Cian O’Farrell: The Materiality of Digital Music

Welcome back to the Technecast! We’re kicking off August with our new theme of music and we are delighted to welcome Cian O’Farrell onto the podcast. This episode looks at the ecological materials that digital music technologies consist of. Often, digital music is thought of as immaterial and completely divorced from the ecology of the planet. Yet, as Cian explores, the materiality of digital technology is very much an ecological one. This episode looks at how music can activate contingency and connections with the world beyond the Anthropocene.Listen to Cian’s compositions, ‘From the Core to the Mine’ and ‘Hydraulic Labour’: https://cianofarrellcomposer.bandcamp.com/album/from-the-core-to-the-mineCian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loners__official/Cian O’Farrell is a digital composer and researcher based in London. In 2018, Cian released his debut album entitled “Be Happy!!!” on all streaming platforms. In 2018, Cian began to compose instrumental music for theatre. Cian is currently completing his second album Interior Castle to be released in Autumn of this year. After completing his degree in English literature and film studies at UCD, Cian went on to study a Masters in Music and Technology at the Cork School of Music. There, Cian conducted research on the materiality of digital music utilising the vitalist philosophies of Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. Cian will begin a techne funded research project at Kingston University under the supervision of Professor Isabella Van Elferen. Cian will observe and study music produced at the Visctoni studio at Kingston University. This research will focus on the non-human actors of digital music production and their creative role in music production. Royalty free music generously shared by Steve Oxen. FesliyanStudios.comThe technecast is run by Julien Clin (@ClinJulien) & Polly Hember (@pollyhember). Please email [email protected] if you would like to be featured on the podcast. Follow us on twitter @technecast to keep an eye out for the latest themed call for papers.