Seat the audience inside the orchestra; let them feel the music.
technique — attributed to Roger Nierenberg
Nierenberg's Music Paradigm seats business audiences inside a working professional symphony orchestra as the musicians and conductor solve problems together. The design point is structural. Most people experience classical music from the auditorium and stay outside it. Nierenberg's diagnosis was that he had fallen in love with music by playing inside the orchestra and feeling the vibration on his body. The experience he wanted to create for businesspeople was the same. The reframe matters for any educational program built around something audiences default to observing from a distance. The intervention is to put the participant inside the thing rather than describing it to them.
For corporate learning designers, executive education programs, and arts educators thinking about how to deliver immersive learning. The technique is most useful when the subject is something most participants experience only from outside.
music-paradigm, immersion, experiential-design, felt-experience