Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Heidegger's Equipment & A Diminishing Equipmental World

Heidegger as a 20th century philosopher uses a technical term that anticipates the instrumental way that we connect through a digital world. This particular instrumentality is equipment, a way of engaging yourself with the world in a way that extracts and creates meaning. Thus we have seen our equipment become more and more sophisticated as instruments of inquiry, connectedness, and creation. As our equipment evolves, it becomes less and less a material object and more and more a process of engagement

The big ideas blog provides an insightful description of Heidegger's notion of equipment:

In Being and Time was the idea of “equipment” — Das Zeug — as a picture of our relationship with the mundane world...Being and Time begins with “everydayness”, and in a way the whole book is a meditation on how we can be thinking subjects who just get on with things, without constantly having ontological crises, despite the fact that nobody understands what a subject is, or what the universe is in which the subject exists, or what existence is, or really much of anything.
The “everydayness” of the world is typified by the Greek word pragmata:
that is to say, that which one has to do with in one’s concernful dealings praxis… we shall call those entities… “equipment”.

Heidegger here decides to take seriously the instrumental aspect of our relationship with the world, the idea that we are always in it acting as agents, using stuff to get things done... we constitute a world by entering into relationships with existing networks — “the equipment”. We find things come to hand and we use them, and in doing so we determine what they are. And “what they are” is, at that point, nothing more complicated than their location in the network.
“The equipment” is a single thing; a compound thing, definitely, but not something we can easily analyse into its constituent parts, since each part has been defined, afterwards, by reference to its place in the network. ...Instead Heidegger gets excited when things break down, such as when a doorknob comes off in your hand, because that has the potential to give us an insight into what “really exists” beyond the world of equipment. (the big ideas blog, Heideggarian "Equipment")

Our equipment started as an instrument called a computer as a large room of parts which have in the past 30 years been reduced to the palm of your hand. The physical object is disappearing as process takes precedence over form. This means that the way we make and experience the arts is transforming the paradigm of who we are and how we interact.


(the big ideas blog, Heideggarian "Equipment")
Our equipment started as an instrument called a computer as a large room of parts which have in the past 30 years been reduced to the palm of your hand. The physical object is disappearing as process takes precedence over form. This means that the way we make and experience the arts is transforming the paradigm of who we are and how we interact.

AI is transforming university teaching, but are we ready for it? - University...
Saturday, March 29, 2025

Loleen Berdahl , University Affairs , Mar 28, 2025 The questions here are what's interesting and significant: "Are faculty going to be leaders – or, barring that, engaged participants – in determining how AI shapes the future of higher education? Or will they leave this to those outsi... .. read more..

On the Biology of a Large Language Model
Saturday, March 29, 2025

Jack Lindsey , et al. , Transformer Circuits Thread , Mar 28, 2025 You may have seen a recent MIT Technology Review article ( archive ) on 'circuit tracing'. This (and a companion paper ) is the actual research, and unlike the MIT article, it's not behind a paywall. The idea is to reverse enginee... .. read more..

Four short links: 6 May 2016
Saturday, April 7, 2018

Apple Stole My Music, No Seriously — Amber relayed to me that shes had to suffer through many calls from people who cancelled their Apple Music subscription after the free, three-month trial, only to discover that all of their own … .. read more..

Four short links: 9 May 2016
Saturday, April 7, 2018

The Next AI is No AI — In the near future, artificial intelligence will commonly become intangible, indistinguishable and incomprehensible for humans. No arguments until In this way, AI technologies could evolve into a platform, an infrastructure similar to the … .. read more..

New Times Ahead
Tuesday, July 16, 2013

The summer group of 2013, comprised of students who are working on the technology of themselves, are entering new domains of awareness. This is the ongoing challenge we face as artists and educators. But the good news is that our training and sensibility actually prepares us for change. We are re... .. read more..

A Trend We Should All Hope Continues
Tuesday, May 21, 2013

As the 2012/2013 school year comes to a close — as instruments are returned, music archived, graduation ceremonies conducted — and plans for the upcoming year begin to take shape this is always a good time of year to take stock — of where we are, the condition of our... .. read more..

