[Nick Tochka]

https://events.unimelb.edu.au/finearts-music/event/16521-1

Please join us at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music for a guest lecture by our visiting Macgeorge Fellow, Prof Kyle Devine (University of Oslo).

When: 18 August 6pm

Where: On Zoom, and at the Prudence Myer Studio (513), in the The Ian Potter Southbank Centre (880), Southbank Campus (on registration, you’ll receive the Zoom link)

 

Recomposed: Music Climate Crisis Change

Everywhere you look, the musical world is changing—overhauling itself in response to climate crisis. There are records made of plants and stereos that run on sunshine. Musicians, bands, and entire genres have committed to sustainable touring. We have industry-specific carbon calculators, emissions audits, and climate credentials. A variety of organizations now size up (and draw down) the environmental impact of music on all levels. And there is a lot of eco-awareness: white papers, grey literature, green roadmaps, yellow-page directories, university courses, podcasts, and more. We are witnessing a climate-oriented transformation of what music is and how it comes to be, not just what it is about or how it sounds. Call it the Great Recomposition.

The Great Recomposition probably seems like a Good Thing. It is. And it isn’t. This presentation explains how both things can be true at the same time. Drawing on research with the people driving music’s large-scale climate action—dozens of them, at all levels, from around the world—I argue that the musical climate action is necessary and welcome, on the one hand, but also constrained and limited, on the other. My bet is that we can most clearly see what is good about the Recomposition—as well as where its limitations lie and what else might be possible—if we learn to override some of our default settings on climate issues.

Kyle Devine is a Macgeorge Fellow at the Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne. He works in the Department of Musicology and the Oslo School of Environmental Humanities at the University of Oslo. Devine’s books include Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music and Audible Infrastructures: Music, Sound, Media.

This event will be held in the Prudence Myer Studio as well as online via Zoom webinar. Register to attend in-person or to receive the link to join the Zoom webinar.

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