Fully Automated Luxury Composition

Authors

  • Paul Wolinski University of Huddersfield

Keywords:

Utopia, Generative Music, Automation

Abstract

This practice-based research attempts to answer the question of how utopian thinking might be applied to popular music composition. It begins by looking at automation, utopia and the utopian impulse and how they compliment as well as conflict with understandings of popular music. A methodology is established using automated, generative music techniques, based on Attali’s ideas of a future mode of composition where anyone can produce streams of non-ritualized, non-repetitive music. The resulting practice-based research tests the incorporation of these techniques into popular music composition. It also highlights conflicts between a generative mode of utopian composition that tends toward infinite, endless streams of music and the finite intentionality demanded by expectations of popular music shaped by capitalism. This opens up areas for further research investigating how far utopian thinking can help resist the pressures of capitalism in relation to popular music composition.

Author Biography

Paul Wolinski, University of Huddersfield

As part of Sheffield-based noise band 65daysofstatic, Paul has released seven albums and performed all over the world. Other 65 projects have included live soundtracks, short films, 3D remix engines and site-specific A/V installations usually featuring unhealthy numbers of speakers and/or hacked electronics. In 2016 they released the critically acclaimed ‘infinite’, dynamic, generative in-game soundtrack for ‘No Man’s Sky’. As a solo artist, Paul has released two albums. His first, Labyrinths (2011) was a noisy take on dance music. His second, Full Bleed (2014) was a move into bleaker, more experimental territory, building compositions mostly from tape hiss, pianos, distortion pedals and badly-designed MIDI-generators. He is currently studying for a PhD in Music Composition at the University of Huddersfield. His research practise so far has taken in live-coding, composing with/for game engines and thinking about (a)temporality in the context of composing electronic music. More information: 65daysofstatic.com — paulwolinski.co.uk — @polinski

References

Bibliography

Adorno, T. W. 1941. On Popular Music. (with George Simpson). Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung 9(1): 17-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/zfs1941913

Attali, J. 1977. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Collins, N. and Brown, A. R. (2009) Generative Music Editorial. Contemporary Music Review 28:1, pages 1-4. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494460802663967

De Cock, C. 2009. Jumpstarting the future with Fredric Jameson: Reflections on capitalism, science fiction and Utopia. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 22 (4): 437–449. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09534810910967198

Jameson, F. –

, Archaeologies of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. New York: Verso.

, Valences of the Dialectic. New York: Verso.

Manuel, P. (2013), Modernity and Musical Structure: Neo-Marxist Perspectives on Song Form and Its Successors. In R. B. Qureshi Ed. Music and Marx: Ideas, Practise, Politics. New York: Routledge: 45-62.

Rando, D.P. 2014. The Music of Wish Images: Walter Benjamin, Filesharing, and Utopia. Journal of Popular Music Studies 26 (2-3): 321–345. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpms.12079

Schafer, R. M. 1994. The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Rochester, Vt: Destiny Books.

Stokes, M. 2013. Marx, Money, and Musicians. In R. B. Qureshi Ed. Music and Marx: Ideas, Practise, Politics. New York: Routledge: 139-163.

Williams, A. and Srnicek, N. 2015. Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work. London: Verso.

Videography

Novara Media, 2014, “Fully Automated Luxury Communism!”, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmQ-BZ3eWxM. Accessed: 4 December 2017.

Sony CSL-Paris, 2016, “Daddy's Car: a song composed by Artificial Intelligence - in the style of the Beatles”, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSHZ_b05W7o. Accessed: 4 December 2017.

Interviews

The Long Now Foundation, 2003, Brian Eno Interviewed by D Hillis, Seminars About Long-term Thinking, 14 November. http://longnow.org/seminars/02003/nov/14/the-long-now/. Accessed: 4 December 2017.

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

20-12-2017

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 2 (2017): Practice-Led and Practice-Based Popular Music Studies

Section

Articles – Special Issue

License

Authors retain copyright, while licensing their work under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.