Today’s creative sound practices are populated by a variety of nonhuman agents, including technical and environmental ones. As it becomes increasingly necessary to properly situate the human body within the hybrid, distributed assemblages involved in composing, performing, and listening, it also becomes increasingly problematic to say exactly where computing actually takes place across such practices and related artistic research: what is the place and role of computation across the broader technological layers — including mechanical and analog ones — needed for any computer music to exist?
Multiple agencies operate through all sorts of portable devices, shared interfaces, and ubiquitous AI operators: what technological, cultural, and affective mediations do they enact in the lived experience and practice of music?