Virtual liveness and sounding cyborgs

John Oswald's 'Vane

Bibliographic Data

ID4752393
AuthorsPaul Sanden (University of Lethbridge, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume31
Issue1
Pages45-68
Publication date2012-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePopular Music (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0261-1430 • E-ISSN: 1474-0095
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0261143011000456
OpenAlexW2313971910
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited27

This article presents the concept of virtual liveness and demonstrates its relevance in an analysis of 'Vane', one of John Oswald'splunderphonicpieces. It argues that even when encountering a piece of music that lacks a physically co-present audience, lacks largely unmediated acoustic sound and lacks a live performer, the term 'performance' may still be usefully applied. In these cases, however, the sense of liveness that invokes this idea of performance is often morevirtualthanactual. 'Vane' sounds not just like a combination of Oswald's two source recordings (Carly Simon's and Faster Pussycat's versions of 'You're So Vain'), but like a new technological entity: Oswald's manipulations of his source material result in sounds that are decidedly 'of the machine', even as they invite us to sing along with Carly Simon's and Faster Pussycat's performances. We enter into a complex network of references between the performances represented in the original recordings and this new, virtual performance - the performance, ultimately, of a sounding cyborg

Art · Cartography · Cognitive science · Depth sounding · Geography · Liveness · Performing arts · Political science · Relevance (law · Visual arts · Computer Science · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Music Technology and Sound Studies · Musicology and Musical Analysis · Psychology

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