‘Keeping the Machines Alive’: Repairing and Maintaining the Fairlight CMI.
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2023, June)
‘Keeping the Machines Alive’: Repairing and Maintaining the Fairlight CMI. Paper presented at Innovation In Music Conference 2023, Edinburgh, UK
The story of the Fairlight CMI is a story of misuse. Designed primarily as a digital synthesizer for the imitation of acoustic instruments, it was used in the worlds of popula...
Beyond Sustainability: The Music Industries Declare Emergency on Planet Earth – or do they?
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2022, August)
Beyond Sustainability: The Music Industries Declare Emergency on Planet Earth – or do they?. Paper presented at IASPM UK and Ireland Conference, University of Liverpool
In December last year, a number of record labels based in the UK signed the Music Climate Pact in which they committed to reducing the emission of greenhouse gases by 50% by 2...
Finding the Female Users: A Feminist Historiography of the Fairlight CMI
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P., & Blackburn, M. (2022, June)
Finding the Female Users: A Feminist Historiography of the Fairlight CMI. Paper presented at Rethinking the History of Technology-based Music, University of Huddersfield
The story of the Fairlight CMI, a digital synthesizer that was designed in Sydney, Australia in the mid-to-late 1970s, is dominated by a few high-profile male users: Peter Gab...
(Dis)locating Democratisation: Grime, Digitalisation, and 'The PlayStation Generation'
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2021, May)
(Dis)locating Democratisation: Grime, Digitalisation, and 'The PlayStation Generation'. Paper presented at Annual Symposium of Music Scholars in Finland, Online
For many commentators over the last two decades, digitisation represents nothing short of a watershed moment in how music is produced, stored, and consumed. In this paper, I a...
'Need we Say More': Contemporary Responses to the Fairlight CMI
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2020, December)
'Need we Say More': Contemporary Responses to the Fairlight CMI. Paper presented at Sound Instruments and Sonic Cultures: An Interdisciplinary Conference, National Science & Media Museum, Bradford/Online
Often described as the first digital sampler, the Fairlight Computer Musical Instrument (CMI) was primarily a digital synthesizer and computer workstation. Launched in 1979, i...
(Dis)locating Democratisation: Grime, Digitalisation, and ‘The PlayStation Generation’
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2020, May)
(Dis)locating Democratisation: Grime, Digitalisation, and ‘The PlayStation Generation’. Paper presented at London Calling IASPM UK & Ireland Conference, Online/University of West London
For many commentators over the last two decades, digitisation represents nothing short of a watershed moment in how music is produced, stored, and consumed. Just as the era of...
Following the Auteurs: Kate Bush and the Fairlight CMI
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2019, December)
Following the Auteurs: Kate Bush and the Fairlight CMI. Paper presented at This Woman's Work: A Kate Bush Symposium, Edinburgh College of Art
I’m a big fan of Kate Bush’s music but my priority in this paper is not to praise her many achievements. Instead, I want to look at how she was using music technologies in the...
Can Music be Digitised? Samplers, Democratisation, and 'the Digital Age'
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2018, December)
Can Music be Digitised? Samplers, Democratisation, and 'the Digital Age'. Paper presented at Music, Digitalisation, and Democracy
Rather than an abrupt or revolutionary shift from analogue to digital, I will argue in this paper that the use of digital technologies such as samplers have been part of a mor...
Was the Sampler a Revolution? Continuity and Change in the Design and Use of Synthesizer/Sampling Technologies
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2018, September)
Was the Sampler a Revolution? Continuity and Change in the Design and Use of Synthesizer/Sampling Technologies. Paper presented at The Sound of the Anthropocene: Materialities Seminar
No abstract available.
Following the Distributors: Syco Systems and the Selling of Musical Instruments.
Presentation / Conference
Harkins, P. (2018, September)
Following the Distributors: Syco Systems and the Selling of Musical Instruments. Paper presented at Art of Record Production (ARP)/International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM) UK & Ireland Branch Conference
Since the 1980s and 1990s, scholars in Science and Technology Studies (STS) and, more specifically, those adopting the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) approach have b...