Data music album Please Hold: A sonic account of studying and teaching at the university during Covid-19

Abstract

This article presents the data-based spoken word music album Please Hold. The album is the outcome of a research project which investigates experiences of higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lyrics stem directly from the research data that I collected through interviews with students and academics at the University of Cambridge. With this album I introduce ‘data music’ as a new format for research communication that is uniquely capable of affectively conveying emotional understanding and embodied knowledge. The interpretation of research data is never finished or final when working with data music, since the process of meaning-making continues with each listener. In this article, I discuss my creative process and expand on the content and form of each of the four tracks. As such, I frame and situate the album as a sonic account of the pandemic university and of learning and teaching online during Covid-19.