The Untold Story of How Music and Arts Education Became Core Subjects (Hint: ...
Monday, January 28, 2013

Last March I wrote about the 20 year anniversary of the release of the landmark report “Growing Up Complete: The Imperative for Music Education” by the National Commission on Music Education - a partnership between NAMM (Larry Linkin, Karl Bruhn), NARAS: The Recording Academy (Mike Greene) and ME... .. read more..

My Annual Holiday Gift List for Santa
Thursday, January 3, 2013

Ho Ho Ho Everybody! Yes indeed it is that time of year. It is time to find out who has been naughty (and you know who you are!) and who has been nice, who will find a lump of coal in their stocking and who will find something a little... .. read more..

Teacher Evaluations in the Arts Are Coming. Are you Ready?
Wednesday, October 17, 2012

We have all heard the stories… teachers need to be held accountable for student growth. I suspect most people would not disagree with this statement. Where there is plenty of debate and disagreement though is “how?” For subjects like language arts and math where there are statewide assessments to... .. read more..

Digital City ["insert your city or region here"]
Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Digital City ["insert your city or region here"] pilot project would create and maintain a series of “New Economy Apprenticeships” which would lead to a “digital economy ecosystem” in ["insert your city or region here"].  This pilot project would … Continue reading → The Digital C... .. read more..

Where Do We Go From Here?
Saturday, March 17, 2012

We are in the midst of revolution. The world is changing so rapidly that although we think we see the world around us, the world is changing right before our eyes... right now. A serious question faces us as educators. How relevant is the past? Do we cling to the past because it created us as we ... .. read more..

Technology as an Extension of Ourselves
Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Technology serves to extend the range of human expression and achievement. Because of this, music has always been intimately associated with the development of technology. Instruments emerged as the technological extension of the human voice, and as instruments developed, they extended the range ... .. read more..

A recurring chrysalis
Wednesday, January 25, 2012

My colleague Paul Beard was telling me about the Smith Center for the Performing Arts now in development in Las Vegas, and remarked that it was actually two entirely different creatures living in the same space. The day before it... My colleague Paul Beard was telling me about the Smith Center fo... .. read more..

The rise of the 'edge-pert'
Thursday, January 19, 2012

A recurring theme at this year's Arts Presenters conference in New York was boundary crossing. Artists and arts organizations were celebrated for dancing with unexpected partners -- city planners, farmers, inner-city kids, health professionals. Other speakers encouraged such new connections... A ... .. read more..

My Annual Christmas Wish List for Santa!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011

It has been a REALLY busy, harried, controversial, challenging year for everyone. And if you are like me I am sure all of you are ready for a well-deserved break. But before mine starts I have one last task to complete… My Annual Christmas Wish List for Santa! ------------------------------------... .. read more..

If you can't get on the radio, get in a cab
Thursday, December 8, 2011

VICE online magazine offers a fascinating bit of music history from South Africa with a story about the rise of Kwaito house music in the 1990s. Since emerging artists in this street-wise musical style couldn't get on the radio, they... VICE online magazine offers a fascinating bit of music histo... .. read more..

Are you ready? Honestly, are you?
Wednesday, December 7, 2011

So, you're running an arts facility or cultural organization in Anytown, USA, and your computer person (who might also be your office manager) falls ill or quits in a huff -- does anyone else know the system passwords and protocols?... So, you're running an arts facility or cultural organization ... .. read more..

Dance v. Powerpoint (advantage: dance)
Friday, December 2, 2011

While a thicket of work projects has kept from blogging for the past two weeks, I couldn't let this week conclude without sharing this fantastic TEDxBrussels presentation by science writer and 'Dance your PhD' founder John Bohannon. Bohannon explains (and... While a thicket of work projects has k... .. read more..

Artists in search of a 'liquidity event'
Monday, October 31, 2011

Last night I attended the Madison performance of Little Big Town, an alt-country group whose current national tour is sponsored by Country Financial (which is where I got the backstage invite...thanks Sean). And in the pre-show chat for the sponsor's... Last night I attended the Madison performan... .. read more..

