Rethinking musical works as virtual networks through assemblage theory and blockchain technology
Rethinking musical works as virtual networks
Musical works exist as virtual entities, composed of both tangible and intangible parts. On one side, they consist of widely distributed material objects: scores, manuscripts, sketches, annotated copies, different versions, transcriptions, performances, and recordings. On the other side, immaterial qualities sustain them — musical and economic value, aesthetic judgment, performative and musicological interpretations, sociopolitical and historical context, personal meaning, and symbolic aura. All these components are real and play concrete roles in how any musical work is perceived cognitively and sensually. As the fundamental building blocks of a dynamic entity, these particles are constantly negotiated and recombined into ever-fresh arrangements. Each particle can be located, identified, and coded, yet a network of connections between different particles and actants is necessary for musical works to be meaningfully expressed and communicated.
This view gives rise to a new image of the musical work, where the totality of particles and connectors related to a work can be seen as a complex “assemblage” in the philosophical sense of the term. Through its interplay between structure and contingency, organization and chance, form and intensity, the notion of assemblage enables a fluid and dynamic approach to musical works, helping to better grasp their historical formation and varied transmission across time. The work concept that governed musical practices in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries operated within a world dominated by centralized mediators: music schools, publishers, concert halls, assembled audiences, critics, and record labels. Today, in the digital age of infinite sources, self-publishing, distributed music consumption, online streaming, instant feedback, global dissemination, and generative artificial intelligence, the concept of music assemblage gains major relevance — highlighting the multiplicity and fragmentarity of materials, processes, and outcomes. As society has moved from information scarcity to information abundance, primacy now shifts from standalone things, properties, and binary relations toward interactions, processes, and networks (de Assis 2023). Merging actual and virtual realities, analogue and digital modes of existence, music increasingly takes place in a hybrid digital-analogue continuum. Data provenance, agency (including non-human and post-human forms), authenticity, ownership, and value present a complex set of challenges and opportunities for how we understand and interact with musical particles.
To effectively navigate this array of emerging constraints and possibilities, new ways of conceptualizing music are necessary, but a new technologically equivalent medium for implementing experimental approaches is also essential. Such a medium must embrace the richness of music’s evolving landscape and accommodate connections between both the tangible and intangible elements of musical works. It should provide a platform where diverse constituents — scores, performances, interpretations, and cultural contexts — coalesce, enabling a more holistic appreciation and analysis of interconnected musical particles. Blockchain technology, with its emerging features, stands as a promising candidate. It allows new modes of encoding intricately interlinked networks of various objects in a decentralized yet transparent way. Often associated with cryptocurrencies and financial transactions, blockchains at the intersection of artistic practice possess a broader promising potential that remains underexplored.
Blockchain is a secure, transparent digital technology for recording and sharing data across a decentralized network. Data on this shared ledger is organized into blocks that are cryptographically linked together in chronological order, forming a “block-chain.” The decentralized nature of blockchain networks eliminates the need for a central authority or intermediary to validate transactions or oversee the network. Although initially prominent in cryptocurrency, blockchain technology has found diverse applications across supply chain, healthcare, and finance for tracking and verifying critical information. Since the arrival of “smart contracts” in 2013, the technology has expanded to support digital assets such as audio, video, and text files. This is primarily facilitated through smart contract-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which authenticate and track their established identity and, on top of that, their ownership (Buterin 2013).
A detailed history of blockchain extends beyond the scope here, and excellent accounts already exist (Brekke 2019; Whitaker 2019, 25–29; O’Dair 2019, 16–21). Briefly, blockchain covers three generations. Blockchain 1.0 mainly serves cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (2008). Blockchain 2.0, introduced by Ethereum (2014), added smart contracts. Blockchain 3.0 focuses on eco-friendly consensus methods — moving from “Proof of Work” to “Proof of Stake” — and integrates with AI, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and cloud computing, promising even more non-financial uses and benefits.
Blockchain technologies have been recognized as highly disruptive and transformative of societal practices by major experts and international organizations. In 2021, the United Nations’ working group on Science and Technology for Development stated that blockchain is “potentially a key technology in a new technological paradigm of increasing automation and integrating physical and virtual worlds, together with technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), robots, and gene editing” (United Nations 2021). That same year, the European Commission published a working report on the future of Europe, stating that “artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain are two of the most significant disruptive technologies of our time, set to have a major impact on future societies and economies” (Verbeek and Lundqvist 2021, 37). The EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum was launched by the European Commission in February 2018, aiming to establish a European Blockchain Partnership “to facilitate cooperation and sharing of expertise amongst EU member states” (European Commission 2018). Influential experts like Catherine Mulligan — director of the Centre for Cryptocurrency Research at Imperial College and an advisor to the United Nations on digital technologies — claim that “blockchain is undoubtedly one of the most important emerging technology trends within the creative industries” (Mulligan 2019).
