Writing

Information Architecture in the Museum of Making Music

But a museum is far more than a collection of stories (and artifacts, of course). It’s also an experience of moving through space and processing content. People move and process differently, which means that we couldn’t just design for one experience. We worked to structure content in a way that would allow any visitor to find what they were looking for, and to tailor their experience based on their needs. There’s a term that’s stuck with me from my previous life in software that seems to sum up this approach: information architecture.

The Sound of Sludge: Groove, Materiality, and Bodily Experience in Sludge Metal

This paper takes as its topic the musical subgenre of sludge metal, a collection of sounds and practices caught ultimately in the interstices of metal and punk, metal and hard rock, heavy metal and extreme metal, among others. My approach here is motivated by the themes of this conference--“Music Flows” and the various metaphorical applications of water--to consider the “sludge” in sludge metal as more than a categorical marker. I consider the metaphorical utility of sludge as a material similar to yet significantly different from water in a discussion of the sounds, generic constitution and contestations, and embodied experience of sludge metal.

Locating Experiential Richess in Doom Metal

This dissertation takes as its central topic the musical genre of doom metal. Largely absent from the scholarly literature on metal music, doom metal is set apart from other genres by its use of extremely slow tempi, repetitive and processual forms, and a thematic focus on mortality and weakness. It draws attention to the moment of experience, in terms of both bodily and emotional response, and away from closure and resolution. I divide my study of doom metal into three threads...