Callaway Centre Research Seminar

Callaway Centre Research Seminar Series

The Conservatorium of Music is a vibrant centre for research in music and music education, where a thriving community of scholars is engaged in exploring the frontiers of knowledge, working on a wide range of research projects with diverse outputs.

Our free weekly seminar series showcases presenters from within UWA and from the wider community.

Michael Terren | The grain of the digital audio workstation

Abstract: This talk concerns the material conditions and practices of the digital audio workstation (DAW), a software ubiquitous in recorded music today. Despite its prominence, few have articulated its sociocultural context, its unique material condition, and its unique possibilities for compositional practice. Drawing from Roland Barthes’ notion of the grain—the sonic effects that infer the material conditions and practices from which a composition emerges—it is argued that many DAW-based musical practices aim to conceal the ‘grain of the DAW,’ and that novel approaches to composition and music analysis can emerge by foregrounding it instead. The primary outcome of this research is an album entitled Thru, exploring such approaches through the lens of experimental electronic music. This talk also situates the DAW as a historically specific, socially-constructed technology, one that promotes individualised music practice and mobilises several metaphors that articulate this condition

Bio: Michael Terren is an experimental musician from Whadjuk Noongar boodja. His work has been released on labels such as Fallow Media and Flaming Pines, with his 2017 album Thru described by Experimedia as “one of the best things we’ve heard this year.” In 2017 Michael was a Schenberg Fellow, studying at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. Michael completed his PhD thesis in 2019, and teaches at UWA and WAAPA. 

michaelterren.bandcamp.com

Free entry - no bookings required

Contact details: [email protected]