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IMPROVISING TECHNOLOGY, CONSTRUCTING VIRTUOSITY | Jeff Kaiser
IMPROVISACIÓN DE LA TECNOLOGÍA Y CONSTRUCCIÓN DEL VIRTUOSISMO
IMPROVISAÇÃO DA TECNOLOGIA E CONSTRUÇÃO DO VIRTUOSISMO
Improvising Technology,
Constructing Virtuosity*
Jeff Kaiser**
Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas
/ Volumen 13- Número 2 / Julio - Diciembre de 2018
/ ISSN 1794-6670/ Bogotá, D.C., Colombia / pp. 87-96
Fecha de recepción: 12 de enero de 2018
Fecha de aceptación: 1 de abril de 2018
Disponible en línea: 6 de julio de 2018
doi 10.11144/javeriana.mavae13-2.itcv
Research paper. This research paper is part of a larger, ethnographic project examining contemporary
musicians who improvise with new, repurposed, and reinvented electronic technologies.
Assistant Professor of Music, Music Technology and Composition, University of Central Missouri.
Music technologist, trumpet player, composer, conductor and scholar. Bachelor’s Degree in Music
Composition from Westmont College and Master of Music in Choral and Orchestral Conducting
from Azusa Pacic University. Ph. D. in Integrative Studies (Music) from the University of California,
San Diego. ORCID: 0000-0002-7578-9953
Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas / Volumen 13 - Número 2
julio - diciembre de 2018 / ISSN 1794-6670/ Bogotá, D.C., Colombia / pp. 87–96 8988
Abstract
In this paper, I explore how contemporar y musicians using ele c-
tronic techn ologies i n improvise d music conceptualize skill and
virtuosity in the ir musical practic es. This in cludes id eas about
the role and ag ency of technolog y, l earned and repeat able physi-
cal skill, skill acquisition, skill transmission, and the projection of
learned sk ill from traditional i nstrument s onto new instr uments.
The musicians’ use of idi osyncra tic and indi viduall y constru cted
instruments— instrume nts with lit tle or no history of a pe rfor-
mance pra ctice —makes this eld a ri ch resource to examine
how such con ceptions a re developed. Amon g the musici ans I
interviewed,the rel ationship b etween physical skill and vir tuos-
ity is par ticula rly contes ted. Whil e they frequently value su ch
skill, they al so connec t it to perceived excesses of c ertain fac-
tions with in Western art music , jazz, and other esta blished musi-
cal per formance practic es where phys ical skill c an be conated
with (or considered as t he primar y element of) music al skill,
writ large. This perc eption of the excess and the p rioritiz ation of
physical sk ill have led some inter viewed musicians to ado pt anti-
virtuosity as a rea ctive cou nter-ide ology or to explore the less
tangibl e concept s of hearing, creativ ity, imagination, me mory,
novelty, innov ation, and even ideas of ma nagement as constitu-
tive of music al virtu osity an d skill. This paper is p art of a larger
ethnogra phic examination of a dive rse cross -sec tion of contem-
porar y musician s who improvise with new, repu rposed , and re-
invented elec tronic technologies, including Rober t Henke (one
of the origin al authors of the soft ware pack age Abl eton Live),
guitaris t Nels Cline (Wilco), comp oser and u te player Anne La
Berge, and tr umpeter/composer Wa dada Le o Smith.
Keywords: Virtuosity, improvisation,
music, technology.
Resumen
En este artí culo explo ro cómo los mú sicos conte mporáneos
que utiliza n las tecnologías electrónic as en la músic a improvi -
sada con ceptualizan la habilidad y el virtuosis mo en sus prác-
ticas musi cales. Esto incluye ideas sobre e l papel y la función
de la tecnol ogía, la s habilid ades físic as aprend idas y repet ibles,
la adquisi ción de habilidad es, la trans misión de habilidades y
la proyecci ón de la hab ilidad ap rendida de los instrumentos
tradicionales a nuevo s instrume ntos. El uso de instrumento s
idiosincrásicos e individualmente construidos—instrumentos
con poca o ninguna his toria de una p ráctic a de interpret ación —
por par te de los músic os hace de e ste campo u n recurso ri co
para analizar cómo se d esarrollan estos tip os de conc epciones.
