Call for disabled musicians, makers, technologists, coders and hackers to attend DMLab North, launching Monday 26th October 2015 at Madlab, Manchester. Supporting the development of accessible musical instruments for disabled musicians.
Drake Music is the leading national organisation working in music, disability and technology. We are experts in special educational needs and disability (SEND) music delivery and in using technology to break down disabling barriers to music-making.
Drake Music strongly supports the development of new accessible music technology. It is clear that the sector needs far more investment in research and development to develop a choice of musical instruments which are both accessible and expressive.
“There are massive gaps between music technology and accessibility…for serious musicians with access requirements, things are not going far enough.”
John Kelly, disabled musician & co-leader of DMLab London.
We are looking to develop musical instruments, interfaces and tools that allow for expression, precision, dynamics and reliability and where access is intrinsic to the design of the instrument – not just a bolt-on for disabled people.
Drake Music currently run DMLab LONDON – a monthly hack event at DM headquarters in Shoreditch, East London, where we meet with a community of makers and coders. People with technical backgrounds come together to investigate a problem or idea, and then work to build a solution from scratch. In partnership with DMLab London each month, we are now piloting a similar initiative up here in the North to create a community for clever, creative technologists and disabled and non-disabled musicians to get together and develop some exciting software and hardware solutions.
We would love you to be part of this pioneering movement. So if yourself or anyone you know are passionate about assistive music technology or a disabled musician looking for an accessible music technology/instrument solution, do get in touch and/or come along. It would be great if you can come join us at our first pilot project launch meet at Madlab, 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN on MONDAY 26 OCTOBER at 6pm.
The 4 pilot sessions will then run at Madlab on the LAST MONDAY of every month except December 6-9pm. So the following dates:
26th October 2015, 30th November 2015
And then
25th January 2016, 29th February 2016
Hope to see you there!
DMLab North is a pilot project that is organised by electronic music composer, producer and performer Caro C. Caro is a Drake Music Associate Musician in the North West region.
https://storify.com/DrakeMusic/drake-music-at-the-web-we-want-fest-southbank-cent
http://www.drakemusic.org/news/drake-music-in-the-independent/