Participatory practice in the arts
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Arts organizations and arts funders have long been discussing the rise of a more 'participatory' interest among arts audiences. Beyond 'butts in seats,' this emerging interest suggests that audiences increasingly engage in expressive activity throughout their lives (online, at home,... Arts organ... .. read more..

My Testimony before the New Jersey State Board of Education
Thursday, October 13, 2011

Testimony of Robert B. Morrison New Jersey Arts Education Partnership for the New Jersey State Board of Education October 5, 2011 Good afternoon. My name is Bob Morrison. I serve as the chair of the New Jersey Arts Education Partnership – the statewide umbrella organization for the visual and per... .. read more..

Steve Jobs, Jef Raskin, Apple and Why We Teach the Arts in Our Schools.
Thursday, October 6, 2011

I often find myself in front of policy and decision makers discussing the status and condition of arts education in our schools. I have been in front of state boards of education, state legislatures, the Oval Office, the corner office, the principals office, school boards, congressional caucuses,... .. read more..

Promoting Your Program is No Longer an Option. It’s a Requirement!
Monday, September 19, 2011

Wow… where did the summer go? It feels like just yesterday school was wrapping up. Yet here we are facing the start of the new school year. New hopes. New dreams. New goals for you and your students. It means planning your programs, selecting your music, getting your lesson plans... .. read more..

September 12, 2001: You Can Always Have an Impact... If You Choose To
Sunday, September 18, 2011

Today I opened a letter I have not read for nearly a decade. It was from Harold Decker, the president of the American Red Cross. It was a thank you note that accompanied a statue (called Motherland) he sent to me as a special gift. There is a story I... .. read more..

Rebirth: The Future of Classical MusicBrief outline
Thursday, September 24, 2009

What's missing from this outline: details, objections to what I say (and my answers), liveliness, fun, and music. I'll spend... .. read more..

Rebirth: The Future of Classical Music
Thursday, September 24, 2009

My book on the future of classical music is going to unfold here, or at least parts of it... .. read more..

Old versions: First try
Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Episode 1: Mark, Jed, and Beny Moré Episode 2: An Odd Blankness Episode 3: What Is Classical Music, Anyway? Episode... .. read more..

Viola Enluarada
Monday, July 27, 2009

I recently came upon a life-changing idea and became deeply engrossed in the beauty and depth of the text and music of a song “Viola enluarada” composed by Marcos Valle and his brother Paulo Sérgio Valle. In Brazil viola refers to the acoustic guitar. Violas are used for serenades, to... .. read more..

Technology and Process in the Arts
Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Digital technology has shifted our attention away from the the object to focus on the process. As we discover process in creating new artistic works, we find that there is considerable overlap in generating new media. Now we have tools for investigating and interrogating our personal artistic pro... .. read more..

To See, or Not To See?
Monday, December 8, 2008

Recently I watched " The Banquet " (夜宴 - Ye Yan), the new movie starring Zhang Ziyi. It's a period-drama and a loose adaptation of Hamlet, featuring many of t he supporting characters and prominent events. What is interesting about The Banquet is that there are elements from martial arts films an... .. read more..

Can't Get It Out Of My Head!
Monday, December 8, 2008

Recently someone sent me this interesting article about "earworms" which is "a term for a song stuck in one's head, particularly an annoying one," according to Wikipedia . I had absolutely no idea that there was a term for this particularly irritating phenomenon! What struck me most about this ar... .. read more..

A Night at the Movies
Monday, December 8, 2008

After a stressful week, I finally sat down yesterday evening and relaxed by watching the live telecast of the Academy Awards . There's just something nice about getting all my work done for the upcoming week and sitting down and watching some TV. I'm definitely a big movie fan so I (usually) try ... .. read more..

Happy Chinese New Year!
Monday, December 8, 2008

新年快樂! February 18, 2007 marks the beginning of Chinese New Year, year of the Pig (or Boar, depending on who you ask). This year is very special in that it is the "Year of the Golden Pig" which falls once every 60 years. Definitely lots to celebrate :) Chinese New Year also means the beginning of ... .. read more..