Entre los músic os que entrev isté, la relac ión entre la habilidad
física y el vi rtuosismo es par ticular mente controve rtida . Si bien
frecuenteme nte valoran d icha habi lidad, t ambién la relaciona n
con los excesos percibi dos de cier tas fac ciones de ntro de la
música occidental, el jazz y otras prácticas establecidas de in-
terpretac ión music al en las que la habilidad física se c onsider a
combina da con (o considerad a el elemento p rimario d e) la habi -
lidad musical escrita a gran escala. Esta percepción del exceso
y la prioriz ación de l a habilid ad física h a llevado a al gunos de
los músico s entrevista dos a adop tar la antiv irtuosidad com o
una contra-ideología reactiva o a explorar los conceptos menos
tangibles de audición, creatividad, imaginación, memoria, nove-
dad, innov ación e inc luso ideas de la gesti ón como constitutiva
de virtu osismo musical y habi lidad. Este artícu lo hace parte de
un examen etno gráco más amplio d e una muestra represen -
tativa diversa de músicos contem poráneos que improv isan con
tecnologías electrónicas nuevas, reutilizadas y reinventadas,
incluyendo Rober t Henke (uno de los autores or iginales del
paquete de software A bleton L ive, inmens amente popular), el
guitarr ista Nels C line (W ilco, Yoko Ono, entre otros), la co mpo-
sitora y autista Ann e La Berge , y el trompeti sta y comp ositor
Wadada Leo Smith.
Palabras clave: Virtuosismo, improvisación,
música, tecnología.
Resumo
Neste artigo explo ro a maneira c omo os músic os contemp o-
râneos que u tilizam as te cnologias eletrôni cas na músi ca im-
provisad a conceit uam a habilidade e o vir tuosismo em suas
práticas musicais . Isto inclui i deias sob re o papel e a função
da tecnologia, as ha bilidad es físicas aprendid as e repetíve is, a
aquisição de habili dades, a t ransmiss ão de habil idades e a pro-
jeção da h abilida de aprendi da dos inst rumentos tr adicion ais a
novos instru mentos. O uso d e instrume ntos idioss incrásic os e
individualmente construído s—instrumentos com pouca ou ne -
nhuma histór ia de uma prática de inte rpretaç ão— por parte dos
músicos faz d este camp o um recurso r ico para analisar como
se desenvolvem estes tipos de conce pções. Entre os músicos
que entrevistei, a relaçã o entre a habilidade física e o vir tuosis -
mo é parti cularme nte controver tida. A pesar de que frequente-
mente valorizam esta ha bilidad e, também a relacion am com os
excessos percebidos d e certas facçõe s dentro da mús ica oci -
dental, o ja zz e outras p ráticas e stabelecidas de interpretação
musical on de a habili dade física se consi dera comb inada co m
(ou consid erada o ele mento primá rio da) hab ilidade musical es -
crita a gra nde escala. Esta p ercepção do excesso e a prioriza -
ção da hab ilidade f ísica zeram com que alguns dos músicos
entrevista dos adotassem a anti -vir tuosidade como um a contra
ideologia reativa ou explorassem os conceitos menos tangíveis
de audição, criatividade, imaginação, memória, novidade, ino-
vação e inc lusive ideias da gest ão como co nstituti va de vir tuo-
sismo music al e habili dade. Este artigo faz parte de um exame
etnográco mais amplo de uma amostra representativa diversa
de músicos c ontempor âneos que improvisam c om tecnol ogias
eletrônicas novas, reutilizadas e reinventadas, incluindo Robert
Henke (um dos autores originais do pac ote de soft ware Able-
ton Live, imensamente po pular), o gu itarris ta Nels Cline (W ilco,
Yoko Ono, entre outros), a composi tora e auti sta Anne L a Ber-
ge, e o trompetista e comp ositor Wad ada Leo S mith.
