Instruments that are more than instruments (and other stories)

Abstract

Partly auto-ethnography, partly explanatory research, and partly an exercise in nontypical academic writing, this treatise focuses on music/multimedia instruments (and paradigms thereof) that celebrate a more or less radical rethinking of instrumenthood. ‘Stories’ of a sort are recounted to demonstrate the breadth of the many different (fascinating) ways in which instruments can be indeed much more than what the dominant hylonoetic view suggest. Instruments are discussed in broad thematic sections, raising common concerns, and outlining related research veins. The author discusses briefly a surfacing opposition between hylonoetic and morphogenic perspectives and examines affairs of post or ‘hyper’ optimality in DIY (recounting one last ‘story’). This treatise concludes with sketches for future work — for playful creative explorations and prospective instruments that are intended to be ‘more than instruments.