Welcome to AUMI-KU InterArts!
AUMI-KU InterArts is a Member of the AUMI Consortium, an international research group dedicated to exploring, sustaining, developing, and sharing the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument. Each AUMI Consortium Member institution has a particular area of focus. Ours is interdisciplinary arts and improvisation.
2025 AUMI Jam dates are here!
2025 AUMI Jams will take place on the first Thursday of every month (February 6th, March 6th, April 3rd, May 1st) from 3:30 to 5:00 PM at the Lawrence Public Library Sound+Vision Studio! Come join us, make and record music, and enjoy the fun of improvisation and collaboration with others in the community. All ages welcome, no experience required!
Filmed by Ranjit Arab (Assistant Director of Communications, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, KU)
Jams recorded by Matthew Pelsma (Lawrence Public Library, Sound + Vision Studio)
Session conducted by Sherrie Tucker (PhD professor, American Studies, KU)
Featuring Oliver Hall, Ranita Wilks, Xiaoyan (Mavis) Li (American Studies, KU), Ray Mizumura-Pence (PhD professor, American Studies, KU), and Kevin and Jack Jacobs
Filmed by Ranjit Arab (Assistant Director of Communications, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, KU)
Jams recorded by Matthew Pelsma (Lawrence Public Library, Sound + Vision Studio)
Session conducted by Caleb Lázaro Moreno (PhD student, American Studies, KU)
Featuring Amelia Whittier (B.s. student, Behavioral Neuroscience, KU), Oliver Hall, and Kevin and Jack Jacobs
New Collectively Created AUMI Book!
We're proud to announce that our collectively created book, Improvising Across Abilities: Pauline Oliveros and the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument, has been published by University of Michigan Press (Music and Social Justice Series)! You can read the open access book now.
Hall Makes Headlines in the Lawrence Community
A New Era of Music
What is AUMI?
Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) software interface enables people who have very limited controlled (voluntary) movement to independently engage in music making. Founded by musician, composer, and humanitarian, Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016), the Adaptive Use Musical Instruments (AUMI) project brings together the expertise of technicians at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and the community education initiatives of the Deep Listening Institute, now the Center for Deep Listening at RPI, and is headquartered at the Center for Cognition, Consciousness, and Culture, directed by Jonas Braasch, at RPI. The AUMI is one of the research projects of the International Institutes of Critical Improvisation Studies.
The Adaptive Use Musical Instruments software interface enables the user to play sounds and musical phrases through movement and gestures. This is an entry to improvisation rather than “hitting the right notes” or playing set pieces of music. Instead, the software uses music as a way for participants to express a range of affects, both by themselves and in response to, or in conversation with, others. While the AUMI interface can be used by anyone, the focus has been on working with children who have profound physical disabilities. In taking these participants as its starting point the project attempts to make musical improvisation and collaboration accessible to the widest possible range of individuals. This approach also opens up the possibility of learning more about the relations between ability, the body, creativity and improvisation.
For more answers to common questions about AUMI, visit our FAQ page or the official AUMI website.