Can Tech Keep Tradition Alive?
Interview with Calum Fraser & Calum MacMillan from Fèisean nan Gàidheal – Pilot Renewing Tradition.
10 April 2025
What is your role in the AMPLIFY project?
At Fèisean nan Gàidheal, we will trial the technology in the context of online music, drama and song tuition for young people and children. We hope to be able to deepen our understanding of the limitations of the current technology being utilised to deliver online tuition by engaging our network of tutors and participants in the project. The information gathered will guide the direction of our pilot to ensure AMPLIFY innovates and improves on what is currently available and addresses the challenges faced by communities with which we work.
What key challenges does AMPLIFY PORTABLE address, and how does it improve on tools?
Fèisean nan Gàidheal supports the development of community-based Gaelic arts tuition festivals for young people throughout Scotland, largely in rural and island settings. As such, the challenges faced by the communities with which we work are varied, but include poor transport infrastructure, population decline and a lack of employment opportunities and services for children. It is hoped that AMPLIFY can help to address each one of these issues by ensuring tutors can work, and children have access to tuition, regardless of where they are based, thus providing more opportunities for enjoyment and employment in all communities.
What innovations help reduce latency and improve sound quality for remote musical collaboration?
It is yet to be seen and a question that the technical team are better placed to answer. At the beginning of the project it was hard to visualise from what directions the challenges we face could be tackled, but having met the technical team, and knowing the vast amount of experience and knowledge they have in different fields of engineering, we are very excited to hear their ideas on how to tackle these issues, whether through immersive sound design, extended reality or small, practical adjustments to the existing types of programmes available.
How do you see AMPLIFY PORTABLE shaping the future of traditional music education in rural areas?
As we said at the initial meeting in Barcelona, we don’t propose to replace the “cèilidh”, or the spontaneity of face-to-face interaction in a musical context, but rather to ensure that children and young people can have consistent access to cultural opportunities – which isn’t necessarily guaranteed in a minority language context – by reducing some of the barriers.
How can this technology foster new creative partnerships and cultural exchanges?
By making us more connected and making online musical collaboration more seamless, enjoyable and engaging. In doing so, collaboration becomes much easier and viable and opens doors to many more opportunities. In our context, this could mean allowing participants of an exchange trip to meet online and perform together ahead of the trip, connecting musicians from the Gaelic traditions in Scotland and Ireland or even the Gaelic diaspora in Nova Scotia to produce a concert of new music, or simply by allowing young people in dispersed settings to come together as a band to rehearse more easily, thus ensuring the culture and language continue to evolve and be used as a means of expression.
What challenges do you expect in the pilot phase, and how do you plan to overcome them?
Challenges faced in the pilot phase could range from poor internet connectivity in some areas, to bad weather causing ferries and, as a consequence, events to be cancelled. However, this phase is all about challenges, identifying them and trying to come up with innovative solutions.
