Technology plays a major role in the daily life of many young people (especially mobile phones, computers and related games as well as the internet). However, there are only a few girls and boys who consider to eventually work in this seminal field. The project Engineer Your Sound! addressed young people who are basically interested in creatively designing and using technology, thus connecting this basic interest with music – a field of great interest for most young people. The objective of the project was to develop a didactic concept that could enable peers who have no practical musical competencies and experience in producing music to create their own sound. This objective was realized in a cooperation of researchers and students of Musikgymnasium Dreihackengasse Graz.

In the course of the project the students were taking part in excursions and workshops which provided an insight into technologies associated with music. They were encouraged to test these technologies and to creatively experiment with it. In this first step the realization of the students’ ideas was vital. In the second step the actual objective of the project came into focus: Based on the students’ musical competencies and the experience they had gained with technology, two concepts were elaborated which should help their peers in becoming musically creative.

With EYS music was tested as a vehicle for an interdisciplinary and participative approach to designing technology.