ENGS 17 - Making Music: The Art, Science, and Symbolism of Musical Instruments

A hands-on course in which students working in groups build and assemble simple musical instruments with the aim of understanding how materials, technologies, craftsmanship, and cultural knowledge interact in the conception, design, and production of diverse instruments around the world. Merging the methodologies of materials science and engineering with the approaches of arts and humanities, the course explores from an interdisciplinary perspective the social meanings and powers ascribed to musical instruments, and the way that instruments have come to function as potent symbols of personal, cultural, and political identity.

MUS 17.04/COCO 20