Studio Saigon : Telematic Performance and Recording Technologies in Light of the Covid-19 Pandemic

• As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to affect individual musicians, ensembles and concert institutions,streaming technology has become a central vehicle through which musicians and audiences can meet.This paper discusses how networked performance, a format which has engaged artists for decades as anartform in its own right, may contribute to the sustaining of cultural heritage among migrant/minoritycommunities as well as to the development of innovative intercultural artistic practices. Building on theexperience of our group, The Six Tones, we wish to develop a more robust understanding of thepossibilities, and the limitations, that networked technology affords. The central source of our own work isdrawn from Musical Transformations, an ongoing project which studies the intersection betweentraditional and experimental music in globalized society.The project has studied the dynamic history and contemporary performance practices of VoÚng CÙ“, aVietnamese song which has experienced a radical set of transformations since the 1920’s. Recordingtechnology has played a central role in this development, as evidenced even in the way its formalstructure was shaped to match the duration of the 78rpm records on which this music was recorded onlocal labels still in the 1960’s (Gibbs et al 2013). We note that interactions both inside and outsiderecording studios contribute to urban culture. From the perspective of the street in Ho Chi Minh City, bothrecording studios used in this project blended into their surroundings, amongst residences, tinyconvenience shops, hair salons, and restaurants selling pho and banh mi. Both studios also werenegatively affected by traffic noise from a steady stream of motorbikes and trucks as well as constructionprojects. Local businesses were evidently accustomed to encountering foreigners leaving the studios forbreaks in their recording sessions. Only a modicum of previous ethnomusicological studies haveconsidered the role of recording studios in urban culture, which promote business in local communitieswhile producing cultural products that have a lasting and expansive impact far beyond their neighborhood.Kay Shelemay observed that “recording technology is not only an integral part of our discipline’sintellectual history. It is an increasingly important part of our future as well” (Shelemay, 1991, p.288). Weargue that the rise of telematic performance in the time of the pandemic also points to new avenues forrecording technologies, inside and beyond the recording studio.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Konst -- Musik (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Arts -- Music (hsv//eng)

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