NYU Music Experience Design Lab

Publications & press

Research, writing and coverage of music, technology and creative learning.

Selected publications

Surfacing Motives in Scholarly Publication: The Ethics of Authorship and Editorship — 2025. Roger Mantie & Alex Ruthmann. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 24(4), 1–24. Open journal PDF
Ethics of academic journal editorship, authorship, and reviewership — 2025. Roger Mantie & Alex Ruthmann, guest editors. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 24(4). Special issue, July 2025.
Designing for Creative Learning — 2025. Alex Ruthmann. Section 3.16 of Learning with Music Signals: Technology Meets Education (Dagstuhl Seminar 24302), Dagstuhl Reports, 14(7), 115–152. Published seminar contribution from the July 2024 meeting. Report DOI.
Learning music theorising through inspiration and curiosity. Insights from emergent lesson design in an upper secondary school in Finland — 2024. Cecilia Björk, Mats Granfors & S. Alex Ruthmann. British Journal of Music Education, 41(1), 3–19. First published online in 2023.
Electronic Music School: A Contemporary Approach to Teaching Musical Creativity — 2021. Will Kuhn & Ethan Hein. Oxford University Press.
The potential of a mixed-methods approach for research on learning to theorise music — 2021. Cecilia Björk, S. Alex Ruthmann, Mats Granfors, Joachim Högväg & Sören Andersson. Music Education Research, 23(3), 374–390.
Scratch Music Projects — 2020. Andrew R. Brown & S. Alex Ruthmann. Oxford University Press.
The Disquiet Junto as an Online Community of Practice — 2020. Ethan Hein. The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning, pp. 194-213.
Chris Thile, Kendrick Lamar, and the problem of the white rap cover — 2020. Ethan Hein. Visions of Research in Music Education, 35, Article 14.
Shared Sample Projects (Advanced) — 2020. Ethan Hein. The Music Technology Cookbook, pp. 139-146.
Music Making in Scratch: High Floors, Low Ceilings, and Narrow Walls? — 2019. William Payne & S. Alex Ruthmann. Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy.
Non-Visual Beats: Redesigning the Groove Pizza — 2019 — William Payne, Alex Yixuan Xu, Amy Hurst & S. Alex Ruthmann. ASSETS ’19. Conference poster description · Project profile.
The Groove Pizza — 2019. Ethan Hein, Sumanth Srinivasan. New Directions in Music and Human-Computer Interaction, pp. 71-94.
Reharmonization and recontextualization in Kanye West’s ‘Famous’ — 2018. Ethan Hein. Journal of Popular Music Education, 2, pp. 101-114.
Technology in the Lives and Schools of Adolescents — 2018 collected edition. S. Alex Ruthmann & Steven C. Dillon. Music Learning and Teaching in Infancy, Childhood, and Adolescence: An Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Volume 2. Read the original 2012 chapter
Music Learning and New Media in Virtual and Online Environments — 2018 collected edition. S. Alex Ruthmann & David G. Hebert. Creativities, Technologies, and Media in Music Learning and Teaching: An Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Volume 5. Read the original 2012 chapter
Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education — 2017. S. Alex Ruthmann & Roger Mantie (eds.). Oxford University Press.
Routledge Companion to Music, Technology and Education — 2017. Andrew King, Evangelos Himonides & S. Alex Ruthmann (eds.). Routledge.
Exploring New Media Musically and Creatively — 2017. Alex Ruthmann. Teaching Music Creatively, pp. 91-103.
Playing (in) the Digital Studio — 2017. Ethan Hein. The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education, pp. 382-396.
The Promise and Pitfalls of the Digital Studio — 2017. Ethan Hein. The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education, pp. 232-240.
Beyond Skeuomorphism: The Evolution of Music Production Software User Interface Metaphors — 2015. Adam Bell, Ethan Hein & Jarrod Ratcliffe. Journal on the Art of Record Production.
Is It the Technology? Challenging Technological Determinism in Music Education — 2015. S. Alex Ruthmann, Evan S. Tobias, Clint Randles & Matthew Thibeault. In Clint Randles (Ed.), Music Education: Navigating the Future, pp. 122–138. Routledge. Publisher book and contents.
Documentation in Progress: Challenges With Representing Design Process Online — 2014 — Tiffany Tseng, Maria Yang & Stephen Ruthmann. ASME IDETC/CIE, DETC2014-34686, V003T04A027. Author-hosted PDF · Project profile.
Play With Your Music 1.0 Research Report - 2014 - Kahn & Gennarelli.
Music games in education — 2014. Ethan Hein. In Karen Schrier (Ed.), Learning, Education and Games, Volume 1: Curricular and Design Considerations, pp. 93–108. ETC Press.
Thinking Beyond Curriculum and Pedagogy — 2013. CMS Advisory Committee for Music Education. College Music Symposium, 53.