Towards a quantum theory of musical creativity

Lovett, Matthew ORCID: 0000-0003-3599-7886 (2021) Towards a quantum theory of musical creativity. In: Innovation in Music: Future Opportunities. Perspectives on Music Production . Routledge, London, pp. 389-402. ISBN 9780367363352

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Abstract

The theoretical physicist Karen Barad’s 2007 book Meeting the Universe Halfway was something of a manifesto for using a range of learning taken from quantum theory to rethink how it is that we understand ourselves and our place in the universe. This chapter embraces Barad’s challenge to rethink thinking, and puts forward a toolkit for rethinking musical creativity in terms of a set of quantum concepts. In an era when technological disruption is changing music making and music consumption beyond all recognition, we must ensure that our understanding of music remains equally contemporary, and forward-focused. In Barad’s reading, quantum theory equips us with a range of concepts and structures with which to understand how the paradigm works, including diffraction, entanglement, measurement, complementarity; all of which lead to a reconfiguration of accepted notions of ‘objectivity’ and ‘phenomena’. In this paper, I apply these terms to musical creativity, to build a conception of a musical artefact as a ‘quantum phenomenon’. In addition, the paper problematises traditional notions of authorship in the light of both quantum objectivity, and Barad’s own neologism, agential realism.

Item Type: Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords: REF2021
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Divisions: Schools and Research Institutes > School of Creative Arts
Research Priority Areas: Creative Practice and Theory
Culture, Continuity, and Transformation
Depositing User: Matthew Lovett
Date Deposited: 17 Sep 2020 11:04
Last Modified: 08 Aug 2023 19:04
URI: https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/8760

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