Perhaps this was due to the expense in equipping studios and the pragmatic outcomes of the skills learnt. With decreasing cost and the use of home PCs, digital dabbling in music is now the province of many. We were fortunate to be able to equip our studios directly in the digital domain to meet this growing interest in computer based approaches to music. At the same time, we needed to address the demand from students to introduce pragmatic courses in the digital arts where they may seek future employment, without compromising the need for a sound academic education. We also needed to take into account the current tradition in New Zealand.
Works tend to be studio based, tightly crafted, and based in the academy.
The intended audience has historically been relatively small and the idiom is at times treated with bemusement by the public and critics alike. One of the main influences recently on New Zealand electroacoustic music is the acousmatic aesthetic. The connection is reinforced with New Zealander Denis Smalley being based in London, and graduate students taking up study in the U.K. with Dennis and other practitioners who are sympathetic to the approach. Other aesthetic approaches are also evident in the main centres of Auckland and Christchurch, centered on the work of the composers teaching in the studios there such as John Rimmer and John Cousins. In Hamilton, we have taken a different approach, partly due to the nature of our student population, and partly because a new situation provides the opportunity to rethink established ways of approaching problems.