ARC Music, Mobile Phones and Community Justice in Melanesia


Lead Investigator :
Denis Crowdy

Investigators :
Denis Crowdy, Camellia Webb-Gannon, Heather Horst, Michael Webb, Jason MacLeod, David Bridie, Thomas Dick, Monika Stern


Project Summary :

This project seeks to understand how communities mobilise in Melanesia through the integration of digital media, mobile phones and music. Community integration and cohesion has long been connected to music as a vital medium in the region. This project plans to draw on new uses of mobile phones for creating, disseminating and listening to music to transform related social, cultural and industrial practices in Melanesia. The intended outcomes of this project — novel phone apps and distribution strategies — will be designed to enable the creation and dissemination of community-building music more widely and affordably, and to provide an income-stimulating model of music distribution for Melanesian musicians.