geographical and the virtual.

The Altruism of Community Radio

This article examines what “value” means in relation to community radio broadcasting, summarizing the development of a theoretical framework of value for community radio from the existing literature. Moreover, this article outlines the findings garnered from testing that framework at three community radio stations in Perth, Western Australia particularly the perceptions of value by the study participants. Finally, this article discusses the importance of one key research finding: that study participants from all stations perceived the value of community radio participation as not necessarily an altruistic activity. This indicates that community radio’s value is significantly more about the benefits of participation for volunteers rather than the benefits for the listening community.

Building a purposeful identity in the older adult volunteer space: a case study of community radio station 6RPH (Radio Print-Handicapped)

ABSTRACT Social scientists have long been fascinated about why people volunteer. Volunteers give their time to certain organisations without expectation of reward or compensation for their labour (Snyder & Omoto, 2008). The 2011 ‘National Survey of Volunteering Issues’ suggests that the primary motivations for volunteers are a ‘sense of purpose’ and the ‘difference they make to the community’ (Volunteering Australia, 2011, p. 4). While these two primary motivations may span volunteering generally, older adult volunteer motivation in the community radio sector anecdotally reveals a more complex picture. There are strong resonances between existing theoretical literature on motivations in volunteering (Clary et al., 1998) and community radio (Order, 2014b). Clary et al.’s (1998) work focuses on the initial motivation to volunteer and what drives continued participation. Order’s (2014b) study found that the main value for participation in community radio was personal development and empowerment at a personal or group level. The purpose of this article is to explore these broad themes in more detail. Interview data from volunteers at an exemplar community radio station is considered in conjunction with Clary et al.’s (1998) six motivational functions of volunteering. Clary et al.’s six functions provide the language and a framework to unpack personal development and empowerment at a personal and group level in the community radio sector using interview data about the participation of primarily older volunteers at Perth community radio station 6RPH (Radio Print-Handicapped). The analysis reveals a more nuanced picture of volunteer motivation for individuals. This article argues that the development of a purposeful identity through volunteering in a community radio context is a primary motivation and consequence for older adult volunteers.

Remixing Creativity in Learning and Learning of Creativity: A Case Study of Audio Remix Practice with Undergraduate Students:

Testing creativity in tertiary learning activities is a young field of research, and current assessment methods are difficult to apply within the diverse context of media production education, where disciplines range from journalism through to video game production. However, the concept of remix is common across this wide range of media, and offers practitioners ‘endless hybridizations in language, genre, content, technique and the like’ (Knobel & Lankshear, 2008, p. 22). The conceptual commonality of remix indicates that the study conclusions will have useful implications across a range of media production disciplines. This study aims to consider new methods for testing creativity in media production learning activities and to provide better assessments for learning design. This study focused upon a learner cohort of music technology students that were undertaking a work-integrated learning programme with a record label. To make the students more work-ready and inspire greater creativity, they remixed tracks recorded by professional music artists as part of a unit assessment. Subsequent self-report surveys (N = 29) found that the process of creating a ‘remix’ enhanced their creativity and provided suggested improvements to the design of the learning experience. Importantly, we found no relationship between the survey responses and objective assessments, indicating that the self-reported improvements in creativity were not simply a measure of how well the students performed the formally assessed tasks. Although more research is needed to establish effective measures of creativity, these findings demonstrate that self-report survey tools can be a powerful tool for measuring creativity and supporting improved iterative learning design.

Towards a contingency-based approach to value for community radio

Community radio in Australia is now well established and considered an important part of the radio sector, however, in today’s economically driven world it is at the bottom of the media money pile. In order to argue for its continuing existence, funding and development in an ever-changing media landscape, some means of capturing its value is essential. This article describes the development of a theoretical framework of value for community radio. The content of the framework was achieved by, first, examining, community media/radio literature through five relevant lenses of analysis. Secondly, a subsequent meta-analysis was applied to consolidate the framework. In order to test the utility of the draft theoretical framework of value, three case studies were conducted with different types of community radio stations in Perth, Western Australia. Two primary research methods were used: interviews with staff and audience focus groups. The testing exercise provided a multimodal insight into the values of community radio as reflected in real life practice. The analysis revealed how value was perceived by participants across three stations as personal motivations, and second, that value at individual stations was contingent upon the characteristics of the individual community radio stations.