The Reincarnation of Blind Tom

Music, Machines, and Subjectivity

Born into slavery in 1849, Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins was one of the most famous American composer-pianists of his time. In 1924, Czech writer Karel Čapek’s play R.U.R. portrays a new source of labor, the “robot.” For both robots and slaves there is a denial of subjectivity, but theorist Fred Moten's important insight is that subjectivity can be heard. As a slave, Blind Tom was a mere commodity, but as Moten writes, "If the commodity could speak, it would be imbued with a certain spirit."

This relationship between human and non-human subjectivities will be examined in this talk, with reference to the interactive AI improvisation systems George Lewis has been creating since 1979. Interacting with such systems forms a machine-human sociality that raises crucial questions, not only about how we experience artificial intelligence in the world, but also about agency, identity, subjectivity, social responsibility, and freedom.

George Lewis is an American composer, musicologist, and trombonist. He is Professor of American Music at Columbia University and Artistic Director of the International Contemporary Ensemble, as well as a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin.

The Rendez-Vous de l’Institut Series is generously supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. You will find a full calendar of the Fellows’ Talks.