Paper short abstract:

This paper examines cases of environmentalist musicianship to determine if artists’ innovative efforts to alter unsustainable touring traditions might offer useful insights for traveling academics’ as we seek to replace unsustainable travel and conferencing practice with emerging digital technologies.

Paper long abstract:

Travel and transportation have become two of the most problematic "material bases of contemporary political and economic life." Travel decisions create difficult trade-offs for everyone, including academics and musicians. This paper examines several cases of environmentalist musicianship to see what ideas touring artists have to offer traveling academics.

Face-to-face academic conference is becoming increasingly less sustainable. Yet, digital alternatives, no matter how promising, have yet to mature to the point where they can replace physical travel and co-present conferencing. In terms of participant observation, what do our traveling practices tell us about the larger systems we research and critique? What conundrums and hidden disciplines are revealed when we ask the existential question: "To travel or not to travel"? What forms of "environmental becoming" are we modeling in the Academy? The Media Anthropology Network E-seminar series will be offered as an alternative form of conferencing that, for many of us, not only supplements live conferencing but in some cases might even replace unsustainable travel.

The presentation will then turn to alternative practices from the musical world, focusing on Graham Smith-White's bicycle-based concerts and digital recording studio. Musicians have been dealing with contradictions between message (e.g., sustainability) and material exigency (e.g., live touring) for some time. Therefore, emerging alternatives from the music world demonstrate the potential for digital technologies to render unsustainable travel increasingly unnecessary, providing new ideas for academics facing similar ecological dilemmas.