Elective Impoverishment: Creativity Through Constraint for the Twenty First Century Musician

Abstract

This is a practice-as-research study that explores the relationship between technology and music composition. The computer is at the heart of modern music production, owing to its flexibility and ubiquity. Nonetheless, I have been questioning my relationship with this technology, and asking if the luxuries it affords are truly enabling creativity in the way I feel it was presented to me in my musical education. Having established desirable attributes of music composition, I have been investigating how elective impoverishment of technology helps encourage these attributes. Using only cassette tapes as a means of recording, I have been composing music without the aid of the digital audio workstation.

The project is grounded in reflective practice, but is also auto-ethnographic in nature. As a young musician I have grown up in a world where composing with computers is the norm. I have always struggled finding inspiration and satisfaction when working digitally, and many of the issues I struggled with were seemingly shared by my peers too. Starting with an idea then deleting it, getting stuck for things to add to existing ideas, collections of unfinished and uninspiring projects that will never see the light of day - my own stories are similar to the stories of so many others. Writing music without a computer, using tape for audio and paper for notation and arrangement has granted me freedom from the obstacle of choice.

Whilst this is a musical project, it is informed by psychology research. Research concerned with the structure of creativity has provided insight into what musicians might describe in vague and romanticised language. Taking note of this, I have been composing music not with the limitless digital canvas but by leaning into problem-solving mechanics of creativity psychology.