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"Shows what can be learned from an in-depth study of a very remarkable cultural institution."—Paul Rabinow, author of Interpretive Social Science
"The finest application yet made of critical theory to contemporary music. . . . It would be hard to imagine a more important book."—Richard Taruskin, author of Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions
"This work, intrinsically fascinating as is the subject matter, is eminently worth consulting as a model for researchers and students of all varieties about how to produce ethnography within institutions, but on the most lively issues of culture theory."—George Marcus, coeditor of Writing Culture
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
I. Themes and Debates
2. Prehistory: Modernism, Postmodernism, and Music
3· Background: IRCAM's Conditions of Existence
4· The Institution of IRCAM: Culture and Status
5. Power, Institutional Conflict, Politics
6. Music: Uncertainty, the Canon, and Dissident Musics
7. Science, Technology, the Music Research Vanguard
8. A Composer's Visit: Mediations and Practices
9· Aporias: Technological and Social Problems around Production
IO. Subjectivities: Difference and Fragmentation
II. Conclusions: IRCAM, Cultural Power, and the Reproduction of Aesthetic Modernism
Appendix: IRCAM Workers and Visitors as Introduced in the Text, by Acronym
Glossary of terms and acronyms in the text
Notes
General Bibliography
Bibliography of Music-Related References
Index
About the author
Georgina Born is University Lecturer in the Sociology of Culture and Media at the University of Cambridge, and Official Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
Summary
This is an ethnography of a powerful western cultural organization, the renowned Institut de Recherche et de Co-ordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris. The book studies the social and cultural economy of an institution for research and production of avant-garde and computer music.
