307 research outputs found
Genre in Crisis, Crisis as Genre: Contemporary Disruptions and Constructions in Bodies of Popular Music
During the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, musical activities and practices, from creation to consumption to performance, began to cohere around some distinct trends, and an emergent body of music known as âpandemic popâ came into shape. This research project takes the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and systemic racism as its contextual focal point, analyzing the relationship between genre and crisis. Specifically, this dissertation asks âwhat can be gleaned from reading the discursive frameworks of genre and crisis through each other?â In order to answer this question, this project interrogates two phenomena â genre-in-crisis and crisis-as-genre â to suggest new understandings of the narrative dimensions of both genre and crisis. This dissertation unfolds over three case studies across three chapters: Chapter One analyzes the controversy surrounding the removal of Lil Nas Xâs âOld Town Roadâ from Billboardâs Hot Country Songs chart as an instance of genre-in-crisis; Chapter Two studies the above-mentioned formation of âpandemic popâ during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of crisis-as-genre; and Chapter Three folds these phenomena together through an interrogation of âLose Yo Job,â a 2020 viral remix of a recording of Johnniqua Charles, a Black woman, as she was being detained by law enforcement. These chapters use a combination of textual, musical, and material analysis, and is informed by scholarship on genre theory, Janet Roitmanâs framework of crisis as a discursive formation, and my own framework of âformat materialism.â Ultimately I argue that reading genre and crisis through each other opens new possibilities for the popular and critical understanding of both of these concepts. Such understanding, I suggest, could be beneficial to scholars of both genre and crisis, offering new approaches to the study of old phenomena.Doctor of Philosoph
Iterative musical collaboration as palimpsest: Suite Inversée and The Headroom Project
Suite inversée is a musical work, co-composed by the two authors asynchronously
online by means of file transfer alone and digitally presented using a self-made web
app called The Headroom Project. The Headroom Project mediates the compositional
project during creation as well as allowing the listener to browse a historical thread
that weaves through the developmental process: through this app, each audio file that
was shared between the two composers can be heard and considered both in and out
of the context of its creation. The framework of the project provided the opportunity
for the authors to reflect on issues of remote digital collaboration and the palimpsest
nature of a work revealed in varying stages of evolution through a novel mode of
presentation. This paper discusses the mode of creation by situating it within narratives
of composition and technology
Survey of Models and Architectures to Ensure Linked Data Access
Mobile Access to the Web of Data is currently a real challenge in developing countries, mainly characterized by limited Internet connectivity and high penetration of mobile devices with the limited resources (such as cache and memory). In this paper, we survey and compare proposed solutions (such as models and architectures) that could contribute to solving this problem of mobile access to the Web of Data with intermittent Internet access. These solutions are discussed in relation to the underlying network architectures and data models considered. We present a conceptual study of peer-to-peer solutions based on gossip protocols dedicated to design the connected overlay networks. In addition, we provide a detailed analysis of client-server and data replication systems generally designed to ensure the local availability of data on the system. We conclude with some recommendations to achieve a connected architecture that provides mobile contributors with local access to the Web of data
NFTs and the Music Industry, Is there a possibility for artists to benefit from NFTs in today's digital music market.
The primary focus of this thesis is based on Web 3.0 technology, specifically Non-Fungible-Token (NFT). This phenomenon represents an innovation in blockchain technology. NFT enables purchasing and selling of digital items such as art, music, books, images, text, etc. Due to the use of blockchain technology and the unique nature of NFT tokens, they cannot be duplicated and are nearly secure (which will be explained why later in the paper). Moreover, the purpose of this paper is to determine what this innovation is and how music artists and fans can use it to create a unique engagement with one another, how fans can support their favorite artist, and explore new opportunities presented by the NFTs, which provide artists with a unique payment system that enables them to earn more income than ever before. The paper begins with the definition and delimitation of the relevant music industry and a brief history of what has been accomplished so far in the music industry, copyright law, how NFTs have progressed, and how digitalization has impacted the music industry.
In addition, the Internet and Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 are explained. Lastly, Iâll discuss the advantages the Web 3.0 application has over previous innovations.
A qualitative research method has been selected because the topic is uncharted, and the relationship between this specific technology and the music industry is not well-researched, so I conducted my own investigation through semi-structured interviews with experts from both industries. The most critical issues and opportunities discussed in this paper are usability and technical challenges, environmental challenges, legal frameworks, business models, the market, and political issues.
