Music Within Limits

The creation of music relies heavily on, and is tightly intertwined with, mass production and industrialisation, making it virtually inseparable from many of the fundamental issues that make up the climate crisis today. Music (and the arts more generally) has the potential to play a role in influencing behaviour and effecting structural change by showcasing the issues at play and raising awareness around the magnitude of the crisis. However, digital music making contains an embedded political ecology and problematic history which must be assessed and acknowledged in order to effectively leverage this power. Therefore this paper will situate digital music within a cultural history of industrialisation, with all of the ecology contained therein. Building upon this, a set of approaches will be laid out that draw from established ICT4S concepts of limits theory and heuristic design, combined with artistic practice, proposing potential ways forward that will encourage digital music making to move towards a sustainable future and position musical tools to challenge societal norms.