About Buttons, Colours, Bugs and Sounds
Cooperation between human and non-human actants in the production of popular music
This dissertation project examines the collaboration between human and non-human actors in the creative process of producing popular music. The research scheme connects to the current academic debate on creativity and the “musicology of record production”.
Creative work is primarily regarded as a human ability that is made possible by individual equipment, such as skills and knowledge, and by social components, such as interaction with others. However, especially in current forms of creation - such as the digitally supported creation of popular music (“record production”) - non-human entities occupy an active position (e.g. in the stabilization/recording of situational music-making). In order to capture their sometimes trivial activities, however, it is necessary to treat these non-human entities, like the musicians themselves, as actors - in the sense of actor-network theory. This means that they appear in a cooperative relationship, so that their (co-)action in “music-making” can be understood as a form of collaboration.
Based on these considerations, I pursue the following research question: How do human and non-human actors cooperate in the creative process of digitally or electronically supported music-making (producing, composing) of popular music? Using focused video-based observations of studio and home recording work as well as semi-structured interviews with musicians, the generative process is empirically recorded and this data is evaluated in a systematic analysis stage.
The research project aims to develop a deeper understanding of socio-material relations in the digitally supported creative process of popular music. It also seeks to contribute to the theoretical debate on creativity, taking into account the participation of non-human actors.
First supervisor: Univ. Prof. Dr. Carolin Stahrenberg, ABU
Second supervisor: Ao. Univ. Prof. Dr. Tasos Zembylas, mdw
Biography
L. Roman Duffner, doctoral student at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, is a trained musicologist and sociologist. His research interests include studies on music and society, socio-technological and material aspects of music practice and practices of creative work. After his studies at the University of Vienna, he worked at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz. Here he dealt with various music sociological topics, such as the pop/rock band as a form of organisation or the effects of the digital transformation on the music album in popular music. He published a scientific article on the "push button" as a creative interaction instance and an artistic-scientific graphic novel on the topic of “creativity theories”. At AMIS 2021, he presented his findings on the “Guitar Strap” - its form, use and contribution in music performance.
His PhD project explores the collaboration between human and non-human actors in the process of creating popular music. He is interested in how creativity and creative work in high-tech music production can be understood beyond human skills and imagination.