While massive amounts of research address the technical and financial developments of blockchain, very few projects focus on its artistic consequences and creative implications. When it comes to the arts, research has mainly concentrated on payments, royalties, author attribution, intellectual property rights, questions of ownership, and other economic and monetary aspects of the so-called cultural industries. Blockchain researcher Marcus O’Dair, convener of the Blockchain for Creative Industries research cluster at Middlesex University, claims that “embracing blockchain technologies can empower creators and reshape the future of the arts” (O’Dair 2019, 9). Researchers such as Marcus O’Dair (2019), Amy Whitaker (2019), Ruth Catlow (2017), and Catlow and Rafferty (2022) have conducted valuable work on the societal implications of blockchain in relation to the arts. However, a specific discussion of the ontological implications of blockchain for music and of its creative artistic consequences for future musical practices is still lagging. For the arts, blockchain may bring radical changes not only to how artworks are transacted but crucially to how artistic processes unfold and artworks are created. Given the accelerating technological developments in digital culture, it is imperative to investigate the consequences of blockchain for the arts — focusing on the creative rather than the financial and political opportunities of this technology.
Because of progressing technological adoption, the development of high-level blockchain infrastructures, greater access to domain knowledge, frequently issued tutorials and guides, and the recent explosion of AI capabilities in computer programming, blockchain technologies have become increasingly accessible to non-coders. This creates a unique opportunity for other disciplines to position themselves in this new landscape. Artists and musicians would benefit from proactively engaging with these new technologies, contributing new uses, new tools, and new kinds of outputs.
Furthermore, the concept of agency within the humanities has long been tied to notions of intentionality, rationality, voice, and sentient decisions. Recent expansions of this notion (Marchand 2018; Zeilinger 2022) accommodate the multiple non-human “actants” with whom humans co-constitute a common world. This redefinition of agency in terms of posthuman agency presents novel and difficult challenges requiring broader — including artistic — reflection and positioning. As Zeilinger notes, “artistic experiments with blockchain that treat code outputs as living things suggest a radical recalibration of agency” (Zeilinger 2022). It would not only be a mistake but also a sign of irresponsibility for the arts not to actively engage with and contribute inputs to defining future uses and the horizon of artistic practices in the field of blockchain. Amy Whitaker (2019, 23) expressed this poignantly: “Ignoring blockchain within the field of the arts empowers actors outside the field to act without the field’s participation.” Artists and musicians will only get adequate blockchain networks if they proactively engage with their technical, social, and aesthetic implications.
Several artists have already actively engaged with blockchain technologies, contributing to the emergence of new, experimental modes of expression. Among others, visual artists Damien Hirst (The Currency, 2021; The Beautiful Paintings, 2023) and Banksy (Love is in the Air, 2021), and musicians Imogen Heap (Tiny Human, 2015; Firsts, 2021) and Holly Herndon (Platform, 2015; Holly+, 2021) have developed groundbreaking experimental projects using blockchain technologies. These projects clearly demonstrate that this technology can serve as a new artistic medium. Major museums and art galleries have also adopted blockchain technologies: the British Museum created its own blockchain-based collection (LaCollection), followed by the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Lisbon, among others. In December 2022, the Serpentine Galleries organized a conference on generative NFTs, paving the way for further integration of physical collections with blockchain technologies. Additionally, several blockchain networks have become hubs for decentralized creativity, promoting artists experimenting with blockchain. An example is the collaboration between the Tezos Foundation and Art Basel | Miami Beach in 2021 and Art Basel in 2023, leading to a digital art collection hosted on the Tezos blockchain (2023).
Decentralized Music: Exploring Blockchain for Artistic Research investigates the future of music and its relation to new and emergent technologies. The book explores blockchain, non-fungible tokens, and decentralized autonomous organizations as creative tools and new media for the generation and distribution of novel artistic objects. Rooted in artistic research and creative practices, the central perspective is that blockchain technologies can have a positive impact on emergent artistic practices, defining new futures for the arts. Focusing on blockchain and NFTs in relation to musical practices, the book addresses the potential of blockchain for music creation, offering fresh insights to the community of artist researchers in music.
