practice and discipline

– rooted in colonialist practices (kings, courts, patrons)
– embodied imperialism via creative pedagogy and some types of training (the stern teacher)
– instruments as autoamputational machines + mechanisms of control

the disappearing piano

– tied to emergence of post-industrialism
– piano as signifier as wealth (in other words, furniture, not instrument)
– digital pianos
– sampling as threat to the instrument, which may disappear it altogether
– otoh, the piano as stored in the body via practice remains, although unclear for how long
– synthesizers
– controllers (including mini controllers)
– as space/resources become more scarce, and music becomes more tied to the body, the piano becomes smaller, more virtual

synthesizers, real and virtual
– democratizing, neoliberalizing or both?
— understanding of tone, but lack of understanding of programmability
– as containers/carriers of consumerism
– as both pro- and anti-labor devices

further reading

– benjamin (The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility)
– adorno (negative dialectics, dialectics of enlightenment)
– deleuze and music
– mcluhan (autoamputation)

open to non-white guy suggestions for further reading