The Golden Bead Cube Weighs One Kilogram

Bruner described enactive, iconic, and symbolic forms of representation; Montessori materials make a useful, but not historically direct, comparison. Physical materials can support particular learning tasks, while evidence does not justify treating a touchscreen as a universal developmental failure.

11 December 2025 · 11 min · Sebastian Spicker

Artificial Intelligence in Music Pedagogy: Curriculum Implications from a Thementag

On 2 December 2024 I gave three workshops at HfMT Köln’s Thementag on AI and music education. The handouts covered data protection, AI tools for students, and AI in teaching. This post is the argument behind them — focused on the curriculum question that none of the tools answer on their own: what should change, and what should not?

7 December 2024 · 14 min · Sebastian Spicker

After the Connection Is Stable, the Hard Part Begins

A third post in the networked music performance series. Technical latency and institutional infrastructure are only part of the problem. This practice-informed account describes one curriculum’s use of progressive tasks, reflection and portfolios without treating observations as measured learning effects.

22 November 2024 · 10 min · Sebastian Spicker

When Musicians Lock In: Coupled Oscillators and the Physics of Ensemble Synchronisation

The Kuramoto model explains how heterogeneous phase oscillators can develop collective synchrony. It is a useful analogy for ensemble timing, applause, and delayed feedback, but it does not by itself predict a universal networked- music latency limit or prove neural coupling between musicians.

8 February 2024 · 7 min · Sebastian Spicker