A Playful Approach to Teaching NIME: Pedagogical Methods from a Practice-Based Perspective

This paper reports on the experience gained after five years of teaching a NIME master course designed specifically for artists. A playful pedagogical approach based on practice-based methods is presented and evaluated. My goal was introducing the art of NIME design and performance giving less emphasis to technology. Instead of letting technology determine how we teach and think during the class, I propose fostering at first the student's active construction and understanding of the field experimenting with physical materials,sound production and bodily movements. For this intention I developed a few classroom exercises which my students had to study and practice. During this period of five years, 95 students attended the course. At the end of the semester course, each student designed, built and performed a new interface for musical expression in front of an audience. Thus, in this paper I describe and discuss the benefits of applying playfulness and practice-based methods for teaching NIME in art universities. I introduce the methods and classroom exercises developed and finally I present some lessons learned from this pedagogical experience.