Palavras chave: Virtuosismo, improvisação,
música, tecnologia.
8988 IMPROVISING TECHNOLOGY, CONSTRUCTING VIRTUOSITY | Jeff Kaiser
This paper is part of a larger ethnographic project examining contemporary musicians who
improvise with new, repurposed and reinvented electronic technologies, including, among oth-
ers: guitarist Nels Cline, turntablist Maria Chavez, trumpeter and composer Wadada Leo Smith,
and Robert Henke, one of the original authors of the immensely popular software package
Ableton Live. In the larger work, I examine changing notions of agency, instruments and virtuos-
ity in electro-acoustic improvised music (EAIM), and how the interviewees construct what is
valuable and desirable in this emergent practice. In addition to documenting how these creative
individuals congure technologies for their own purposes, I highlight how technologies can also
congure musicians and musical communities by affording specic ways of creating aesthetic
and social value. Musical cultures and communities across time and place are frequently differ-
entiated by geography, by the instruments used, by notions of style or repertoire, and by musi-
cal function and venues, among other things. In EAIM, I argue, many of these differentiating
elements are blurred, as the music is transnational in emergence and practice, instruments are
frequently idiosyncratic, and improvisation1 arguably de-centers repertoire (“arguably” because
non-idiomatic and other forms of improvisation can be viewed as a style, or even possibly as a
repertoire of musical gestures). Because of this blurring, the EAIM community offers a unique
window into how musicians conceptualize their practice and relationship with music technology.
The interviews and observations began when I was in residency at STEIM laboratories
(STudio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam in 2010, were developed during two exten-
sive stays in Berlin, at home in the United States, and continue today. At STEIM, there was a con-
stant ow of international artists in residence who work in EAIM, making it a great location to be-
gin collecting interviews of musicians. All artists were asked the same set of ten initial questions:
1. Please describe what you do. Can you describe your sound?
2. Why do you work in electro-acoustic improvised music? What is compelling about
the medium?
3. How does your music differ from what others in the eld do? Who do you view as
similar?
4. Is your music driven by a specic aesthetic?
5. What tools2 and instruments are used? Can you please describe your physical re-
lationship to your tools/instruments? Are you passionate about a tool or specic
technological platform? Why? Do your tools inuence the way you play?
6. What other artists do you work with? What type of instruments do other members
of their ensembles use? What are the sizes of ensembles?
7. Where do you live? How does the environment affect and inform your music?
8. What venues/locations do you perform at? Who is your audience?
9. What is driving the creation of the music? Artists, audience, technologists, tools,
reception, industry?
10. What are the conceptions of skill in EAIM? What musicians do you think exemplify
this skill and why? How does one gain such skills?
These initial questions led to further questions: from examining the role of race and
gender identity, to discussions of semiotics and sound-metaphor. Throughout the inter-
views, I pursued the core questions, but there were four particular areas of examination that
artists seemed to nd the most compelling: describing their work, discussing what they nd
Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas / Volumen 13 - Número 2
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compelling about the medium, explaining their relationship with tools, and articulating their
conceptions of skill alongside ideas of virtuosity (i.e., special or exemplary skill). It is the last
question about skill and virtuosity that I will be focusing on in this paper, particularly on the
role that interaction with technology plays in constructing ideas of skill and the move to valu-
ing conceptual skills as a reaction to certain traditions where physical skills are perceived by
many interviewees as over-emphasized.
