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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00483
- Thesis Title
- Actor-Network Music: A Paradigm for Distributed, Networked Music Composition
- Author
- Kelly Michael Fox
- E-mail
- kmichaelfox.contact AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- Masters of Fine Arts
- Year
- 2015
- Number of Pages
- 65
- University
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
- Thesis Supervisor
- Michael Century
- Supervisor e-mail
- century AT rpi.edu
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Shawn Lawson, Robert Nideffer, Daniel Iglesia
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English
- Department / Discipline
- Department of the Arts
- Copyright Ownership
- Kelly Michael Fox, 2015
- Languages Familiar to Author
- URL where full thesis can be found
- Keywords
- network music, agency, localized music, distributed composition
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- In Parallel – a musical installation for networked iOS apps – music and ideas about its production on distributed, networked mobile devices are explored in a paradigm described as “Actor-Network Music.” This paradigm bridges ideas of Actor Network Theory from sociology and the Network Music practice. To create a performance context for the presentation of these practices, Kelly Michael Fox and Raven Kwok created an iOS app called ANMPlatform which was used by visitors to the installation. The installation’s computer system allowed the networked communication of these devices so that the influence of all visitors present could be distributed throughout the system. Parallel premiered and was exhibited March 5–7, 2015 in Troy, NY at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center Studio 2.
In this thesis, the author provides a description of Actor-Network Music paradigm and the technology that enabled it. The aesthetic considerations of such a compositional practice are also analyzed through the lens of music theory, agency, and computer interactivity. This text concludes with a discussion of the research trajectory of these ideas, considering different configurations of the system that was constructed for the installation.