Creativity Through Technology And Science In Xenakis

Nowadays it is common for creativity to be linked to technological advancement and there is a widely held impression that new ideas and concepts emerge daily as a result of technology. However, technology and even science and progress are often criticized leading towards a tendency for simplification and more human and natural consideration of reality. This issue is much discussed in music and one of the field’s most representative figures is Iannis Xenakis. His work with technology is well known and widely studied; and allowed him to create a number of highly original and creative artistic compositions. However, he was always aware of the danger of being "trapped by tools". So let us begin by looking at how, and to what purpose Xenakis used technology. In his work we encounter his desire to justify the world through philosophy. His philosophical considerations touched on different domains and proved extremely fertile in his music, such as, for example, the interpenetration of determinism and indeterminism, or of inference and revelation. This paper endeavors to highlight certain aspects of his creative process, beginning with his technological realizations and philosophical considerations that touch his music and other work and his relationship with a philosophy of technology.