Experimental music and the question of what a body can do

Thompson, Marie (2017) Experimental music and the question of what a body can do. In: Musical encounters with Deleuze and Guattari. Bloomsbury, pp. 149-167. ISBN 9781501316746

Documents
experimental music and the question of what can a body do final.docx

Request a copy
25812 experimental music and the question of what can a body do final.pdf

Request a copy
[img] Microsoft Word
experimental music and the question of what can a body do final.docx - Whole Document
Restricted to Repository staff only

219kB
[img] PDF
25812 experimental music and the question of what can a body do final.pdf - Whole Document
Restricted to Repository staff only

715kB
Item Type:Book Section
Item Status:Live Archive

Abstract

Experimental music practices have frequently explored the potentials of different sound-making devices – be they ‘conventional’ instruments, everyday objects, recording media or human bodies. In this chapter, I suggest that experimental musicians can be understood to interrogate the ‘not yet knowing’ of Baruch Spinoza’s famous axiom: ‘no-one has yet determined what a body can do’. As Deleuze makes clear, the Spinozist body, constituted by its relations of motions and rest; and by its power to affect and be affected, might be a human body, but it might also be an electronic circuit, a performer with an instrument, or an improvising collective. I explore Spinoza’s question of ‘what can a body do?’ in relation to two artists: the improvising cellist Okkyung Lee and media artist Yasunao Tone – both of whom can be understood to explore the audio-affective capacities of sound-making bodies. Using these examples, I argue Deleuze’s Spinoza provides a fruitful basis for a materialist account of musical praxis. It can be used to capture something of the complex, affective relations that occur between performing bodies, instruments, electronics and media technologies; helping us to move beyond the insufficient binary between active ‘musicking’ subjects and passive musical objects that has often dominated musicological thought.

Keywords:Experimental music, materialism, Spinoza, Deleuze
Subjects:V Historical and Philosophical studies > V500 Philosophy
W Creative Arts and Design > W300 Music
Divisions:College of Arts > Lincoln School of Film & Media > Lincoln School of Film & Media (Media)
ID Code:25812
Deposited On:01 Feb 2017 17:39

Repository Staff Only: item control page