Semi-Permeable Musicking Membranes
| Autor: | David Borgo |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Popular Music Studies. 22:131-138 |
| ISSN: | 1533-1598 1524-2226 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/j.1533-1598.2010.01232.x |
| Popis: | The terms “border,” “frontier,” and “diaspora” all foreground the notion of boundaries. Borders form the outer edge of something; they establish boundaries. Frontiers are at or just beyond those edges. And diasporas are dispersions into new territories, reminding us that boundaries, no matter how rigid or fixed they may appear, are always shifting and at least semi-permeable. Ultimately boundaries attempt to define the extent of some-thing, some-time, or some-where. They can even appear to define the extent of some-one. Boundaries, whether physical or conceptual, do often seem necessary in order to establish coherence and identity. Categorization, for example, is an essential cognitive strategy that humans use in order to reduce the hypercomplexity of the world to a more manageable complexity.1 By establishing criteria for inclusion, however, boundaries invariably ignore and exclude. Perhaps our most intimate and familiar boundary is that of our own body. With it, and its many sensorimotor processes, we engage our world. While doing so, we recursively construct a self-consciousness, a boundary, of sorts, around who “we” are. But no individual organism can exist in isolation. Even at the level of single cells—which are characterized, first of all, by a boundary of the cellular membrane—complex metabolic processes are ceaselessly at work, transporting nutrients in and waste out. And as we step up into the realm of multi-cellular organisms, the interconnected webs only increase in scope and complexity. Ecoliteracy advocate Fritjof Capra reminds us: “Animals depend on the photosynthesis of plants for their energy needs; plants depend on the carbon dioxide produced by animals, as well as the nitrogen fixed by the bacteria at their roots; and together plants, animals, and microorganisms regulate the entire biosphere and maintain the conditions conducive to life.”2 According to the Gaia theory of James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis, life is best thought of as a property of planets rather than of individual organisms. Music, in its broadest possible definition, is also best thought of as a property of humanity. The current thinking in the field of biomusicology, for instance, argues that musicking, for our ancestors, enhanced cooperative |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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