Daphne at work at the BBC. Image held in the Daphne Oram Archive, Goldsmiths, University of London; (c) Daphne Oram Trust
Project summary
The project proposes a new, more diverse history of electronic music. Premised on the case study of the previously overlooked but seminal role that the British composer, inventor and engineer Daphne Oram (1925-2003) played in the development of electronic music, the ramifications of the project will move beyond the illumination of a musical life. First, it will propose new methods for the writing of a more inclusive music history. Second, it will investigate how we can use this historical and historiographical knowledge to engage girls with music technology today. These outcomes will be interventions towards a renewed feminist musicology in theory and practice. Third, the project will apply a feminist musicology to the field of music technology—something that has until now been relatively overlooked, despite the rapid growth of music technology in higher education and the recent flourishing of feminist studies of technology in other disciplines