[ISEA2019] Paper: Andrew R. Brown, John Ferguson & Andy Bennett — Cooperative Experimentalism: Sharing to enhance electronic media

Abstract

Keywords: Sharing, Tools, Production, Music, Media, Collaboration, Electronic, Online, Open.

This article explores the impacts of information sharing and experimentation on electronic media practitioners. It draws on characteristics of ‘open’ or ‘DIY’ cultures prevalent in the technological ‘maker’ movement and suggests that we collectively describe such practices as cooperative experimentalism. In particular this article focuses on the discipline of music and describes how adopting an approach to making that privileges sharing of tools and knowledge might be a useful strategy in the development of handmade electronic music instruments and associated live performance practices. The implications of such trends in electronic media suggest that the notion of cooperative experimentalism may well apply more generally to creative electronic media practices in our (post) digital age.

  • Andrew R. Brown is Professor of Digital Arts at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. He is an active computer musician and computational artist. His research interests include digital creativity, computational aesthetics, musical intelligence, and the philosophy of technology. He pursues creative practices in computer-assisted music performance and audio-visual installations, almost always with focus on generative processes and interactions with live algorithms.
  • John Ferguson is a post-digital/electronic musician based in Brisbane Australia where he is Head of Creative Music Technology and Senior Lecturer at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University. Prior to this he held the positions at Brown University, USA, and Kingston University, London. John’s music emerges from pre-composed situations and bespoke instrumental ecologies that are activated by his improvised performance.
  • Andy Bennett is Professor of Cultural Sociology in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Science at Griffith University. He is a leading international figure in sociological studies of popular music and youth culture and has written and edited numerous books including Popular Music and Youth Culture, Music, Style and Aging and Music Scenes (co-edited with Richard A. Peterson).

Full text (PDF) p. 480-483