Improvising Across Abilities

Improvising Across Abilities is perhaps the only manuscript of its kind: one that explores the applications of one adaptive music technology, AUMI, in extraordinary depth through multivalent perspectives and scenarios via the words and metaphors of an extraordinarily varied collective of writers, students, teachers, social justice workers, technologists, community activists, group home directors, and creatives. While most scholarly essay collections feature chapters by academics from a narrow range of fields (if not a single one), this volume’s editorial team has consciously drawn writing from members of the public community who might not ordinarily contribute to such a collection, as well as from artists, scientists, and professors who write as part of their profession. The variation in writers and voices not only adds to the value of the book, but reinforces its argument that everyone, no matter what shape, size, or ability, should have a voice." - Stephanie Jensen-Moulton, Brooklyn College

"The awe-inspiring creator and thinker Pauline Oliveros is recognized for her pioneering electronic compositions, the astonishing diversity of her musical creations, her multifaceted poetic and expository writing, and her dedicated teaching of Deep Listening over many years. Some of her best-known work, the Sonic Meditations and Deep Listening Pieces, offers brief verbal instructions to allow groups to create musical experiences together, regardless of the musical training or experience of the people involved. An extension of this inclusiveness came in her later years with the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument (AUMI), now a freely downloadable app that allows users, including people with limited physical mobility, to participate in music making in new and provocative ways. This well-conceived book makes available a stunning wealth of information about AUMI by writers from many different backgrounds." - Fred Maus, University of Virginia