Ghost Whisperers

I have to admit this week's assignment is quite a stretch to tie into media convergence, but surprisingly enough there was relevant connections. Our readings, "Loving the Ghost in the Machine" by Janne Vanhanen, and "The Aesthetics of Failure: Post Digital Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music" by Kim Cascone both steer us toward the idea of digital convergence in the music world.

"Loving the Ghost in the Machine" gives a thoughtful look into the world of contemporary electronic music while detailing its history roots from several genres of music. The article highlights a few of the various machines used in the past to make music and how unconventional uses of these machines contributed to today's electronic music including the phonograph and its contribution to the birth of hip hop's scratching techniques.

"The Aesthetics of Failure" also highlights the emergence of electronic music but also incorporates the Internet's role to its recent popularity and availability to the everyday consumer to be composers.

Most importantly, both articles detail the history, definition and contributions of glitch, unpredictable sounds that sometimes create a ghostly unpresence of sounds outside hearing range or gaps in recorded time.

Key Points

1. Convergence - Vanhanen paraphrases Deleuze and Guattari and states "all creativity, whether it's art, philosophy or science, has to approach the outside of thought. To be able to create new ways to feel the world, new percepts and affects, one has to court the chaos and worship the glitch." To me this phrase summarizes media convergence in a nutshell especially the phrase "to create new ways to feel the world". Whatever form of media it may be, music, film, television, or radio, consumers now demand these tools come together to help them feel the world.

2. Convergence - Vanhanen again references Deleuze and Guattari and shares the concept of a "...continuous development of form..." to bring out the "life proper to matter". As we've discussed throughout this semester, convergence is a process, not an end point.

3. Academic Demand - In her conclusin Cascone eloquently calls on the academic world to embrace electronic music and begin to incorporate this genre into its research. Although many academics are unfamiliar with this music, the author implores them to engage their students to get more knowledge and be more relevant.

Discussion Questions

1. How can students encourage their professors to embrace electronic music and incorporate it into current research?

2. Is the concept of no silence similar to the concept of the impossibility of not communicating?

Relationship to present research:

This topic is very closely related because both articles, but especially Cascone's discusses the possible generational gap in the area of electronic music. There is a demand for cutting edge professors to begin to bridge the generational gap and engage their students to continue to be relevant in the modern-day classroom.