Taking these ideas as conceptual triggers for theoretical and practice-based investigations, the book includes chapters by leading researchers in blockchain technologies and NFTs, artist-researchers in music, social theorists, and curators. The book does not focus on blockchain technology’s fundamental mechanisms or its history; instead, it examines forward-looking aspects of blockchain technologies. While the chapters explore various topics related to blockchain and music, a few recurring motives appear. First, the book addresses the relation of music and artistic research to blockchain (Assis, Łukawski, Zeilinger), discussing fundamental questions about music ontology — which entities do we agree to call “music”? — as well as decentralized artistic processes and the posthuman agency of artworks. Next, it moves to more technically centered discussions on current challenges at the intersection of blockchain technologies and the art world at large. Further, authors present different perspectives on the crucial question of values — economic, societal, and aesthetic — in art’s engagement with blockchain (O’Dair), and on new pathways for social and economic exchanges, re-envisioning creative processes through NFTs and DAOs (Mulligan). Finally, artists (Einarsson, Łukawski) and curators (Drubay) present recent artistic experiments in and with blockchain technologies. The book thus moves from theoretical foundations and technological investigations to concrete artistic and musical examples, covering a wide range of opportunities made possible by decentralized computing and blockchain.
The initial idea for this book can be traced back to the webinar “Music NFTs: Exploring Blockchain for Artistic Research,” hosted online by the Orpheus Institute in Ghent on 24–25 May 2022. This gathering was instrumental in shaping the initial discussions and perspectives presented in this volume, as most of the authors participated in this event as either speakers or participants. Central to initiating this discourse has been the work conducted within the research cluster MetamusicX and its previous iterations — MusicExperimentX and MusicExperiment21 — at the Orpheus Institute since 2013. This work led to innovative perspectives and pioneering ideas on redefining musical works. The renewed understanding of musical works as actual/virtual entities forms the backbone of ongoing investigations into blockchain technology as a transformative tool for music.
Chapter 1 of the volume explores from Assemblage Theory for Music to the novel concept of “hypermusic” and beyond. By reimagining the musical work as an “assemblage” and exploring the expansive possibilities of “hypermusic,” the chapter challenges conventional perspectives and opens up new horizons for understanding and interacting with musical entities in the blockchain era. This chapter is a pivotal piece for grasping the overarching themes of the book. It takes an exploratory approach, questioning traditional perspectives on musical entities and introducing two key concepts: “assemblage” and “hypermusic,” which serve as broader frameworks that encompass the diversity and multitude of materials associated with musical objects. The chapter argues for a reconceptualization of the musical work, moving beyond the conventional work concept to viewing musical works as assemblages. This approach acknowledges the dynamic, ever-changing nature of musical works, which are seen as constellations of various components within a vast network of relationships — encompassing their origins, contexts, and uses. This reconceptualization includes a critical examination of the historical and current limitations of the traditional notion of a musical work. Furthermore, the chapter delves into “hypermusic,” a term representing a more fluid and expansive understanding of music. This concept reflects the evolving nature of music, considering the myriad ways it is created, performed, and received. “Hypermusic” encompasses a broader spectrum of musical expressions and experiences, highlighting the interconnectedness and complexity of the musical world.
Chapter 2 explores the transformative potential of blockchain technology and NFTs in the realm of music creation, proposing the new concepts of “Decentralized Creative Networks” and “Performative Transactions” within the context of artistic collaboration between humans and AI agents. The chapter begins by acknowledging how blockchain and NFTs have already altered the authentication of digital musical creations and facilitated the emergence of generative art NFTs. It emphasizes, however, that the potential applications of these technologies in music extend far beyond these initial uses. “Decentralized Creative Networks” are blockchain-based social networks where artists and AI agents collaboratively develop and transact composable artistic processes. These networks enable artists to build upon each other’s contributions transparently and interoperably, much like posts on social media. These artistic processes can be used in various applications — composing music, executing live performances, or generating NFTs. “Performative Transactions,” on the other hand, are specific types of transactions within these networks. They are executed by smart contracts, which specify both the artistic process and the terms of its use in other processes. These transactions not only execute the musical transformations contributing to a composition but also handle the distribution of financial receivables to creators of the referenced processes. The chapter discusses integrating AI into these networks, suggesting a collaborative environment where human and AI agents actively shape the artistic network, with applications in music composition, performance, analysis, and sound synthesis.
