track
Music. Gamification for Understanding
Partners
Challenge Partner: Zafraan ensemble
??? Partner: ?????
Focus: Gamifying the Experience of Contemporary Academic Music
Contemporary academic music challenges listening habits through new sounds, structures, and technologies.
This track invites participants to design interactive, game-based experiences that make complex music engaging and accessible.
Possible Project Outcomes:
Contemporary academic music challenges listening habits through new sounds, structures, and technologies.
This track invites participants to design interactive, game-based experiences that make complex music engaging and accessible.
Possible Project Outcomes:
-
WEB3 game - Boardgame
- Escape room
- Social Media game
- Artwork
Contemporary classical music reflects the complexity of the world we live in. Like composers in Mozart’s time, today’s composers write for their contemporaries. Yet while the global music industry has expanded dramatically, contemporary classical music remains marginal for broad audiences. Why? Because it requires openness to unfamiliar sounds, new listening habits, emotional intensity, and engagement with political, philosophical, and environmental ideas. Without accessible entry points, complexity is often perceived as exclusion.
At the same time, contemporary music is inherently experimental and playful. Composers already “gamify” reality:
- Carola Bauckholt uses jacket zippers as instruments (Brain & Egg)
- Georg Friedrich Haas’ String Quartet No. 9 is performed in complete darkness
- Stockhausen’s Helicopter Quartet involves four helicopters
- Mauricio Kagel’s Ludwig Van consists entirely of Beethoven quotations
- John Cage’s As Slow As Possible is designed to last 639 years
The Challenge
We are looking for new methods, technologies, and products that apply game mechanics to contemporary classical music.
Not using music as a soundtrack for games — but turning listening, understanding, and participation into playable experiences.
Projects may address:
Not using music as a soundtrack for games — but turning listening, understanding, and participation into playable experiences.
Projects may address:
- Example: Steve Reich’s Clapping Music App
A rhythm-based game that helps users experience phased repetition while learning about minimalism. - Example: John Cage Apps (4’33”, Prepared Piano)
Apps that translate conceptual music into interactive formats. - Example: Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night
A mobile outdoor sound sculpture where the audience becomes the performer.
What We Expect
We invite participants to design gamified listening formats in digital or physical environments: interactive platforms, social media games, WEB3 tools, escape rooms, board games, participatory installations, or hybrid works — potentially leading to the creation of a new artistic piece.
Why
Understanding grows through interaction.
Curiosity grows through play.
By transforming listening into exploration, we aim to lower entry barriers, expand audiences, and reposition contemporary classical music as an engaging cultural experience rather than an inaccessible niche.
Curiosity grows through play.
By transforming listening into exploration, we aim to lower entry barriers, expand audiences, and reposition contemporary classical music as an engaging cultural experience rather than an inaccessible niche.
Music Track Team
- ???Track LeadBio bio bio
- ???Art curatorBio bio bio
- Max HoldenTech curatorBio bio bio
- ???Learning LeadBio bio bio
- ???Production LeadBio bio bio
- ???Invited expertsBio bio bio
Fees & Grants
- School Participation Participation in the School phase requires a fee of €450. Grants covering up to 100% of the participation fee are available, provided by the CultTech Association and Track Partners.
- Studio Participation Participation in the Studio phase is free of charge for teams selected to continue. Studio teams receive production grants, tailored to the needs of each project.
How to Apply
Applications are submitted via Google Form.
Applications should include:
Applications should include:
- Project Description
- A project proposal responding to the selected industry challenge, outlining the concept and intended format
- A brief description of the technical approach
- A short roadmap for the project’s development
- A short motivation statement from each team member
- Team Background
- Roles within the project and relevant experience
- Links to previous work (portfolio, projects, websites)
- Links to online profiles (e.g., LinkedIn)
Shortlisted applicants will be invited to a short online interview.