Music, Arts, and Technology. A Critical Approach (review)

An international symposium on the theme of Music, arts, and technology: A critical approach was held 12–15 December 2000. The first part (12–13 December) took place at the Université Montpellier 3 in the historic setting of Montpellier, France. The second part (14–15 December) took place at the Universitat de Barcelona in the cosmopolitan center of Barcelona. The symposium was jointly organized by Makis Solomos and Roberto Barbanti (Université Montpellier 3), along with Carmen Pardo and Enrique Lynch (Universitat de Barcelona). This multidisciplinary colloquium was instrumental in bringing together people from different domains for dialogue and debate. Among the people participating were art historians and theoreticians, musicologists, composers, artists, and philosophers. The symposium's focus was highly relevant to modern issues; a number of themes were examined, outlined below.

1. The interface between different arts.

Technological advances have by now affected all arts and this tends to blur the frontiers between them. Images, sounds, and texts are all binary information as far as a computer is concerned. This situation was discussed for two half-days during the colloquium. A distinction emerged between the opinions of the theoreticians and those of the artists. Roberto Barbanti (Université Montpellier 3), a theoretician, stated that technological evolution in art has shifted from being a media to being an ultra-media, making technology—or rather, technique—omni-present. This phenomenon has led to a reevaluation of the notion of time in art, according to Mr. Barbanti. Claire Fagnart (Université Paris 8) has examined this problem in the context of video art, with particular attention to simultaneity; experimental video has aimed at a total form of art, an interactive and immediate art.

Sven Sterken (Université de Gand) discussed Iannis Xenakis's Polytopes. Sylvie Dallet (Centre Pierre Schaeffer, Paris) evoked Pierre Schaeffer and his views on multidisciplinary art and went on to state that technological development in art creates a risk of confusion between reality and virtuality. She proposed that this quest for new techniques in art is akin to both the Orpheus myth and the Promethean temptation.

On the other hand, a number of artists presented their multidisciplinary work. Jacques Rémus (Ipotam Mécamusique, Paris) talked about sonic sculptures, outlining the history of the medium as well as his own creations. Alain Bonardi (Université Paris 4) discussed interactive opera, and André Serres (Paris) discussed a recent production which blends music and light effects controlled by a robot. Stéphane Barron (Université Montpellier 3) presented his web-based multimedia works. A final intervention was made by a researcher in computer science and music, Laurent Pottier (GMEM Centre National de Création Musicale, Marseille), who demonstrated a process for intercepting bodily movements by video and using the data to trigger audio.

2. Technique, technology, and ideology.

A second important theme, "Technique, Technology, and Ideology," was also discussed for two half-days. It focused particularly on abuses concerning technology. Jean-Marc Chouvel (Université de Reims) pointed out that change concerns the instrument rather that the essence of art, insisting on the fact that, as far as art is concerned, "[technological] progress is defective if it doesn't help us to dig [even deeper] into ourselves." Ricardo Mandolini (Université de Lille 3) said that, on the contrary, musical thinking is transformed owing to this change of instrument. He then focused on "numerical ideology," fearing that expression might become standardized.

Ray Gallon (Université Montpellier 3) evoked the links between art, technology, and economy. Martin Laliberté (Université de Dijon) looked at the origins of the concept of "new technology," which date back at least to the beginning of the 20th century. Anne Veitl (Université de Grenoble) talked about an ongoing research project which concerns itself with the sociological study of new technologies used in music; this research alludes to a new trend called "the sociology of innovation."

Philosopher Enrique Lynch (Universitat de Barcelona) focused on the notions of "medium" and "téchnè," pointing out that the means tend to become ends in themselves in today's art...