(Micro)Politics of Algorithmic Music: Towards a Tactical Media Archaeology

The chapter explores a shift of emphasis from the macro to micro scale of algorithmic music, by making reference to Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of micropolitics, microtemporality in the work of Wolfgang Ernst, and Shintaro Miyazaki’s concept of algorhythmics. By drawing together tactical media and media archaeology to address the politics of algorithmic music, an argument is developed that ‘tactical media archaeology’ offers an analytical method for developing alternative compositions. By emphasising more speculative approaches and broader ecologies of practice exemplified by the critical engineering of Martin Howse, our claim is that algorithms need to understood as part of temporal, relational and contingent operations that are sensitive to their conditions and future trajectories.