Chapter 3, by Martin Zeilinger, thoroughly explores how artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technologies influence digital art, with a focus on sonic arts and music. The chapter delves into the evolving concept of creative agency, examining the extent to which it can be embedded in AI-augmented and blockchain-enabled musical objects. Zeilinger analyzes the project “Holly+,” which uses AI for voice synthesis and blockchain for provenance tracking, to illustrate how hybrid technological systems can embed alternative forms of agency in an artwork.
decentralized rights management serving as a case study for examining these ideas in practice. The discussion highlights how these technologies could fundamentally reshape traditional notions of creativity, authorship, and ownership. AI is positioned as a challenge to human-centric views of artistic creation, capable of producing works perceived as emerging from non-human intelligence. Blockchain is credited with introducing enforceable scarcity into digital artifacts, transforming how digital art is accessed and valued. Zeilinger examines the impact from both theoretical and practical standpoints, suggesting these technologies could give rise to new art forms with agency—the capacity to act or interact autonomously. The chapter also proposes that integrating AI and blockchain might redefine roles and responsibilities within the creative process, carrying significant implications for how music is composed, performed, and experienced. Finally, the author speculates about future possibilities for music and sound art, suggesting these technologies could inspire a reimagining of foundational aesthetic and philosophical concepts, including the artist, the artwork, and the composer.
Marcus O’Dair (Chapter 4) guides readers beyond the narrow financial context typically associated with blockchain and Web3 in the music industry. Although these technologies were initially linked mainly to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the rise of NFTs has sparked a paradigm shift, challenging the view that Web3 is solely about speculative digital asset investments. O’Dair traces blockchain’s historical evolution in music, highlighting two distinct waves of its influence. The first wave, business-to-business, centered on intellectual property issues like rights management. The second, more recent wave is business-to-consumer, driven by NFTs that let artists mint and sell creations directly to fans. This chapter explores the various opportunities and risks Web3 presents for musicians, fans, and industry stakeholders. It discusses potential new revenue streams, mass collaboration, and direct fan engagement, while also recognizing the challenges and limitations artists face in accessing these opportunities. Additionally, it examines implications for fans, who can now invest in and potentially profit from music-related tokens, but must navigate market volatility and technological complexities. Beyond financial considerations, O’Dair stresses the need to consider non-financial forms of value in Web3 music. The chapter explores social, environmental, and aesthetic dimensions of this emerging landscape, including potential for global South participation, shifts in power dynamics, and efforts to leverage blockchain for positive environmental change.
Overall, this chapter offers a comprehensive exploration of blockchain and Web3’s multifaceted impact on the music industry, urging readers to adopt a broader perspective encompassing social, environmental, and aesthetic values alongside financial ones.
Claudio J. Tessone’s chapter critically examines the reality behind the decentralization and uniqueness promised by blockchain technology and NFTs in digital content distribution. Tessone probes how effectively these technologies challenge existing centralized systems and questions the true novelty of the content they distribute. Through analysis spanning complex socioeconomic systems, blockchain’s foundational principles, and the emergence of centralization trends within supposedly decentralized systems, he offers a nuanced perspective. The chapter gives particular attention to NFTs and their role in art and digital asset management, questioning the authenticity and uniqueness of such assets. By drawing parallels with historical projects like Xanadu, Tessone suggests potential future directions for blockchain and NFTs that could genuinely innovate and disrupt digital transactions and content distribution. The conclusion calls for a reassessment of blockchain’s role and potential, emphasizing the need for ongoing research and experimentation to realize its transformative possibilities.
Diane Drubay’s chapter presents a reflective narrative about the intersection of art, museums, and technology, focusing on blockchain’s transformative power in the cultural sector. It begins with the author’s 2012 realization about impending changes in museums, leading to her creation of ‘We Are Museums’, an innovation lab. The text details various ways blockchain can revolutionize museums: fractional art ownership, direct artist revenue, digital scarcity, and blockchain-powered tickets that enhance museum philanthropy and access. It discusses actual examples of blockchain applications in art exhibitions and acquisitions, and the rise of the NFT marketplace Hic et Nunc, which democratized blockchain art with a low-cost, energy-efficient model. The text also highlights community-driven initiatives within the Tezos blockchain community that promote inclusivity, generosity, and support for social causes through art. Finally, it mentions We Are Museums’ ‘WAC Lab’, an innovation laboratory exploring Web3’s potential for arts and culture, culminating in the implementation of a curation DAO by the House of Electronic Arts in Basel. The conclusion emphasizes the cultural odyssey begun through blockchain and Web3, hailing it as the start of a global cultural transformation.
