Benjamin Piekut on Actor Network Theory and Historical Ecologies

Darren Mueller
Jul 24, 2017 · 1 min read

Most of all, an ecology presents a variegated temporality, with cyclic processes and repeating patterns of iteration that create dynamic kinds of stasis, as well as the possibility of change. Each of the relationships in an ecology has its own history of emergence, change, and decay; some associations are fleeting, while others perdure by virtue of strong connections to other lasting actors. Most importantly, an ecology is a haphazard, unpredictable conglomeration of things and processes. From this perspective, distinctions between social, technological, or musical domains are difficult to make; an ecology wanders across these three and many more. Methodologically, the implication is that we do not pre-restrict our investigations to the musical domain, but rather throw out the idea of the musical altogether.

-BENJAMIN PIEKUT, “Actor-Networks in Music History: Clarifications and Critiques,” Twentieth-Century Music 11/2 (2014), doi:10.1017/S147857221400005X, 212–13

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