A truly abysmal presentation based on the article of the same name by Jonathan Sterne. ARIN 6912 week 7 presentation.

1. The mp3 as cultural artifact
by Jonathan Sterne

2. The most efficacious method of
addressing the mp3 critically is not as an
artifact, characterised by removed
representation, but in terms of it’s
economic efficiency.

4. Bruno Latour
Delegation: the attribution of
simple, functional human tasks to
machines.

5. Specifically, there are 3 psycho-
acoustic ‘tricks’ that the mp3
employs
1) auditory masking: eliminating the
quieter of two almost identically similar
frequencies
2) temporal masking: if there are two
identical frequencies that occur almost
simultaneously, temporally, the quieter of
these is also done away with
3) spatialisation: the simplification of very
high/low frequencies from stereo to
mono so that they’re reproduced only
once in each channel.

6. The mp3
assumes
our ears
are stupid.

7. Which
they kind
of are...

8. But that's
beside the
point:

9. Theodor
Adorno

10. The frame of mind to which
popular music originally
appealed, on which it feeds,
and which it perpetually
reinforces, is simultaneously
one of distraction and
inattention. Listeners are
distracted from the demands of
reality by entertainment which
does not demand attention
either.
- Theodor Adorno, On Pop Music

11. Critique of the
traditional
discussion of
digitisation:
separates the ontology
(philosophy of being and
experience) from the social
situation of sound
reproduction

13. 'Such a society, in which
modern technologies serve
politically interrelated
individuals rather than
managers, I will call
"convivial."'
- Ivan Illich

14. • Use-value: The
basic utility of a
commodity
• Exchange-value:
the market value of
a commodity

15. People devote their time to finding a means
in order to buy artifacts of other people’s
time (ie music), thereby giving up the use of
their own time as well as the time required
to appreciate the music that they’ve bought.
Jacques Attali

16. ‘Eliminate redundancies! Reduce Bandwidth use!
Travel great distances frequently and with little effort!
Accumulate on the hard drives of the middle class!
Address a distracted listening subject!’
- The mp3