Event overview
How Genre Conditions Political Messages in New Music and Sound Art. A forum led by composer Ian Power.
There is often a tendency to think of new or experimental music as beyond category or (maybe in iTunes) “unclassifiable.” This relies, however, on an outdated idea that fine art’s material is somehow exempt from being conditioned by the social conventions of its genre. When new music is considered as a genre, though, the social organization of the community and its events come into view, and its potential for making tangible political statements becomes easier to estimate.
Power will give a demonstration of just what the political implications of new music as a genre are, and give examples of how certain political pieces unintentionally engage in the appropriation, trauma, and caricature of colonial artistic discourse. He will present some of his own music as a test case of how thinking in this way manifests aesthetically in his music, which is not at first blush explicitly political.
Because this thinking derives from examining new music as a genre, it is readily applicable to other genres (with their unique social hierarchies), and Power will lead a discussion as well as examine students’ works (in whatever style) with an eye to how artists can be most productive politically (whether we mean to be or not).
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 9 Feb 2016 | 1:30pm - 3:00pm |
Accessibility
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