Yeah, still writing the thesis.

In the meantime, I thought I'd post a few tidbits. First of all, I'm moving to Canada to go to school. Second of all, I'm currently living in Bloomington with Abby. Finally, did a presentation on New Music and Technoculture for a class I took this spring. I've attached the (slightly shaky) proposal below. More to come on all of this in later days.

Proposal for "Getting to the Music: Conduits of Technology & Metaphor in New Art Music"

Musicians in American avant-garde ensembles incorporate a range of technologies in their performances. High-tech devices such as laptops and sound systems appear alongside ostensibly low-tech devices like sheet music and acoustic instruments. In spite of this regular merger of high and low, members of new music ensembles clearly distinguish between their own low-tech concerts and multimedia extravaganzas of rock bands like Radiohead.

New music practitioners commonly view the incorporation of technology with suspicion, implying that "technology is somehow false or falsifying” (Frith, 1986). By celebrating acoustic instruments’ alleged low-tech status as a source of performative pride and prestige, they criticize the overuse or misuse of technology as a route to easy, less meaningful displays of virtuosity. In order to achieve new music’s ideals, musicians must confine technology to a discreet and subliminal role that foregrounds the authority of human performers. Their language surrounding technology and performance reflects and reinforces such ideals.

My argument applies the theories of Michael Reddy and George Lakoff to avant-garde musicians’ incorporation of technology. Focusing on language and performance, I draw on my own ethnographic research with two new music ensembles, Alarm Will Sound and eighth blackbird to reveal their articulations and expressions as instruments of place and authenticity. My approach demonstrates how these musicians perceive and produce “live” music and identify “music” as a site of truth or icon of good faith.