Agility and Playfulness: Technology and skill in the performance ecosystem

Whilst it is common in much discourse around contemporary musical practices to emphasise the differences between digital and acoustic ways of making music, Simon Waters’ discussion of the Performance Ecosystem as an analytic perspective argues instead for a heightened sense of continuity (Waters 2007). This article lends support to this argument by developing an ecosystemically situated account of our relationships with technology and processes of skill formation. It is argued that this sense of continuity is justified, but that where differences of experiences do arise these are not, as sometimes supposed, an essential characteristic of digital technologies. On the basis that much of our skill formation consists of tacit knowledge, it is suggested that further discussion on how particular circumstances and skills arise would be revealing. Two possible headings for such discussion are suggested in the form of ‘Agility’ and ‘Playfulness’.