Isambard Khroustaliov - Transhuman Harmolodics (2021)

"It is difficult to believe in modernism when you see a picture of Elon Musk’s Tesla sports car floating around in outer space."

Growing up listening to Sun Ra, I wish I could still believe that 'Space Is The Place' but, as we roll into the third decade of the 21st century it seems more like we are lost in space, looking down at a world from which we have become increasingly disconnected.

That Galileo's revolution, which upended religious conventions and shifted our perspective through scientific discovery to a more objective viewpoint, might still be able to deliver the ideals of enlightenment and modernism seems increasingly doubtful.

Instead, we have a global tech elite's hyperbole about 'solving' the problems of humanity, a declaration that seems less about engaging with real problems and more about escaping them completely. For some this means luxury bunkers in New Zealand, for the more ambitious an escape to 'Planet B' and for the true zealots, conversion into the faith of transhumanism.

For many tech entrepreneurs, transhumanism represents the apotheosis of their collective ambition, so much so that it would be exceptional to find a 'big tech' company that is not actively involved in pursuing some of its aims; aims that are perhaps best summed up by Mark O’Connell in his book 'To Be a Machine':

“It is their belief that we can and should eradicate ageing as a cause of death; that we can and should use technology to augment our bodies and our minds; that we can and should merge with machines, remaking ourselves, finally, in the image of our own higher ideals.”

While it might sound like it, this is not science-fiction, there is an incredible amount of money and research going into the various projects that fall under the church of transhumanism, none of which directly address any of the issues we have come to know so well in the 21st Century so far.

And yet for all its misdirected energy its schisms and its psychoses transhumanism as a project is also inextricably bound up with pursuing radical applications of science and technology to try and end human suffering.

What would happen if we could redirect the time, money and energy being spent on these escapist narratives to ones of inclusion? What are the philosophies that can challenge this mindset? And what might a new relationship between humans, technology and the environment look like?

In the first instance, it would seem we would need to change our perspective, to come down from the Galilean objectivism that has informed our view of life and space so far:

"If you approach space from the view of the globe, or as a map, you remain stuck inside a frame, with difficulties understanding what life is. With this definition of space, you cannot see how space itself is constructed by the agencies of life forms. With this gaze, you miss how life forms are not in space but that they make space."

Bringing ourselves back to earth and changing our perspective forces us to look more closely not only at who we are but also at how we all relate and might possibly relate. It's something that Bruno Latour elaborates on above and in his conception of 'actor-network theory' in that he proposes a compelling way to look at human sociology beyond humans, something that not only includes technology and AI but also bacteria and microbes.

It's also an approach that Ornette Coleman demonstrated almost instinctively with his music in the 20th century. He called it 'Harmolodics' but in reality there was never a quintessential definition of what that meant, it was enacted in the music, it lived in the music and was of the music. I think it remains as instructional now as it ever was, changing our perspective on what music is, asserting that it is not about the container, the definitions, and allowing us to explore new relationships between different actors and networks; exploring their dynamics and potentialities.

'Transhuman Haromlodics' is my own exploration of these concepts, taking inspiration from a diverse network of actors and allowing them to shape and influence the nature and form of the music in an attempt to imagine a fluid, expressive symbiosis. It is my contribution to forging a more engaged and emancipated understanding of how thinking more openly about our culture of music might help us think more openly about other aspects of our reality.