25 September 2018
Zachary J. Engelman
For the past two semesters, the Bachelor of Innovation program at UCCS has worked with an organization called ‘The Global Z Recording Project’. This partnership serves to broaden people’s ability to impact change in their social and political environments through the use of music.
The organization works in opposition to the destruction that comes from people’s ignorance and hatred of groups of people different from themselves. They encourage diversity in music, and the enabling of sharing music between cultures and societies.
Bradley Plesz, who works for ‘The Global Z Recording Project’ said in an email, “The Global Z Recording Project seeks to serve and improve the socio-cultural good of mankind by embracing diversity, encouraging democratic practices, fostering dialogue and promoting peace through out-of-the-box, educational, youth-oriented music-related projects.”
According to globalzrecording.org, “Music is the perfect vehicle for facilitating social change. When people are united in a musical project, it creates familial bonds and forms a community of practice.” The goal is to get students to engage with other philosophies and help to improve the interactions between philosophies around the world, while also facilitating further interaction after their projects are finished.
Last semester, two groups of UCCS students lead by Schylar Woods and Eli Brainard were assigned to research strategies to create recording spaces in areas that don’t have the luxury of having spaces specially designed for this purpose.
Many places around the world are currently unable to easily record their music and share it with the world. The students set out to find a way to overcome this obstacle to diversity.
The teams had amazing success and were able to create a guide that young musicians can use to treat a space in a way that can improve the acoustics for recording and performance.
The guide is simple and easy to follow. It shows how to use common items found in average living spaces to treat issues that could otherwise negatively impact recording quality.
The guide also contains demos and samples, instructions and explanations of the importance of acoustic treatments. Additionally, it supports a database of sound equipment that people can use when adapting a room for the purposes of audio recording. All of this has made it easier for anyone, anywhere to create an effective home recording environment, enabling them to share their creations with the world.
The implications of a guide like this are astounding. This allows people from all over the world to create an effective space for recording sound acts as a launch pad for cultural interaction. The more people can listen and collaborate with musicians from other cultural and philosophical backgrounds, the easier it will be for these cultures and philosophies to coexist peacefully.
‘The Global Z Recording Project’ now enters the third semester of collaboration with the Bachelor of Innovation courses. They will be working with two new teams under the guidance of Dr. Jenifer Robertson.
While those involved in the BI Program cannot tell us what kind of project the new teams are working on, if they are anything like previous projects, this program will continue to be a success here at UCCS.