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This book is a celebration and explication of the body in the world and the ways that our body situates our consciousness as a lived formation, one which is oriented by the experience of music listening. The book examines the relationship between bodies, technics, and music, using the theoretical tools of somatechnics. Somatechnics calls for a recognition of the body in the world as an artefact wrapped up, entangled and produced by the materialities of that world. It traverses discussions on materiality, live music, touchscreen media, the personal computer, and new modes of listening such as virtual reality technologies. Finally, the book looks at music itself as a kind of technology that generates new modes of bodily being.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Listening Through the Body.- 2. Materiality, the Bodymind, and Music Listening.- 3. Liveness in the Age of Digitization.- 4.Screen as Skin: The Somatechnics of Touchscreen Music Media.- 5. The 'Creative Listener:' Internet, Music, and the Computer-Bodymind Somatechnic.- 6. Future Bodies, Future Music.- 7. Conclusion: Music as Somatechné.
About the author
Dr Laura Glitsos is a Senior Adjunct Research Fellow in the School of Arts and Humanities at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. In addition to her expertise in the media and music industries, she has worked as a professional vocalist for which she was honoured with two Western Australian Music Awards. Dr Glitsos has published peer-review research in media studies, cultural studies, and popular music studies and lectures across the Humanities.
Somatechnics and Popular Music in Digital Contexts is her first sole-authored book.
Summary
This book is a celebration and explication of the body in the world and the ways that our body situates our consciousness as a lived formation, one which is oriented by the experience of music listening. The book examines the relationship between bodies, technics, and music, using the theoretical tools of somatechnics. Somatechnics calls for a recognition of the body in the world as an artefact wrapped up, entangled and produced by the materialities of that world. It traverses discussions on materiality, live music, touchscreen media, the personal computer, and new modes of listening such as virtual reality technologies. Finally, the book looks at music itself as a kind of technology that generates new modes of bodily being.
