This project aims to study the impact of new technologies on musical creation considering the knowledge put to use.
Project Description & Goals
The scientific advances expected at the end of this study include a better understanding of the current evolution of the popular music in the context of the disorder caused by the generalization of digital technologies now found in all stages of production. As seen above, all music is related to knowledge, but the emphasis here is laid on that which, within the popular music, relies on specific musical capacities, such as the capacity to improvise, and given this, put in practice complex knowledge. This is the case of jazz, in particular. It is therefore necessary to question the nature of this type of musical knowledge.
Beyond the technical aspect, music has a semantic aspect. This means that during an improvisation, the sound support "doubles" as something else via the sharing of common elements at the heart of a community made up of people who play, listen to, and promote this music (even if the word "community" creates more problems than in traditional ethnography connected to a given territory). At the heart of this community, musical phrases are shared during a complex game of covers and borrowing. One of the goals of this project is to follow the paths of this sharing and demonstrate how individual creations connect among themselves, leaving space for innovation.
The unique aspect of this project lies in the comparison of two types of exogenic knowledge, musical knowledge on one hand, techno-scientific knowledge on the other, although this dualism must be moderated. The idea is to see if a sort of "transplant" works in the world of improvised music because of the increasing influence of digital tools.
The criterion for success for this type of project is the clear vision that it will provide to understand the place of technology in improvised music today. It has been said that this music is full of creative energy, but that it is difficult today to draw up an overall picture of the situation. The implementation of this music is a choice made by a certain number of musicians with whom we work, and their presence is an essential element of the project’s success.
Project reference: ANR-09-SSOC-068.
