We are facing an unparalleled opportunity. The rapid growth of technology and radical changes wrought by new media give us a chance -- a uniquely self-aware chance -- to take an active and fundamental role in shaping the development and deployment of a new structure for intellectual work. The choices we make now will literally determine the future form of academic activity, indeed of the academy itself.
This opportunity is especially promising within the Music Department. We are among the oldest Departments of Music in the United States, but we have also enjoyed a comparatively long and rich involvement with emerging technologies: the Computer Music Center (formerly the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center) has been at the forefront of music technology work for nearly half a century.
From this relatively informed vantage point, we perceive a void in extant integrated information technologies. For the past several years, the descriptions "new media" (and particularly "multi-media") have generally meant "bad sound". The auditory modality has been singularly neglected in the recent information revolution. This is now changing, as techniques for "auralizing" data and making use of interactive digital audio over the internet begin to mature. The fact is, however, that little truly innovative work has recently been done integrating digital sound across a variety of disciplines; work drawing upon talent in Psychology, Computer Science, Engineering as well as Music to build tools for enhancing research, pedagogy, and artistic production. As yet, no one has sought to effect a dramatic transformation of academic existence based on the use of this technology.
We can do this. We can act now to make Columbia a significant 'player' in this arena. At the same time, we can also address a more fundamental set of issues: How will the University evolve in an environment saturated with technological potential? Can we work to influence the unfolding of this evolution? Is it possible for us to act proactively rather than reactively in determining how best to utilize technology in pursuit of our intellectual mission? How can we create new opportunities for collaboration and innovation both within and without the University?
Our goal is to fashion a bold blueprint that will do
much more than simply
address the problem of "bad sound", and go far beyond a minor
"informating" of the Music faculty. Instead, we consider this
proposal to be a model of paradigm-shifting in action. The
paradigm we seek to shift is the way we do our business at
Columbia, and through this shift we intend to ensure our
position as a world leader in a networked and technology-permeated
future.
At present, the greatest obstacle we must overcome in fulfilling our vision is a disconnection between faculty expertise and technological capabilities. Exacerbating this situation is a concomitant lack of broad, basic resources within the Music Department. When asked what he wanted most out of technology, one of our more technologically-savvy faculty responded: "machines that work." In fact, it is this transparency of use that we hope to achieve through this proposal, where use is defined as both the ability to take full advantage of existing technologies and the smooth realization of creative and innovative ideas.
Although we can point to a number of projects where we
have made successful use of past investments in technology, these
are rather specific and focused areas of development within the
Department. We need to provide a foundation of basic technology
infrastructure across the entire Department. We need to provide
a base of interdisciplinary technical expertise that can be drawn
upon in fulfilling our objectives. A faculty motivated
by solid support for technology and seriously committed to engaging
it can make best use of the innovation resources that we are
proposing (and that are being established elsewhere in the University).
We intend to tackle the problem along two fronts: an investment in the basic technology needed for faculty and students to begin using currently available resources, and an investment in structures that will allow newly-envisioned projects to develop. We desire a balance between the use of appropriate, existing products and innovative, Columbia-created projects that will grow from our faculty's involvement with technology.
Our proposal outlines an ambitious plan to accomplish our objectives. The request for funding we are making at present concentrates upon what we consider the "core competencies" of the Music Department -- namely the educational aspects that have made us one of the most respected Departments of Music in the world. With this proposal, we seek to secure support for those features we feel are critical to furthering the Department's pedagogical mission. However, we are also including a "broader picture" of our plans (integrating both pedagogy and research) in this document in anticipation that we will be able to garner additional funding to meet all of our stated goals. We will identify specific, immediate funding requests in the course of our discussion below.
A key aspect of our approach is an investment in the human resources that are necessary for this to occur. We are asking for several new staff positions within the Department (see the Components for a complete description) to assist with the primary, introductory phase of the Departmental shift. We will also work towards the establishment of a new, interdisciplinary, senior faculty appointment. Accompanying this appointment will be additional graduate fellowships and post-doctoral positions. The individual hired in the future senior position will be responsible for organizing research efforts in several disciplines and for coordinating and collating work in a variety of areas. This will establish the rich and fertile environment for future technological leadership that we need for the long-term success of this venture.
We understand that the senior faculty position will be a controversial facet of our long-term proposal, but we believe it is an essential ingredient for the ultimate success of our technology program. We will need to "push the envelope" and use technology to best advantage if we are to maintain our unique and respected status in the world. To do this, we will need a person who is connected to state-of-the-art work in computer science, psychology, data auralization and (of course) music -- a person who has the intellectual capabilities and can employ the skills necessary to achieve our proposal goals.
We imagine that our larger plans will help to establish a new context for interdisciplinary work at Columbia. We were pleased by the warm reception given this proposal by our colleagues in other Departments and Schools (see the Interdisciplinary section). We will certainly be working with our colleagues in other areas of the University in order to find a way to make our vision a reality.
We are also aware of the resources being established or that already exist to assist in technological development at Columbia. With this in mind, we believe that it is imperative that Columbia foster new, interdisciplinary approaches if the University is to make best use of the considerable technological capabilities presently available. We want our proposal to go beyond the bounds of the Music Department in providing assistance to the University. Our intention is to build an interdisciplinary audio technology resource center, with high-level facilities, faculty and staff. We further desire that the results of our initiative play a vital role in the development of new technology and research across a broad spectrum of University interests.
A start-up investment in technology will generally fail after several years if certain factors are not sustained. We have attempted to determine what those factors are and have tried to provide mechanisms to continue our work beyond the initial funding period. Although we cannot guarantee our success, we surely believe that the opportunity for sustained growth in music technology exists; and our overall design (including the components outside the funding scope of this request) is crafted to take best advantage of this opportunity. See the Funding section for a detailed explanation of how we plan to accomplish this, along with descriptions of particular fundraising activities we are already engaging.
Finally, we are proposing additional investments in hardware/software
infrastructure and facility upgrades that are necessary
to support the work we envision. These will be "one-shot" injections
of technology that will help spark the paradigm-shift we are
promoting. Explanations of and justification for these targeted
investments can found in the
Components
section of this proposal.
The Music Department is particularly poised for a profound shift in technology use. As mentioned, we have had a long engagement with the development and use of audio technologies, an involvement that continues today. To be sure, we have several projects already reaching fruition as well as a variety of incipient projects that will directly benefit from this proposal (see Projects for a listing and description of these). We have a strong commitment to making this proposal a success from all Music Department faculty along with commitments from interested colleagues in other Departments.
The boundaries of the benefits provided through this
proposal extend beyond the Music Department, and indeed the
boundary walls will be located far beyond the edge of the University.
The technology
we develop will also enable us to collaborate more effectively with
our colleagues at other institutions, and we are actively
pursuing contacts within the burgeoning media industry in New York
City. Ultimately our goal will be to establish Columbia as
the premiere locus of music and audio technology work. The time
to begin this process is now.