Abstract
This paper explores Ableton's Live through “software ontology” (Mackenzie, 2006),
perceiving it as a critical site in which materialities of code and culture intersect to inform and modulate creative practices. While research has been focusing on the digitalization of music production, assimilating practices into digital logics of metadata and interconnectedness (Reuter, 2022), describing the computational modes of production (D’Errico, 2022), the specific conditions of digital audio workstations’ development processes remain underdeveloped.
This paper situates these logics in relation to the specific coding environment of Ableton’s Live, exploring how particular cultural ideas and practices are embedded, negotiated, and operationalized within the software. The interface of Live is conceptualized as a navigation system that structures interactions between human and non-human cognitive operations. This interface enacts a “typology of thinking” (Henke, 2016), dynamically connecting, disconnecting, and reconfiguring practices
rooted in the legacies of techno culture. Crucially, this dynamic process extends beyond the modularity of the interface to the very architecture of the code.
Drawing on networked ethnography (Seaver, 2017), incorporating data from interviews, blog posts, web archives etc., this paper investigates how the development processes behind Live mediate and negotiate minimalistic logics from the perspective of practice as “problems of abundance” (Henke, 2016) and similarly as design principle (Schautz, 2017). By examining this intersection, the paper contributes to broader discussions on the cultural and cognitive implications of production platforms in the digital age.
perceiving it as a critical site in which materialities of code and culture intersect to inform and modulate creative practices. While research has been focusing on the digitalization of music production, assimilating practices into digital logics of metadata and interconnectedness (Reuter, 2022), describing the computational modes of production (D’Errico, 2022), the specific conditions of digital audio workstations’ development processes remain underdeveloped.
This paper situates these logics in relation to the specific coding environment of Ableton’s Live, exploring how particular cultural ideas and practices are embedded, negotiated, and operationalized within the software. The interface of Live is conceptualized as a navigation system that structures interactions between human and non-human cognitive operations. This interface enacts a “typology of thinking” (Henke, 2016), dynamically connecting, disconnecting, and reconfiguring practices
rooted in the legacies of techno culture. Crucially, this dynamic process extends beyond the modularity of the interface to the very architecture of the code.
Drawing on networked ethnography (Seaver, 2017), incorporating data from interviews, blog posts, web archives etc., this paper investigates how the development processes behind Live mediate and negotiate minimalistic logics from the perspective of practice as “problems of abundance” (Henke, 2016) and similarly as design principle (Schautz, 2017). By examining this intersection, the paper contributes to broader discussions on the cultural and cognitive implications of production platforms in the digital age.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Publikationsdato | 2 maj 2025 |
| Status | Udgivet - 2 maj 2025 |
| Begivenhed | Symposium on the platformization of music production - University of Oslo, Oslo, Norge Varighed: 2 maj 2025 → 3 maj 2025 https://www.hf.uio.no/imv/english/research/projects/platform/events/symposium-on-the-platformization-of-music-producti.html |
Symposium
| Symposium | Symposium on the platformization of music production |
|---|---|
| Lokation | University of Oslo |
| Land/Område | Norge |
| By | Oslo |
| Periode | 02/05/2025 → 03/05/2025 |
| Internetadresse |