Ryan E. Drew

Background

About Ryan E. Drew

I’m Ryan, a musician, installation designer, and sociologically minded communications researcher from Prince Edward Island,(Epekwitk), Canada. My research looks at how the material design of ordinary things (sheet music, LEGO, and other everyday technologies) shapes how we think, act, and relate. These objects are part of larger systems, and at their smallest scales (data, blocks, notes), these designs privilege certain kinds of behaviours while constraining others—shaping how we imagine and enact creative practices. Drawing from sociology, anthropology, and communication studies, I use sound as a central case—examining how Apple ringtones, Tokyo’s wayfinding subway chimes, and viral TikTok clips organize attention and steer interpretation. I teach in the Inquiry Studies program and the Music Department (Applied Percussion) at the University of Prince Edward Island, and I’m writing a dissertation on why systems we treat as neutral often are not. My work spans written publications, multimedia installations, and in-situ design projects made in collaboration with orchestras, schools, and cultural institutions—for example, Canada’s National Arts Centre, National Geographic, and the PEI Symphony Orchestra. My methods are portable and iterative: compact experiments, excavations, and ethnographies (see footnotes) that trace how attention is shaped and commodified through the co-design of people and machines.