Technologies are central to how music is created, performed, recorded, and experienced. Yet research shows that technology-based gender disparities persist across many areas of music and sound practice, with women, LGB, trans, and non-binary practitioners often underrepresented. From instrument choices to production, from songwriting to streaming, technologies are not neutral tools but active gatekeepers of musical participation—central to how gender imbalances are produced and sustained, but also potentially transformed.
The No User Manual forum takes up these questions by bringing together leading voices from music and sound research, artistic practice, education, music therapy and health, community music, and the wider music sector to share knowledge, debate urgent issues, and explore new perspectives on the relation between gender, technology, and participation.
The event will run from 10-16:30 each day with a special event on Friday evening in collaboration with AKKS Bergen featuring live performances and DJs in the Bergen Kjøtt Bar.