1st Edition
Decentralized Music Exploring Blockchain for Artistic Research
This book offers a thorough exploration of the potential of blockchain and AI technologies to transform musical practices. Including contributions from leading researchers in music, arts, and technology, it addresses central notions of agency, authorship, ontology, provenance, and ownership in music.
Together, the chapters of this book, often navigating the intersections of post-digital and posthumanist thought, challenge conventional centralized mechanisms of music creation and dissemination, advocating for new forms of musical expression.
Stressing the need for the artistic community to engage with blockchain and AI, this volume is essential reading for artists, musicians, researchers, and policymakers curious to know more about the implications of these technologies for the future of music.
Contributors
Introduction: Blockchain for Artistic Research
Paulo de Assis and Adam Łukawski
1. From the Work Concept to Hypermusic: Rethinking Musical Objects in-and- for Blockchain Technologies
Paulo de Assis
2. Performative Transactions: Artistic Collaboration of Humans and AI Agents in Decentralized Creative Networks
Adam Łukawski
3. Integrating Generative AI and Blockchain Technologies to Create Musical Objects with Agency
Martin Zeilinger
4. Valuing Web3 Music: From NFT Prices to the Quadruple Bottom Line
Marcus O’Dair
5. From Blockchains to NFTs: Decentralized (?) Platforms for Unique (?) Content Distribution
Claudio J. Tessone
6. Art, People, Museums, and the Promise of Blockchain
Diane Drubay
7. Can’t Knock the Hustle: NFTs, DAOs, and Creativity
Catherine Mulligan
8. Breaking the Fifth Wall: The Transformative Power of Blockchain in Virtual Music Performances
Kristof Timmerman
9. Hypermusic Experiment 0.9: Modeling, Mapping, and Prototyping the Future
Einar Torfi Einarsson
10. Decentralized Transindividual Collaborative Experimental Musicking
Kosmas Giannoutakis
Glossary
Index
Biography
Paulo de Assis is an artist researcher operating at the intersection of music performance, composition, critical thought, and contemporary philosophy. Active as pianist, researcher, and author, he wrote Logic of Experimentation: Rethinking Music Performance through Artistic Research (Leuven, 2018). Recent artistic research projects include experimental performance practices on music by Beethoven, Schumann, Nietzsche, and Luigi Nono.
Adam Łukawski is a pioneering music composer and computer programmer, innovating at the nexus of computer-assisted music composition and posthumanist artistic research. His work, deeply engaged with aleatoric and generative methods, explores the integration of AI and blockchain technologies for creating novel compositional frameworks and enhancing musical interactivity.