The chapter by Catherine Mulligan, a reworked transcription of her Orpheus webinar presentation (Mulligan 2022), draws on the phrase ‘you can’t knock the hustle’—attributed to both Jay Z and Sotheby’s—to explore the transformative dynamics shaping the creative sector in the era of digital tokens. This chapter offers an exploratory reflection on the intersection of NFTs and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) with the creative industry. Mulligan, with her extensive background in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and sustainability research since 2009, provides insights into how these technologies are reshaping creativity and artistic practices.
The chapter discusses how NFTs and DAOs impact artistic creation, distribution, and ownership, exploring how these technologies open new possibilities for artists and the broader creative industry. It focuses on the evolving role of blockchain and related technologies in altering traditional dynamics of the creative sector, touching on topics like digital art, music, and the broader cultural implications of these technological advancements.
In Kristof Timmerman’s chapter, the focus shifts to blockchain technology’s transformative impact on decentralized music within virtual environments. Timmerman delves into how our increasingly digital-centric lives, further accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis, are influencing artistic creation and audience engagement in virtual spaces. He explores the concept of the ‘metaverse’ and its implications for artistic collaboration and audience experience. This collective virtual shared space—an amalgamation of virtual worlds, augmented reality, and more—is redefining boundaries between creators, performers, and audiences. Timmerman discusses blockchain’s significance in this context, noting its role in enhancing interoperability across diverse virtual platforms, thus fostering collaborative and immersive artistic experiences. Central to his analysis is the concept of ‘breaking the fifth wall’ in immersive experiences, where the distinction between virtual and real worlds blurs and audiences transition from passive observers to active participants. This reimagined engagement is facilitated by blockchain’s decentralized and transparent nature, empowering audiences with greater agency and ownership within these virtual environments. The chapter is both speculative and visionary, probing blockchain and decentralized technologies’ potential to revolutionize how music is created, distributed, and experienced in the evolving digital landscape. Timmerman’s work invites readers to consider a future where music in virtual spaces becomes not just a theoretical concept but a transformative reality, promising a more inclusive, transparent, and artistically vibrant musical world.
Einar Torfi Einarsson’s ‘Hypermusic Experiment 0.9’ reimagines the creative process by introducing a unique mechanism for generating notated music through spectra interaction, aiming to create a dynamic, fluid, decentralized, and participatory musical milieu. This novel system initiates its process by generating notated pages, termed partial-scores, filled with an assortment of musical graphics. These partial-scores represent a fusion of digital and physical realms, embodying a continuous blend of the virtual and real, and align with the concept of differential ontology. Notation’s significance is emphasized as a crucial assembly component, acting as a nexus for interpretation, experimentation, and bridging various planes, thereby transcending traditional notation’s rigidity while preserving the interpretive space vital for musical creation.
Kosmas Giannoutakis’s chapter discusses decentralized technologies like blockchain’s impact on music, particularly in experimental and collaborative contexts. It examines how these technologies can enable new forms of music-making, fostering transindividual and collaborative practices. The author presents case studies on electroacoustic music and live coding, showing how blockchain infrastructures can facilitate decentralized, creative contributions in these fields. The text also explores broader implications for the music industry, suggesting these technologies can lead to more egalitarian and sustainable practices in music creation and distribution. It delves into the philosophical underpinnings of decentralized musicking, proposing a shift from traditional, hierarchical models of music production and consumption toward more collaborative and community-driven approaches. It argues that these emerging practices not only democratize music creation but also challenge and redefine the roles of artist and audience in the musical experience.
Decentralized Music: Exploring Blockchain for Artistic Research is an invitation to embark on a journey at the forefront of conceptual developments integrating music and newest technologies. We invite readers to delve into this exploratory venture, engage with diverse viewpoints, and embrace the transformative potential of blockchain in music and artistic research. Recognizing this book’s interdisciplinary nature, we have included a glossary at the end. This serves as a handy reference for readers to quickly grasp technical terms and concepts at the convergence of music, artistic research, and new technologies. The glossary aids in navigating the challenging yet rewarding terrain of this interdisciplinary exploration. As we explore the intricate interplay between blockchain technology and music, we uncover a landscape where creativity and innovation take new dimensions in decentralized spaces. This new paradigm, characterized by the fusion of tangible and intangible elements of musical works, challenges traditional notions of musical creativity. The decentralized nature of blockchain networks, with their transformative potential for artistic practices, heralds a new era of music creation and appreciation. By embracing these technologies, artists and musicians are positioned at the forefront of a digital revolution, redefining musical practices and expanding the boundaries of artistic expression.