Performer/technologist Joel Ryan, a professor at the Institute of Sonology in Den Haag
who has performed extensively with Evan Parker’s Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, told me in
his interview that electronic music came into the world “without a performance practice”
(Ryan 2010). EAIM has appeared recently so that interviewing contemporary musicians
about the technical and conceptual details of their practice presents us with the opportunity
to observe the development of these practices as they emerge. Since these individuals fre-
quently create single, unique instruments that only they perform with, they also create their
own unique corresponding performance practice. As musician/technologist Gregory Taylor
told me about his instrument, “I’m the only one that plays it, knows it. I’m the only person
who has it. Therefore, I’m a virtuoso on it” (Taylor 2010).
The innovative use and design of new instruments and tools is a part of the culture of
electronic music. This focus on constructing the new is seen by some of the interviewees
as liberating from the history of traditional instruments and all that tradition entails, namely
performance practices, timbral expectations, and pedagogical traditions. At the same time,
performers and creators using these new technologies are not able to escape the collabora-
tive force of the object. That is, the instrument itself acts as a collaborator in the develop-
ment of a new performance practice by either restraining certain behaviors or urging and
encouraging others.
However, the role of technology was a point of contention and difference with many
of those interviewed, from Nels Cline’s (2011) assertion of his agency over the technology,
I like to think that the technology is not driving me, I like to think that I’m trying to emulate
sounds I’ve heard in recordings, in concerts, even in my dreams, in my head…those sounds
are me deciding what’s going to come out of the speakers. Those effects didn’t tell me to do
that, I made them do that by turning them on in a certain way, a certain sequence, certain pa-
rameters all at the same time, excluding others that would be extraneous and would somehow
diminish my sonic mayhem.
to Wadada Leo Smith’s (2012) assertion of the agency of the technology in discussing
the wah-wah pedal:
All these things are alive, they just have different kind of ways of expressing it. They are alive,
the moment you touch it your senses tell you that you have made a connection. And it knows
you’ve made a connection because whatever you do, it responds to you. So, what is that,
except a living organic connection.
Even the company that makes the popular electronic music programming environment,
Max/MSP (@cycling74), commented on agency in a Twitter post on November 16, 2012, say-
ing, “#maxisnot telling you what you make.” In certain circles, there still remains concern
over the agency of technology and the supplantation of human primacy in music making.
9190 IMPROVISING TECHNOLOGY, CONSTRUCTING VIRTUOSITY | Jeff Kaiser
Regardless, the construction of tools constructs possibilities of practice. These possibil-
ities or opportunities for musical action can be referred to as “affordances.” Subverting origi-
nal intentions reveals affordances that were masked by those very intentions. Exploration,
then, becomes an element of virtuosity through the unmasking of possibilities.
The term affordance was developed by psychologist James J. Gibson but furthered by
other theorists, including Paul Dourish (2001), who writes,
Traditionally, affordances are features of the artifact… that afford particular sorts of action to ap-
propriately equipped individuals… However, features of the design also afford particular ways
of understanding it, and particular ways of conceptualizing the relationship between the artifact
and the environment… (185)
While some affordances are apparent on the surface, others must be further concep-
tualized or discovered/unmasked in relationship and bodily interaction with the instrument.
Paul Dourish (2001) presents a possible and helpful model for this, saying, “Embodied in-
teraction is the creation, manipulation, and sharing of meaning through engaged interaction
with artifacts” (126).
Interviewee and turntablist Ignaz Schick’s (2010) music illustrates the feedback this
“engaged interaction with artifacts” gives to the artist on the development of a perfor-
mance practice as he deconstructs, dissects, and destroys turntables. While experiment-
ing early on in his career, Schick accidentally disabled one of the most salient features
of a modern phonograph/turntable: the means of electronic amplication. Consternation
over the loss of the cartridge amplication system, combined with his own self-described
lack of soldering skills, set him on the musical path he has been on for over twenty years.
Suddenly, the turntable mat became a spinning source of friction to objects held station-
ary against the mats’ rotation, the turntable mat began acting as a bow would on a string
instrument, exciting vibrations that could be amplied. This accident, this unintentional
act, could be attributed to randomness, to Schick as creative agent, to the turntable hav-
ing agency, or to all three. But important to this is the affordance of the instrument itself.