Thoughts on E-learning
Monday, December 8, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day! I love what Google does with its logo on holidays! They're so very creative! With that said, back to business... What is E-learning? "E-learning is to classroom learning as cell phones are to a pay phone at the bus station." I thought this was a pretty clever way to put it.... .. read more..

Music
Monday, December 8, 2008

Music is my life. I have to admit it. If there was no such thing as music, I don’t know how I would cope with certain things in my life. When I workout, the music that I listen to, gives me motivation to train harder and longer. If it weren’t for my iPod , I don’t think that I would have finished... .. read more..

Musicovery: Interactive WebRadio
Monday, December 8, 2008

On one of my recent posts, I highlighted a website called Pandora , the internet radio. Upon further surfing, I came across Musicovery , an interactive web radio very similar to the Pandora web radio site. Musicovery lets you choose and explore music by mood (anywhere from dark to positive and fr... .. read more..

A Video Game Symphony
Monday, December 8, 2008

During spring break, my friend installed W orld of Warcraft (WoW) on my new mac. For those of you who don't know, WoW is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) where players come together and battle against the world an d each other . The game is set in the Warcraft Universe, an ... .. read more..

The Intimacy of Rain & Digital Collaboration
Monday, October 27, 2008

Recently I started a web collaboration with a dancer in California and a Dancer in New York, where I created materials to post on the web as a collaborative process. During a Skype conference we decided to explore the theme of intimacy.  Exploring the concept of intimacy took me down a side path,... .. read more..

Identity and the Web
Thursday, March 20, 2008

The WWW provides a new platform for discovery. It can be discovery of ourselves as artists, as citizens, as thinkers, as poets. We can be whatever we want to be. There is tremendous power in this illusion. But is it illusion? As we mirror ourselves in new identities, a transformation enters into ... .. read more..

Musicators
Thursday, November 8, 2007

Sometimes the distinctions between musicing and musicating become blurred. Musicing is making music and music making, while musicating is learning and teaching music. Ideally the teaching and learning cycle is achieved through making music, and technology enhances that process, making musication ... .. read more..

Summer of Dis/Content
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I am gradually returning to the world as hints of Autumn invade the air. I have been in the lingering aftermath of a digital summer invested in collaboration with Korean artists creating new works for a multimedia event. The focus of the collaborative activity was on the process of extending crea... .. read more..

PLEXUS: An Endless Voyage of Collaboration
Monday, June 25, 2007

PLEXUS is a group of artists who began collaborating in the late 1970s and whose endless artistic voyage continues even now. In 1982, these artists formed PLEXUS, Much of their work was conceptual, evolutionary, and revolutionary, as artists extended themselves into furture renderings of work tha... .. read more..

Music and Internet2: Interactive Multimedia Performance as a New Artistic Medium
Sunday, June 17, 2007

Of interest here is music and moving image in the new medium of Internet2, which has become a platform for sharing images and music across distances in a collaborative exchange of live and processed images, video, and sound. Internet2 productions are characterized by images, video and sound that ... .. read more..

Tech Learning Curves
Thursday, June 14, 2007

Sometimes our initial encounter with a new technology makes us feel very much like the bewildered fellow in this video on introducing the technology of the book. No matter what application we may be learning, there is always some sort of learning curve. Of course the ideal is that as we work we l... .. read more..

New Challenges in Collaboration
Monday, June 11, 2007

As performing arts educators, many of us are starting to explore collaboration as creative process. This is a technique that emerges from the spirit of Web 2.0, which places each person at the center of creative activity, unmediated by authority except the discipline that emerges from responsibil... .. read more..

ISALTA.com Still a Web 1.0 Site?
Monday, June 11, 2007

ISALTA (International Society for the Advancement of Living Traditions in Art) is an enigma. It is essentially a Moodle Wiki in structure, but appears to be conceived as a Web 1.0 site with interactive participation somewhat limited. Perhaps its origin in the pre-web days in the 1980s is part of ... .. read more..

