ABSTRACT
The value of studying music, and the arts and humanities more generally, has been called into question. A brief overview of current UK research policy identifies the way in which music research is conceptualized as servicing the creative economy rather than, for example, human flourishing. Taking the example of immersive media, a current focus of UK research funding, a musicological analysis of a new media artefact is used to examine the way in which music research can offer a critical humanistic approach. This is used to demonstrate that humanities and musicology provide a means of humanizing technological approaches, and draw attention to the mutual dependence of new technologies and cultural processes.
