Lecture by David Borgo, Associate Professor of Music, UC San Diego

“The Ghost in the Music: Distributed Agency and the Extended Mind in Electro-Acoustic Improvisation”

Abstract: Can we frame the “technological” resources involved in improvising music as functionally integrated into an “extended mind”? Or as “actors” at work that mediate the social and exhibit agency? Increasingly many working in cognitive science and actor-network theory, as well as in the biology of consciousness and the philosophy of mind, are willing to do just that. Of course, if the mind is not literally “in the head” or even bounded by skin and skull, and if a priori distinctions between “material” and “social” ties do not pertain in ways previously imagined, then many cherished (humanist) assumptions about agency, intentionality, identity, bodily integrity, and the “social” will need to be rethought. I won’t confront all of these vexing questions, but I will do my best to make the various arguments for and against theories of “distributed agency” and an “extended mind” clear, while championing electro-acoustic improvisation as a salient activity by which to explore these pressing questions.

David Borgo is an Associate Professor of Music at UC San Diego. He has a B.M. degree in Jazz Studies from Indiana University and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Ethnomusicology from UCLA. David won first prize at the International John Coltrane Festival (1994), and he has performed widely both domestically and internationally, including featured performances in Sweden, Holland, Armenia, Hong Kong, Macau, Mexico City, and São Paulo. He has released seven CDs and one DVD, and his book Sync or Swarm: Improvising Music in a Complex Age won the Alan Merriam Prize in 2006 from the Society for Ethnomusicology for the most distinguished book published during the previous year. He currently performs with his electro-acoustic duo KaiBorg (http://kaiborg.com/), which explores the intersections between live audio and video processing and free improvisation, and with his sextet Kronomorfic (http://kronomorfic.com/), which explores polymetric time.

Open to the public and free of charge
Parking in Lot 2 — $10 (Hilgard and Westholme)
Information: (310) 825-5947
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Named after Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy, the founding chair of the Department of Ethnomusicology and Systematic Musicology, this colloquium series provides an opportunity for students, faculty, and visiting lecturers to share information about their research and discuss other issues important in the field. Please check the department website for details on lecturers.