Bodies and senses
Mark N. Katz · 2022
Abstract Starting from the premise that our bodies are the primary and constant mediators of the music we experience, this chapter investigates how technology mediates the relationship between music and the human body. Often technologies offer a compromise: in providing new ways to experience music, they limit access to some of our senses. Radio, recordings, and streaming audio, for example, expand our access to music while removing or reducing the visual element of musical listening. Other technologies are designed to enhance our embodied experience of music, whether by providing visual elements or engaging with our sense of touch through what is known as vibrotactile feedback. Case studies explore music that is made but not seen, musical haptics, 18th- and 19th-century musical androids, Vocaloids, and musical holograms.