The [60]Project: an analytical and contextual critique
Monty Adkins · University of Huddersfield Repository (University of Huddersfield) · 2009
This paper is concerned with a memetic analysis and contextual critique of the authors’ composition, The [60]Project. The work, commissioned by the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, is a celebration of the 60th anniversary of musique concrète and incorporates sound contributions from over sixty of the worlds leading sound-artists. As such, it makes the work a ripe repository for memetic analysis, as it provides a cross-section of contemporary sonic arts practice. Through such an analysis it will be demonstrated how techniques of sound production, compositional methodologies, and similar modes of treating concrète sounds are common to sound artists working across a wide aesthetic spectrum. The aim is not to argue that the boundaries between differing genres of music are being blurred, but, rather, to provide a critique of contemporary digital music culture in which this work and those sound artists contributing to it are situated. The paper will further question the notion of authorship of The [60]Project, discuss the nature of collaboration and where the act of composition actually occurs in digital music.