2009 Pop Conference Bios/Abstracts

Daphne Carr

Daphne Carr is an Inwood-based music as culture writer and scholar. She is the series editor of Best Music Writing, which celebrates its 10th year in 2009 with guest editor Greil Marcus. Panel(s):
Sex Machines
Saturday, April 18, 2009, 3:15 - 4:45

Moderator:
Dance This Mess Around: A Feminist Working Group Discussion
Friday, April 17, 2009, 11:00 - 12:45Abstract:

"Computer Love(r)s"
Asked why she bought a second laptop in a year, my graphic designer cousin replied, "I spend more time with it than with anybody else." A former rock critic roommate of mine didn''t own a stereo, only headphones. A musician friend covers his laptop with stickers, as if it were a punk guitar. In my house, there''s a strict "No laptops in bed" rule. What does it mean for us as readers, writers, creators and audiences, to spend so much alone time with our laptops? What types of bodily intimacies are we making with this mass of plastic, metal, wire, and silicon, and the connectedness, tool-set, and storage potential it offers? Through interviews with prominent music bloggers and music journalists, laptop music makers, computer as primary stereo listeners, and computer music interface developers (from the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Stanford Laptop Orchestra, the MIT Media Lab, and Brown University Computer Music Department) and a review of performance theories for digital technologies, I will discuss relationship active music professionals have with their portable computers for listening, learning, creating and living. In doing so, I will advance an argument about the way creators relate to their laptops in turns as machines, friends, and lovers.

Audience members for this paper are asked to bring their laptops or to pair up with a laptop-wielding neighbor for a real time Flaming Lips "Headphone Concert"-inspired interactive paper component.