Page 105 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

94 Orchestrating different forms of knowledge

practice is to say that learning is a source of social structure.” Here, Wenger
takes up John Dewey’s holistic notion of learning as being linked to having
experiences and hence always being a “learning by experience” and a “learning
by doing” (see Dewey 1916/1941: ch. 11; Tiles 2010: 101–122). Activities
(which include objects), know-hows (which include training but also nego-
tiating meaning and valuing) and learning (which builds on shared under-
standings and participation) can therefore be considered integrated processes.
Wenger thus perpetuates Dewey’s non-intellectualist understanding of learn-
ing and education. Furthermore, he uses Jean Lave’s concept of “situated
learning”, which conceives learning as a situated activity carried out in formal
and informal practical settings. Wenger’s and Lave’s conception of learning
thus differs from the conception traditionally used in the psychology of
learning, which is cognitivistic and tends to be individualistic:

Conventional explanations view learning as a process by which a learner
internalises knowledge, whether “discovered”, “transmitted” for others,
or “experienced in interaction” with others. This focus on internalisation
does not just leave the nature of the learner, of the world, and of their
relations unexplored; it can only reflect far-reaching assumptions con-
cerning these issues. It establishes a sharp dichotomy between inside and
outside, suggests that knowledge is largely cerebral, and takes the individual
as an unproblematic unit of analysis.
(Lave & Wenger 1991: 47)

Learning is a practical activity carried out interactively with others and with
the involvement of others. It is, in other words, a profoundly social activity,
which in many cases is institutionally organised, as Jean Lave (1993: 5)
remarks: “it is difficult, when looking closely at everyday activity […] to avoid
the conclusion that learning is ubiquitous in ongoing activity, though often
unrecognised as such”. Consequently, learning also occurs non-intentionally,
as a side effect of other activities.
Without exception, all the composers we interviewed learned to play one or
more musical instruments in childhood. Retrospectively, they all view these first
learning experiences as foundational. Karlheinz Essl, for instance, remarks:

At seven, I was taking piano lessons. My teacher did music theory with
me from the start. Which means that I had to play cadences, and modulate
and transpose and all those things. We also did ear training and hearing
tests. It really irritated me. But I’m eternally grateful to the woman for
making music theory a part of the instrumental lessons from the start.

All the interviewed composers also studied at conservatoires – some studied
composition, some certain instruments. It is also notable that almost all the
interviewed composers told us that they had already written their first com-
positions as teenagers. Their similar musical education, or their shared