The Speaker is a Performer: Technological Design and Agencies in Electronic Music Soundsystems

Document
Document

The soundsystem in electronic music is an assemblage of deeply emotional and often overlooked collaboration between humans and machines. I believe that tracing the developmental histories of the performers in a soundsystem, both human and nonhuman, allows one to better understand the plurality of intersecting agencies present at these meeting places. Drawing from science and technology studies, I describe the histories of early American experimentalism and electronics, especially focusing on the U.S. State and military-industrial complex's key role in research and development since World War II. This context leads us to see how technologies are social participants, which reflect, recreate, and reshape the society in which they are produced. Actor-network analysis reveals the agencies of nonhuman actors, and the dynamics of energy and control moving through human-technological circuits. Finally, I attempt to apply actor-network theory, along with other sociological and musicological tools, to study compositions by Alvin Lucier and Pamela Z.

    Item Description
    Name(s)
    Thesis advisor: Autry, Robyn
    Thesis advisor: Matthusen, Paula
    Date
    April 15, 2019
    Extent
    78 pages
    Language
    eng
    Genre
    Physical Form
    electronic
    Discipline
    Rights and Use
    In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted
    Digital Collection