Author
The (Un)Dead Author An Asymptotic Exploration of the Concept of Authorship in the Arts
Corbett Stangl Schweeger Joly
A discussion with Sidney Corbett, Philipp Stangl, Elisabeth Schweeger, Jean-Baptiste Joly
Sidney Corbett draws on two ideas by Hans Blumenberg and Villém Flusser for his statement on authorship in music. Whereas Blumenberg interrogates the position of the author, Flusser asks about the very essence of authorship, basing his theory on a 1-&-0 system similar to the mechanism underlying computers. Sidney Corbett distinguishes his own views from this, describing how music has always drawn on »new« technologies and media, starting with the instruments themselves. The deployment of new media will always be determined by perspectives on art and what it can achieve. In this respect, the question about authorship in the digital era is also a question about choice of media. The medium (notably the instrument) for which a composition is written automatically influences the form and the notation technique used and hence, indirectly, the freedom of the author.
Philipp Stangl then inquires into artistic work and its nature. He differentiates between a completed artefact, which stands at the end of the artistic process, and a transformable object or event that always remains a work in progress. The inherent tensions are well illustrated by the digitally produced sound particle, because the latest auditory media are able to generate particles that are no longer based on existing sounds and therefore cannot be anticipated by human reason. This also raises questions about the author and notation techniques, because a creative human can shape and order these particles but cannot conceive of or produce them without software.
Jean-Baptiste Joly completes the panel with his statement on the declining function of the author, with historical references to the French Structuralists, in particular Michel Foucault and Roland Barthes. Barthes describes the triangle consisting of author, work, and criticism, which falls apart when authorial authority is eliminated (notably when online texts are not attributed). Joly follows on from this by questioning the distinction drawn between sampling and copying as artistic practice and plagiarism.