The practice was not developed or conceptualized by Schick alone, but came about as an
engaged interaction between Schick and the object: the turntable was a force in the devel-
opment (Schick 2010).
Schick and the instrument become partnered, creating a more complex environment,
where the object pushes back on the artist, as the artist pushes on the instrument; a rela-
tionship that is strongly characteristic of what literature and philosophy professor Mark B. N.
Hansen calls “system-environment hybrids,” which arise out of complexity:
worldly (environmental) complexity has become so intense and so messy […] that any effort
to reduce it through selection by systems (or their avatars) cannot ignore the agency that is
wielded by the environment, and second, the operation of this environmental agency is now
predominantly and ever increasingly technical, meaning that system function is irrevocably
permeated by technicity from the environment. (Clarke and Hansen 2009, 113)
Through this complex interaction—including cyclical feedback between us and our
“complex cultural and technological environments” as Andy Clark (2003), Chair of Logic
and Metaphysics at Edinburgh University writes—meaning and understanding emerge. With
Schick (2010) and other contemporary turntablists, the environment itself has become so
Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas / Volumen 13 - Número 2
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thick with objects that, as Hansen said about system-environment hybrids, you “cannot
ignore the agency that is wielded by the environment” (Clarke and Hansen 2009, 113),
including, of course, what “things” are in that environment. As Wayne Bowman (quoted in
Bresler 2004) argues,
mind extends beyond the physical body into the social and cultural environments that exert
major inuence on the body and shape all human experience…The boundary between “mind”
and “world” is at once much more problematic and far more multi-faceted than cognitivist
theory allow. (36–37)
Critically acclaimed and known among his peers for his “virtuoso” turntablist skills, dj
sniff is insistent on being able to perform his own experimental music that he feels differs
in dramatic ways from popular forms using the turntable, in particular, by eschewing the
strong, regular beat associated with much dance music.
In dj sniff’s hardware setup at the time of my interview, the crossfader would cut the
signal from the turntable, sending it to the software (authored by dj sniff in Max/MSP) run-
ning on a Mac mini. The computer has no attached screen: for dj sniff, the focus must re-
main on the instrument (i.e., the turntable); for dj sniff, a screen would be a distraction, not
only for the artist, but for the audience as well. The cutting action of the crossfader not only
sends the audio to the computer, but also sends a corresponding message to the computer,
asking it to record the audio and store it, and then to play either that recorded sample or
another randomized sample that was recorded earlier. This technique of interface connects
dj sniff’s self-described “motoric skills” to the performance, helping his music to become
“very physical and very gestural” (Lippit 2010). The concept of focusing on the physical
performance is important to dj sniff and has developed out of observing other experimental
performances involving a laptop, where it might appear that the physical involvement of the
performer is on a par with browsing the Internet or checking one’s email.
During his tenure as artistic director at STEIM, dj sniff met with artists-in-residence
to discuss current and historical trends and developments regarding the creation of instru-
ments. According to dj sniff, this almost always led to a discussion of ideas of virtuosity in
performance: “Most people, including myself, think it is one of the central things of music
making or of the performance of what we want to see.” dj sniff is quick to dismiss ideas of
virtuosity dened solely by “motoric skills.” dj sniff says that some of the research group
members would argue that the term is dened solely in such a way, and that is the reason
many members of the group believed that virtuosity should be left out of the discussion.
But dj sniff and others do not want to leave it behind; instead, they seek to redene, re-
imagine, and remediate the term in a way that is relevant to EAIM and contemporary musi-
cal practice in general.
Interviewee Olivier di Placido (2010) said, “I think at one point every musician starts to
have some virtuosity, some skills. Then you start to build your home.” Being a virtuoso is
always being a virtuoso in something, and at some place, in some time, with something.
