Embodied listening, affordances and Performing with Computers

I consider here some contemporary approaches to the live performance of computer music. Drawing upon ideas of the embodied mind and the extended mind, I will outline a theory of embodied listening which problematises some of our assumptions about music, gesture and performance. Against the background of this theory, I will argue against approaches which put too great a focus upon gestural legibility in when design new computer-based instruments. I will consider a diverse array of practices in contemporary instrument design which do not necessarily adopt principles of gestural legibility, and challenge some of our ideas about what instruments and musical performance should be. I draw upon the notion of affordances, and argue in favour of an approach to computer based instrument design which seeks to explore the unique affordances and singular possibilities we find in new technologies.