The NYU Music Experience Design Lab (MusEDLab - https://musedlab.org/) has focused its work since its founding in 2013 on collaboratively designing new web-based creative tools and experiences for musical play and learning. Recent developments in web-based audio and MIDI technologies provide the backbone for the design of new creative music making experiences accessible to audiences, schools, and youth to experience on their phones, tablets and computers at home, at school, and anywhere there is internet access.
Focusing on the design space between the preschool xylophone and Apple’s GarageBand, the MusEDLab has partnered with musicians, cultural organizations, schools, young people, and industry partners in collaboratively designing new interfaces and experiences for musical play and learning.
Creative music tools such as the MusEDLab aQWERTYon and GroovePizza have been used by over 1 million users around the world, supported by collaborative education projects such as PlayWithYourMusic.org, an open web-based music production MOOC created in partnership with Peter Gabriel and the MIT Media Lab; MathScienceMusic.org in partnership with Herbie Hancock and the US Department of Education; and the Variation Playgrounds project commissioned for the New York Philharmonic’s Young Peoples Concerts.
This presentation will introduce and briefly demonstrate selected MusEDLab creative web tools, present the processes of their design and development with special focus on how they provide opportunities for creative play and expression and embed freedoms and frictions for learning and engagement.

Short Bio:

S. Alex Ruthmann is Associate Professor of Music Education and Music Technology at NYU Steinhardt where he directs the Music Experience Design Lab (MusEDLab). Ruthmann serves as an Affiliate Faculty member in the program in Digital Media Design for Learning at NYU Steinhardt, and the Interactive Media Business and Creativity and Innovation programs at NYU Shanghai.
Ruthmann’s research focuses on the design of new interfaces, environments, and experiences for music making, learning, and creative expression co-created together with young people, educators, cultural and industry partners. The MusEDLab’s creative learning and software projects are in active use by over 500,000 people in over 150 countries across the world.

Ruthmann is Co-Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education, and the Routledge Companion to Music, Technology and Education, and co-author of the forthcoming book Scratch Music Projects, an introduction to creative music coding projects in MIT's Scratch. He is Associate Editor of the Journal of Music, Technology, and Education, and a member of the editorial/advisory boards of the British Journal of Music Education, Journal of Popular Music Education, and Research Studies in Music Education. In prior years he has served as President of the Association for Technology in MusicInstruction, Chair of the Creativity special research interest group of the Society for Research in Music Education, Co-Editor of the International Journal of Education & the Arts, and Program Director for Music Education at NYU Steinhardt.
Ruthmann received an interdisciplinary B.Mus. degree from the University of Michigan in Music and Technology, and M.Mus and Ph.D degrees in Music Education from Oakland University.

Designing Creative Web Environments for Musical Play and Learning