Virtuosity, with Placido, is being constructed as it is being developed. The tension in rela-
tionships in such a discourse—for example, between actors such as performers, critics,
composers, and audiences with conicting conceptions of skills, tradition, innovation, mo-
toric ability, and notions of artistry—becomes as much a dening aspect as the skill itself,
and the conicting views a part of the reason virtuosity is so readily dismissed by certain
9392 IMPROVISING TECHNOLOGY, CONSTRUCTING VIRTUOSITY | Jeff Kaiser
interviewees. As Yutaka Makino (2010), who has performed in the past with dj sniff, said,
“I’ve never thought of virtuosity… for me, it is tied with the classical lineage… I try to be
as discrete as possible. For me, that [questions of virtuosity in this music] doesn’t make
any sense.”
One day in Amsterdam, I was sitting on a bench enjoying a particularly lovely fall day
in the Spui and discussing the idea of virtuosity in this music with Michael Moore, a well-
known clarinetist and saxophonist with the Dutch ensemble ICP. Moore would have nothing
to do with the word virtuosity. Every time I said “virtuosity” he would vehemently dismiss
it, as he feels the word is too poisoned by its past conation with playing fast and overly
dramatic displays of excess skill. Yet in terms of virtuosity, if dened as both technical ability
and broader ideas of artistry, Moore is with few equals. This anti-virtuosity view was also
stated by other interviewees. Further pursuit of this line of questioning surrounding ideas of
virtuosity led to the importance of musical identity as the artist’s conceptualization, articula-
tion and expression of their artistic individuality as well as ideas of cultural, genre, commu-
nity, and lineage afliation they might share with others with whom they similarly identify. To
be a virtuoso in the traditional sense, for many interviewees, was not to express one’s own
identity, but to be dened by somebody else’s identity and the imposition of these identi-
ties on the performer. Some scholars of Western art music argue that it was at the time
of the Romantic era in classical music that the idea of virtuosity changed to a focus on the
ability to motorically present the specics given by a composer, leading to the alienation of
performers. For example, author Susan Bernstein (1998), writes that Wagner,
conceives of execution primarily as adequate repetition…Because the compositional thought
is the prior origin of the performance, execution is considered a relation of identical repetition,
almost like that of the printing press to a manuscript… (85–87)
She continues, referring to the virtuoso as,
the usurper of [the composer’s] identity, the delegate of himself…an extension of the com-
poser’s pen…Ideally, the virtuoso would be a musical instrument, that, the kind of instrument
that is thoroughly effaced in the presence of the ends it serves…The proper characteristic of
the virtuoso is to have no proper characteristics… (Bernstein 1998, 85–87)
It is easy to see how a practice such as EAIM, dominated by idiosyncratic performers,
instruments, and improvisers, might rebel against this conception of virtuosity, rejecting the
loss of individuality, participation, and the expression of identity. However, many in EAIM
eschew the entire dismissal of the term, and are more interested in redening virtuosity.
Robert Henke (2010) said,
I came to this originally with the idea of the total liberation from virtuosity by electronics. The
computer does everything that needs virtuosity, all you need is the brain. All you need to have
is an idea. I no longer think this is true, because there is a strong connection between the ideas
you have and the virtuosity you have with your instrument. The more you can play, the more
you do play. I judge virtuosity very high, rehearsing and practicing very high. You can become
good at moving a fader… I have this specic haptic connection with those faders… This is why
people like certain hardware, they are skilled at using it in a certain way… If you want to per-
form in a convincing way you have to react and this implies that you know your tools.
Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas / Volumen 13 - Número 2
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In certain ideas about virtuosity,3 there is a conceptual aspect, sometimes called
“artistry,” that is considered alongside skill/technique. This complex relationship between
physical technique and conceptual ability has led to an examination of proportions: technique
considered mostly devoid of artistry might be referred to as “empty virtuosity.” Empty vir-
tuosity, then, becomes a reductive, quantiable value: i.e., if you do this, this, and this, you
are a virtuoso. There is certainly a backlash against ideas of empty virtuosity among musi-
cians working in diverse musical elds, including improvised musics. This backlash has led to
many interviewees re-imagining virtuosity as more purely conceptual. Interviewees included
the following in dening virtuosity: local (to the performer), listening, knowing, decision mak-
ing, managing, exploring, imagination, and memory. dj sniff, for example, qualies his ideas
of skill and virtuosity as being more than—but including—motoric skill. He states,
some people are strict as dening virtuosity just to motoric skills, [that] it’s about physical
movement and interaction on the spot, and not including for example listening or selecting.
I’m not—I think there is a lot of skill to listening and knowing when and making decisions that
are right. (Lippit 2010)
dj sniff equates virtuosity with a balance of conceptual and physical skill, but at the same
time, in his own practice, he is also committed to and “very concerned with the traditional
sense of virtuosity” that involves motoric skill in its conception, saying,
I try to look at people like Evan Parker or Max Roach or that post-bebop generation that moved
into the instrument and tried to dene instruments as solo instruments. Those are my big in-
spirations: because I’m trying to do that with the turntable, and I’m trying to see what makes
sense with today’s technology in doing that. (Lippit 2010)
Many of the musicians interviewed wanted to direct the discussion of skills into the
less concrete (and therefore less reducible) ideas, such as a virtuosity of imagination, or into
realms of cross-domain understanding using metaphor and metonymy, such as “virtuosity
of the ear.” This dramatically changes the discussion of skill and virtuosity, moving it from
specically dened and transmittable techniques to conceptual skills that are more vague—
generalized values that lose transmittable specicities. Some interviewed musicians see
this shift as a democratizing force, that everybody has imagination, and that this music
becomes something anyone can do. But along with the loss of specicities and increased
vagueness can come a mystication—a metaphysics, if you will—of virtuosity, which can be
problematic.
However problematic, within these less tangible ideas of virtuosity there remain pos-
sibilities of the construction, re-imagining, and remediation of the conceptualization and
practice of skill and virtuosity in EAIM. I will end with a quote from ute player, improviser,
technologist, and composer, interviewee Anne La Berge (2010), tying in with what dj sniff
and others said earlier,
There is a virtuosity in being quiet, in imagination, in memory, coupled with the technology…
where I can discover another turn of sound or technique in either the machine or me or the
ute. I would call virtuosity: fantasy, and memor y to use it.
9594 IMPROVISING TECHNOLOGY, CONSTRUCTING VIRTUOSITY | Jeff Kaiser
NOTES
1 For this paper, improvisation will be dened as a live interactive construction and ordering of sound where the
players/actors are not only constructing and ordering, but are being informed and presented with possibilities
as to how to proceed by that which is being interacted with, constructed, and ordered. This creates a feedback
loop of possibilities where actors are both inuenced and inuencing, congured and conguring.
2 Technology, as dened in “straightforward” terms by author Debra Benita Shaw (2008), are “tools or
‘techniques’ that serve the requirement of any given culture” (1). In this paper the terms tools, instruments
and technology will be used somewhat interchangeably.
3 I focus here on Western Art Music and virtuosity as I feel it is this tradition, as one of the discourses from which
EAIM emerged, that the problems with conceptions of virtuosity stems for the interviewed musicians. There
remain other valuable discussions on inuences/ideas of skill and virtuosity from other musical practices.
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Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes Escénicas / Volumen 13 - Número 2
julio - diciembre de 2018 / ISSN 1794-6670/ Bogotá, D.C., Colombia / pp. 87–96 MT96
How to cite this paper:
Kaiser, Jeff. 2018. “Improvising Technology, Constructing
Virtuosity.” Cuadernos de Música, Artes Visuales y Artes
Escénicas 13 (2): 87-96. http://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.
mavae13-2.itcv
