Bourdieu and Swidler – Structures and the Habitus

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

This week’s reading was the second chapter of Pierre Bourdieu‘s Outline Of A Theory Of Practice, on Structures and the Habitus. Bourdieu writes the worst, most opaque prose of any social theorist. The second paragraph of this chapter includes the phrase “structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures.” Later: “the habitus, which at every moment structures in terms of the structuring experiences which produced it the structuring experiences which affect its structure…” Bourdieu. What are you doing. Why do you write like this.

Pierre Bourdieu

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Music Matters chapter nine

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class. 

Research into music psychology (and simply attending to your own experience, and to common sense) shows that music arouses emotions. However, there is no conclusive way to explain why or how. To make things more complicated, it’s perfectly possible to perceive an emotion in a piece of music without feeling that emotion yourself–you can identify a happy song as being happy without it making you feel happy. Music and emotion are inextricably tied up with each other, but how does music arouse emotions, and how do emotions infuse music?

Elliott and Silverman summarize some major philosophical theories of musical emotion (or lack thereof).  Continue reading “Music Matters chapter nine”

QWERTYBeats research

Writing assignment for Design For The Real World with Claire Kearney-Volpe and Diana Castro – research about a new rhythm interface for blind and low-vision novice musicians

Definition

I propose a new web-based accessible rhythm instrument called QWERTYBeats.

QWERTYBeats logo

Traditional instruments are highly accessible to blind and low-vision musicians. Electronic music production tools are not. I look at the history of accessible instruments and software interfaces, give an overview of current electronic music hardware and software, and discuss the design considerations underlying my project.  Continue reading “QWERTYBeats research”

Freud – Civilization And Its Discontents

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

We have read some dense canonical European White Guys. None of them have been as difficult and off-putting as Freud. I would have rather read Civilization And Its Discotheques.

Freud is so Freudian

Freud begins with the observation that for most of human history, our happiness has been tied to our ability to control nature: to keep away predators and stinging instincts, to keep ourselves fed and sheltered, to alleviate pain and disease. At the time Freud was writing, nature was well under control. You would think, then, that we would be really happy. But as Louis CK puts it: “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy.”

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Music Matters chapter five

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class. These are responses to the discussion questions at the end of chapter five, which discusses personhood and music education.

Antonio Damasio - Descartes' Error

Why should music educators be concerned with the nature of personhood?

All forms of music, education and community music are personal. They involve social engagement, and emotions both personal and collective. Praxial music education considers the student as a holistic person, not just as a musician. Educative teaching aims for the flourishing of the whole person, not just supplying skills and knowledge. It is difficult to support the flourishing of persons without a clear idea of the nature of personhood.

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Émile Durkheim – Elementary Forms of the Religious Life

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

This week, we read another cornerstone of the sociology canon: Émile Durkheim on where religion comes from.

Émile Durkheim

The book is very much a product of its time, with continual and annoying references to “primitive” religions and peoples. No question that Durkheim’s methodology doesn’t pass contemporary muster. But his theoretical insights are on point.

[R]eligion is something eminently social. Religious representations are collective representations which express collective realities; the rites are a manner of acting which take rise in the midst of the assembled groups and which are destined to excite, maintain or recreate certain mental states in these groups (10).

You could substitute the word “music” for “religion” and this paragraph would still be true. This is food for future thought.

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Music Matters chapter four

Public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class.

What is education?

Milo gets some STEM education

The etymology of the word “education” from its various Latin roots gives a good overview of modern senses of the word:

  • Educationem: rearing children, animals, plants and promoting physical development
  • Educare: to train or mold
  • Educo and educere: to lead out, to “teach a man to fish” as per Lao Tzu

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The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Note-taking for Learning of Culture with Lisa Stulberg

Our first reading in the class was Ta-Nehisi Coates. The second one is Max Weber. The transition between their prose styles is like gliding downhill on a bike into a brick wall. Nick Seaver calls it “the 1-2 relatable-canonical punch.”

Max Weber

David Foster Wallace likes to tell this parable:

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, “What the hell is water?”

In America, the water is capitalism. A capitalist enterprise has two necessary ingredients: a disciplined labor force, and an owner class that re-invests its capital. These things are so familiar to us in modern America that it’s startling to be reminded how culturally specific they are.

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Music Matters chapter one

This post is public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class.

Music Matters

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Music Matters chapter two

This post is public-facing note taking on Music Matters by David Elliott and Marissa Silverman for my Philosophy of Music Education class.

This chapter deals with philosophy and music education. The word “philosophy” in this context means not just a credo or belief system. It’s the process of examining your thinking, beliefs, relationships, and so on.

Thinking face emoji

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