The paper concludes that the primary problems within the music industry are not inherently rooted in digitalization, even though digitalization is the foundation of these problems. The problems are essentially political, with the decision-making within the music industry determining how the economy should function. Different parties remain an adversary to each other, resulting in the dysfunction of the music industry. This is why NFTs cannot resolve all systemic issues. However, if those in charge of the music industry allow it to operate properly, they have the potential to assist the industry
A review of commercialisation mechanisms for carbon dioxide removal
The deployment of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) needs to be scaled up to achieve net zero emission pledges. In this paper we survey the policy mechanisms currently in place globally to incentivise CDR, together with an estimate of what different mechanisms are paying per tonne of CDR, and how those costs are currently distributed. Incentive structures are grouped into three structures, market-based, public procurement, and fiscal mechanisms. We find the majority of mechanisms currently in operation are underresourced and pay too little to enable a portfolio of CDR that could support achievement of net zero. The majority of mechanisms are concentrated in market-based and fiscal structures, specifically carbon markets and subsidies. While not primarily motivated by CDR, mechanisms tend to support established afforestation and soil carbon sequestration methods. Mechanisms for geological CDR remain largely underdeveloped relative to the requirements of modelled net zero scenarios. Commercialisation pathways for CDR require suitable policies and markets throughout the projects development cycle. Discussion and investment in CDR has tended to focus on technology development. Our findings suggest that an equal or greater emphasis on policy innovation may be required if future requirements for CDR are to be met. This study can further support research and policy on the identification of incentive gaps and realistic potential for CDR globally
From Analogue to Digital: Reconsidering Copyright And The Exclusive Rights of Authors In An Era Of Technological Change
After the First Industrial Revolution, a series of technologies challenged copyright law and pushed the law to accommodate, expand, and develop. Compared with analogue technologies, digital technologies present an even greater challenge to copyright law, which is under pressure to adapt to the rapid changes in the technologies. When digital technology was in its infancy, analogue copyright law was extended to the digital realm and became known as digital copyright law. âDigital copyright lawâ, however, is no more than a tailoring, tinkering and twisting of analogue copyright law, which fits poorly into the new digital environment. In colloquial terms, it is fitting the square digital copyright law into a round digital hole.
The digital world is an entirely new environment and digital technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate. There is a need for a new approach to digital copyright law that could accommodate digital technologies for disseminating copyright works in a more realistic manner than the current approach of simply adapting old analogue concepts. Current digital copyright lawâa phrase that broadly refers to any provision or regulation dealing with copyright issues in the digital environmentâis not consistent with technological developments. Digital technologies continually expand access to digital copyright works, whereas current digital copyright law significantly restricts such access. The approach suggested in this thesis allows content users to freely access digital copyright works while ensuring copyright holdersâ adequate remuneration from the works. It is inspired by an existing business model under which users can freely replicate and disseminate (or access) digital copyright works but cannot freely use the works. To accommodate this model, the thesis suggests that current digital copyright law needs to be overhauled
Digital Finance in Europe: Law, Regulation, and Governance
This special volume collects contributions from leading scholars who scrutinize the challenges digital finance presents for the EU internal market and financial market regulation from multiple public policy perspectives. Author contributions aim to provide policy-relevant research and ideas shedding light on the complexities of the digital finance promise. They also offer solid proposals for reform of EU financial services law
Matters of Concern: A Critical Investigation of Bioplastics, 3D Printing, and the Maker Movement
This research proposes practice-based models for examining the perceptions of 3D printing as entrepreneurial, accessible and environmentally sustainable. The dissertation and practice-based research argue that these popular perceptions limit the potential of 3D printing, and maker culture more generally, because of their overemphasis of human agency in maker culture. The research contends that such perceptions have arisen because of misunderstandings about the agency of the materials and technologies engaged in 3D printing networks, the failure of maker culture to make 3D printing accessible to an audience beyond the typical readership of maker magazines, and the failure to account for the significant environmental dangers of the plastic filament that construct 3D printed objects. Tracing maker cultureâs initial commitment to anti-consumerist principles that no longer prevail â DIY culture of the 1960s and 70s and hacker culture of the 1980s and 90s â the practice of 3D printing has instead become a black box. In this research, I define black boxes as objects, systems, or processes whose inner workings become hidden because of their own success and so, black boxes are typically understood by their inputs and outputs.
To open up the black box of 3D printing, the research reflects on a series of material experiments with 3D printing that are informed by critical making, co-design and speculative critical design within an Actor-Network Theory (ANT) framework. Through the ANT concept of generalised symmetry the research argues for the importance of ascribing agency to the more-than human actants in the maker practice networks of 3D printing, and provides documentation of the critical making project titled Dissolvable Furniture as a model. An investigation of contemporary challenges to participating in maker culture, framed within the ANT concept of translation, was conducted through online co-design workshops on 3D printing and identified barriers to inclusive maker culture. Subsequent to the workshops further investigation of the agency of 3D printing materials, titled Co-created Ceramic Objects, provides a model for the disposal of PLA through incineration in a kiln. The final exploration of a model for un-black boxing 3D printing, specifically addressing claims that PLA is environmentally sustainable, demanded a provocation that unsettled complacency about the dangers of plastic. Based on extensive research on the waste management practices of plastics the research documents the practice-based model of the speculative critical design titled Biorecycling Machine.
These projects address the long-term implications of entrepreneurial, accessible and environmentally sustainable practices of maker culture and interrupt the individualism at the core of much debate in maker movement groups by reframing maker practices as materialâsemiotic constellations of interactions of human and more-than-human actants that are constantly in flux. The research concludes with recommendations for areas requiring further study, including the need for better protection of the intellectual property of makers, the necessity of creating more accessible maker cultures, and the urgent need to address the environmental dangers of 3D printing materials
- âŠ