Gaston's blog

https://www.instagram.com/p/CdrUOapDml_/ In Jurgenson’s discussion about digital manipulation, he says “photographic images, even after digital manipulation, always draw inspiration from both “scribe” and “poet” at once, varying in proportion depending on their subject and audience” (99). I have taken this interplay of poet and scribe and applied it to music. In my post, the scribe is the written music, which I, the “poet” interpret in a way that is both false and true simultaneously. I took the first two melodic lines and played each note as written, but I did so completely without a rhythmic pulse. This arguably falsifies the music, and shows me using my poetic intuition to manipulate it, similar to how a photo can be digitally manipulated to change its meaning. Since I use the same notes that the composer wrote, I challenge, along with Jurgenson, the notion that “scribe designates fact and poet fiction” (99). Is my music any less real just because I played it in a way that wasn’t in

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cdg0kMJDYSO/   For this week’s assignment, my Instagram posts deviated a little bit from what they usually are. Notably, the link above redirects to a post where I am not performing something improvised, it is not meant to be a minute long. This video is a snapshot of a moment in rehearsal, much like a social photo would be a snapshot of a moment in someone’s life. Jurgenson says “the social photo is a mirror reflection of your conscious awareness of the moment as a moment, placing you both in the moment and outside the moment, manipulating it” (85). My post captures this idea effectively. Just as a photo, I can come back to this video periodically and experience that moment from an outside perspective. But it also gives me a chance to relive that moment and remember. This potentially contributes to the way I view myself as a musician and helps me understand my identity.

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CdW-CMKDPYP/   For this post I focused on the idea that “social media uniquely demands an identity that is pure, performative fiction” (Jurgenson 70). This idea relates not only to this post but also to my general project. By purposely not focusing on using my Instagram page as a self-promotion platform, my use of social media is pushing back against this idea. In my post, the viewer gets a view from my music stand as if they are in my practice room watching me practice, which gives the performance a more personal kind of authenticity. However, I am still constructing a performance, and it is still on social media. This relates to the “conflict between the self as social performance and the self as authentic expression” (Jurgenson 70). In my post and my whole Instagram, I am walking that line and doing both and neither simultaneously by portraying seemingly authentic performances through the scope of social media.