Page 44 - Composing Processes and Artistic Agency

The topography of composing work 33
1.3 Material objects: musical instruments, computers and
writing materials
In a practice-orientated perspective, the focus can also be shifted to material
objects – such as musical instruments, computers or various writing materials –
as a means of demonstrating the materiality of practices of composing (see
Engeström 1993; Knorr-Cetina 2001; Nicolini 2012: 223ff.; Shove, Pantzar &
Watson 2012). Material objects are not simply tools for carrying out actions.
In some cases they contribute constitutively to the occurrence of particular
actions. James J. Gibson’s (1979) term of “affordance” lends itself to an
interpretation of the role played by material objects. Building on Gestalt
psychology (Kurt Koffka and Kurt Lewin), Gibson uses affordance to refer to
the action-stimulating character of objects: because of their gestalt – understood
as the totality of their visible form and properties, including colours, devices,
surface, material, etc. – objects invite certain actions, but they can also be
used in various other ways. Instead of considering the perception of an object
as a stimulus-response pattern or a purely cognitive achievement, Gibson calls
for an activist conception of perception, pointing out that the relationship
between people and objects is dynamic. Affordance, he argues, is orientated
both physically and psychologically and concerns the object and its observer
equally while they interact with each other in any concrete situation (see
Gibson 1979: 129). This reciprocity between persons and objects has a
meaningful complement in James G. Greeno’s (1994: 338) concept of “ability”.
Where affordance focuses on the interaction between person and object in
terms of the object’s gestalt and available actions, Greeno points out that such
an interaction is similarly marked by the person’s ability and practical inten-
tionality: imagining various uses, developing a practical sense of the object
and acting skilfully (see also Noë 2012: 29). There is thus a creative factor in
using an object. Scott Cook and John Brown (1999: 64–67) refer to this logic
when they speak of “dynamic affordances”, pointing out that when a person
handles an object, pre-existing knowledge comes into play, but new knowl-
edge can be generated as well.

1.3.1 Musical instruments
Organology is part of every conservatoire’s syllabus for music composition.
Quite apart from the composer’s knowledge of various instruments, the
instruments themselves also play a vital part in composing. In the Western
classical tradition, the piano occupies a unique position. There are various
historical, technical and practical reasons for this. Because of its tonal range –
or its “harmonic power”, as Franz Liszt put it (quoted in Thom 2007: 14) – the
piano more than any other instrument offers an ideal basis for making
composition ideas real as sounds. Katharina Klement, for example, has a piano
in her workspace, “because I always go back to the piano and listen to the
tone – it’s my reference. I’m much too connected to the piano. When I see on