This week I’ve conducted a research for my thesis on websites listed below:

  • NYU Library
  • Google Scholar
  • Research Gate,

In 1st day of my research I was interested in musical infrastructure and how it has changed throughout 20th century and 21st century. On NYU Library platform, I found a book written by Kyle Devine: Decomposed, The Political Ecology of Music. The book is divided in three parts, 1900-1950 (Shellac), 1950-2000 (Plastic), 2000-now (Data). I’ve read the third chapter and my main takeaway was that use of streaming platforms has decreased the use of unsustainable materials like plastic in the late 20th century but it had increased the greenhouse gas emissions due to external providers of databases and their use of uranium and other fuels for providing the service. Music is mostly played from mobile devices and computers that replaced previous mediums that were made specifically for music while mobile devices have various functions and that’s why users seem to forget about the “invisible” infrastructure of network and labor that is happening behind the scenes.

“One problem with those ideas is that they ignore music’s digital infrastructures and accessory technologies, which are energy hungry, labor intensive, wasteful, and inseparable from the seemingly virtual act of clicking a mouse. Another problem is the Jevons effect. Even though the development of digital audio files could hypothetically mean that Spotify and YouTube are all we need to enjoy recorded music and to build senses of identity and community through it, the reality is that the number of available music formats and the weight of our music consumption are increasing in the twenty-first century.” Kyle Devine

The article I chose to respond to in this week’s research is called: Engagement and interaction in participatory sound art, by: Visda Goudarzi and Artemi-Maria Gioti.

This academic paper found on Research Gate explores human computer interaction (HCI) in terms of technological development and sound creation between different stakeholders (composers, performers, spectators). Technological advancement narrowed the gap between designers and sound makers due to democratization of instruments, community based design and DIY. My response is that music has changed the place of where it is presented from clubs, museums, galleries to public spaces.  This enables the community to shift from traditional approach, where only experts in the field were able to compose, perform, execute final decisions to a system where broader audience could haver agency for the output where everyone can be involved in the creative process and infrastructure. In terms of architectural space and soundscapes I imagine that people living in a shared community can have agency and decide democratically on the soundscapes that they would like to engage with in a certain space that is planned to be build (park, road, playground). I think that AR and WebGL are the technologies that would enable participatory experiences for a broader specter of a community.

Next topics to be researched:

  • AR and sound
  • relationships and emotions through music & sound
  • kinetic energy through body movement

Dream review

1.

_____ is a musical/sound research project that explores new tools for collaborative creative processes, using augmented reality to allow proposals to be placed in the physical environment (public space).  Participants are able to record sounds in space through a microphone which are visualized in the AR environment.