Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 10 Number 1, April 2009
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Marc Lehman, Embodied Music Cognition and Mediation Technology, (Cambridge, Massachutes: MIT Press, 2008. pp297.
Reviewed by
University of Dayton
Marc Lehman’s new book delivers an interesting survey of the growing study of embodied cognition as it is applied to music. He provides a direction for future research which could unite music, body, mind and technology once again. He is driven by the following question: if music exists in the world as physical energy and exists in the human mind as propositions or beliefs, how can technology be used to bridge the gap between the two?
In addressing this question, he surveys much philosophy of music, studies in psychology and technological research. Lehman demonstrates a command of the history of all of these fields. His writing is dense with information and may be challenge for anyone who is not an expert in all of the mentioned fields. It will be necessary for the reader to look elsewhere for explanations of some basic concepts outside of their expertise.
Lehman’s style is analytical as he reviews the many approaches to music in these various fields. He does not argue for the correct way to understand music, but instead argues for an approach that might be fruitful for the project of advancing technology as it aims to aid people in accessing, performing and interacting with music. For example, in chapter 2, he compares the cognitive paradigm of music research to the embodied cognition paradigm. He explains that the cognitive paradigm focuses on our belief states while ignoring the fact that music is physical energy and these descriptions rarely are descriptions of that energy. On the other hand, the embodied cognition paradigm sees the human as perceiving physical energy and interpreting it in order to know how to successfully interact with it. This approach links mind and matter and better serves to provide a basis for new technological developments.
Lehman ultimately argues that the way we interact with music is a form of our everyday social interaction. We try to decipher music’s intentions in order to understand it and know how to interact with it; just as we do with the other people/things in our environment. He demonstrates that part of our understanding is corporeal rather than just cerebral. This being the case, technological research should proceed with an understanding of bodily response to music and aim to act as an extension of the body.
One discussion that Lehman omits is how we might improve on recent technological success to achieve his goals. The Wii gaming system has developed ways of working with the body and measuring its responses, while the music genome project, (Pandora.com), has made great strides in enabling people to discover new music based upon the formal elements of music that they have previously enjoyed. It seems to me that these should technologies should be reviewed so that we can learn from their successes and failures.
Lehman gives us glimpses at how technology might advance to help us to access and interpret music. This book is successful at outlining a new and potentially fruitful approach to the research and development of new music technologies.