Sound in Time and Space: Internet2 as a New Medium
Saturday, June 9, 2007

Sculpting sound for a particular time and space has been the focus of most of my activities with Internet2. Related to that has been the multimedia environment where boundaries dissolve and images become a substance that resembles music. The recognition of this new medium with special properties ... .. read more..

Final Thoughts...
Friday, May 4, 2007

I think this semester was wonderful and informative. The course was great in that it was well presented. I liked that we could go along with Chienen and follow through his instructions of Flash and Dreamweaver. I am more of a visual learner, so it helped tremendously watching him do it for the fi... .. read more..

My accomplishments
Friday, May 4, 2007

I came to this class with very little knowledge on web programming and wanted to learn enough to start my own professional web site. With this in mind my goal was to become familiar with Flash and Action Script. To my satisfaction, I learned more than I expected. Now that I understand the main co... .. read more..

About Flash....
Friday, May 4, 2007

For general web authoring, Flash is useful because it allows the designer to have more freedom in designing a site, but at the same time I feel that too much flash can make a web site crowded and visually overwhelming. If used correctly, it can give a site a beautiful yet simple professional look... .. read more..

Problems in Music
Friday, May 4, 2007

Finally, it's the end of the semester. So many things happened to me this semester. Especially , it was so sad that my computer died. Anyway, when I came in this class first time, I couldn't catch the point of this class. Why is this class called "Problems in Music"? I kept asking this question t... .. read more..

Some Final Comments
Friday, May 4, 2007

What was the most important thing you felt you accomplished in the class this semester? I finally have some real flash and dreamweaver experience. I have a better understanding of the advantages to using these programs, and some of the disadvatages. For example, a bonus is that there are a millio... .. read more..

Winding Down Comments
Friday, May 4, 2007

Discuss THREE of your colleague's websites (final projects or blogs), and what you think are their best features or the point of view. I think it's neat how people develop confidence over time. In the beginning Danby said, "The reason why is that computer is really difficult so I feel like, If I ... .. read more..

Darn Flash Buttons
Friday, May 4, 2007

Tips, Problems, and Hard Lessons Learned... Flash Buttons: So the moral of the story is that naming an instance is important. Behaviors: You actually have to press the + button and add the behavior for the button to work. Uploading the SWF file is actually important. Don't forget to do that. Oddl... .. read more..

Using eChalk with Students
Friday, May 4, 2007

It seems like every school hosts their website with eChalk. Many NYCDOE schools do, and so do a lot in the suburbs. I was speaking to Sandy Scrag, of the Teachers Network, about this and she explained. Apparently eChalk used to be free, and then after everyone set up their free website they start... .. read more..

Digital Immigrants Digital Natives
Friday, May 4, 2007

Recently, I've been taking a psychology of music class. Be mindful that these excerpts are copyrighted materials. Here are some of my writings from this class: New York State requires all students to complete one semester of music to graduate from high school. What is to be done with the large nu... .. read more..

Blogs and Instruction
Friday, May 4, 2007

So I've been teaching music technology with computers for the last four years. It's been interesting to watch the students adapt to the social communication scene. I noticed my student's inclination to view social blogs about one and a half years ago. There have been a number of trendy sites they... .. read more..

Finding Money-Best Buy!
Friday, May 4, 2007

Best Buy ---see us on their website: http://communications.bestbuy.com/communityrelations/teach.asp I recently found out that I won a Best Buy Grant! I collaborated on the writing of this with my colleagues Shana Zaslow, and Phillip Seymour. Here is an example of the question and our answer from ... .. read more..

Cablevision Award Finalist
Friday, May 4, 2007

Around one month ago I found out that I've made it to the finals for the Cablevision Leaders in Learning Awards in the category of Media Literacy. Here is their website: http://i.ciconline.org/LIL/Finalists2007.html For this grant, Cablevision wanted a unit with examples of student work that prom... .. read more..

Digital Storytelling With Music
Thursday, May 3, 2007

This page includes links and information regarding how to set text to music using GarageBand and Audacity Software. This page includes notes and ideas I presented at the 6th Annual Teachers Network Conference. Project Description: in this project students will set text to student composed, origin... .. read more..