The Object of Performance: Aural Performativity in Contemporary Laptop Music

The use of the laptop in performance causes various negative responses from the audience, who feel a loss of spectacle and performativity in the action. This occurs as a result of the lack of gesture and visual cues from the performer and the loss of focus from the audience, who have no visual object to ground their aural experience. A shift in focus from an understanding of the visual spectacle in performance to that of aural performativity is needed. Once this is understood, the audience can approach the performance with a shifted focus and come to new understandings of the aural object and contemporary digital audio.