Dense Theory
A semantic space for understanding attention, platforms, and the spectacle
Dense Theory looks at how art gets ground down into content. It tracks attention as a currency and explores how human-AI interaction warps creative work.
I spun this up in Glasgow (I'm Elias Vasnic).
The Transformation
Music has been crushed into content.
We are all platform workers now. Everything you make gets thrown into an infinite scroll where it fights for a few seconds of attention. Self-distribution kinda feels like freedom, but you still end up performing for an algorithm.
The problem we're chewing on is how to keep some artistic autonomy when the act of publishing automatically strips art down to content.
Essays & Inquiries
On Platforms & Content
- On access to music (How streaming chewed up music into content)
- Control the Spectacle (Seeing if art can survive outside the attention economy)
- The Creator Economy and the notion of Non-Reformist Reform
On Attention & Cognition
On Data & Violence
- Systemic Destruction and the Limits of Data (Forensic Architecture, urbicide, and why data refuses to speak for itself)
Music Theory & Practice
- Recorded Music, Virtual Reality, and the Aura
- On the Difference between Dupal and Quandruple time
- Something is Happening in the world of Music Streaming
Connect
Dense Theory functions as a semantic space. It gives me a workbench for music production and critical writing (and lets me blur the line between theory and practice).