The article I wrote with Bibiana, as an extension of her work on gambiarra practictioners into a media-ecological perspective, just got published! 'Gambiarra and the In(ter)dependent Condition: Ecological Relationships in the Construction of Experimental Musical Instruments' is out on Resonances, a sound studies and musicology journal published by the University of California Press.
The piece deals with the creative practices employed in the construction of alternative musical instruments, as observed in the works of the Indonesian experimental duo Senyawa. We analyse how the artisanal reutilization processes of “gambiarra” are interwoven with geographical spaces, technical habilitation, infrastructural conditions, and local resources. At the same time as we demonstrate how the gestures of ingenuity and adaptation involved in gambiarra practices put forward a sort of applied, interdependent techno-cultural rationale, we highlight how the recurring romanticization of the prevalent infrastructural problems often present in such contexts can be detrimental. This perspective, drawn from an analysis of everyday practices of instrument-building, intends to surpass the fetish often observed for these informal solutions and the common interpretation of gambiarras as means of socio-economic disruption. In analyses withdrawn from everyday practice, this recurring idealization of precarity can be politically weaponised, and may end up being used to justify austerity as a means of moral and material prosperity. More modestly, we argue instead that as an experimental practice gambiarra intrinsically engenders an interdependence principle, and can lead to fruitful insight into the epistemic connections between environmental and infrastructural thinking. An open access version of the article can be read at the institutional repository of the University of Konstanz (KOPS): https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/entities/publication/3367b81a-6ab4-422e-8ffc-fafa2f518c3b
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AuthorThis blog is meant to provide a space for discussing the geophysical as well as the the imaginary entanglements between media infrastructures and organic environments. In the coming months, it will be dedicated to my current project, Cloud Gaming Atlas, which is particularly interested in observing and interrogating the infrastructures developed for cloud gaming initiatives in regard to their environmental implications. Additionally, it should also gather information about events and publications related to my project at the Zukunftskolleg and the Department of Literature, Art and Media of the University of Konstanz. Archives
January 2024
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