Theorising with the mycelium in the commingled world of young children’s musical play

ABSTRACT

Inspired by Sheldrake’s study of fungi [Sheldrake, M. 2020. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures. London: Penguin Random House] and Barad’s idea of entanglement [Barad, K. 2007. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham: Duke University Press], this paper explores music play with young children and artists, a practice that resists adult-centric approaches. As an embedded researcher within an early years arts organisation, I play with a diffractive methodology to read through ideas of Froebel with posthuman writings. Using slow-motion viewing of a video extract of musical play the vibrant agency of materials and sound emerges in micro-moments of playful music-making. Theorising with the mycelium produces ideas of extravagance, music and sound understood as lively intra-active and wild. It communicates through, and within, living and non-living matter. This view of music asks for artists to ‘do’ and say less, watch more and hold the space for the bursting forth of ripe and ready musical expressions. Through this pedagogical approach, children and adults can experience a sense of becoming with music, with the world.

KEYWORDS:

• Posthuman
• new materialism
• early childhood music education
• musical play

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the anonymous reviewers of this paper. Thanks also to Abby Page,Lewis Wickwar and my co-director colleagues and research associate, Barbara Cavanagh. The project reported in this paper was funded by the Froebel Trust and the Royal College of Music.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Royal College of Music Research Ethics Committee on 28.06.22. Reference number: 220102.

2 The concerns of care go beyond the scope of this paper, they will be explored more fully elsewhere.

3 Tyro and Trice are names I have given the plastic toys: one a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the other a Triceratops.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Froebel Trust: [Grant Number Open Call Research grant]; Royal College of Music: [Grant Number Enhancing Research Culture grant].

Notes on contributors

Jessica Pitt

Jessica Pitt is a lecturer in music education at the Royal College of Music. Her research area is early childhood music education research and practice, especially with children from birth to three years old. She is the co-director of Magic Acorns, an early years arts development company where much of her research and practice is located.