In autumn 2023, students of the Sustainable Music Practice class unpacked and explored relationships between music and sustainability utilising systems thinking approaches. They then applied this to reflect on and refine their own music practice in ways that recognise how the environment, economy and equity are interconnected.  

By looking at the role of music within wider society, students developed projects that explore what it means to be a musician who is socially engaged, and consider what new kinds of practices, cultures, and media might look like in a post-sustainability world. 

Inspired by critical inquiry of musicologist, Kyle Devine, the class encourages musically focussed, playfully serious responses to the aim: “not to “solve” the climate crisis but, instead, to recompose how we think about the climate crisis as a problem in the first place, such that previously unimagined responses might be created” (Devine, 2022). 

The outcomes of the class included student projects that challenged existing music practices and cultures, a physical zine, co-created with Pittville Press, featuring student manifestos for an imagined post-sustainability music industry, and a consolidated syllabus in zine form as a pedagogical resource. 

In this talk, I will share how students engaged with systems thinking to pose questions about their practice and wider industry, and then imagine new musical practices beyond the limits of sustainability.