Language, Music and Resonance in Cyberspace

Tanzi, Dante

2005

Contemporary Music Review 24(6): 541-549.

Language: English

The description of the quality of musical spaces belonging to the cyberpace should take into account three different aspects: the modes of fruition of a sound object in virtual spaces; its reception in the frame of online communication; and the mutations that could eventually affect the dynamics of perception. The complex relationships between the three different aspects suggest that, in cyberspace, the activities of production and listening to music take place in forms that differ partially from the ones with which we are familiar. Whether one wants to consider listening as an individual task or as a relational path, what needs to be verified is, in fact, the extent to which the contours of recognition of sonorous objects can be related to the spatial, environmental and emotional variables of cyber-universes. As well as being modified, the musical and audio contents can be repeatedly re-contextualised, and listeners become aware of more contexts (the original one and others derived from it) during their navigation. What should be considered is, then, that musical meanings can be generated through trans-contextual readings, and from interference between ordinary and virtual spaces. Apart from the linguistic nature of cyberspace, this requires deep investigation into the meaning of the so-called ‘extended' nature of cyberspace.