Based on 2 years of ethno-graphic feldwork with builders of boutique music efects boxes, this essay explores the ways in which improvisation figures into the creation of music technology. The author argues that expanding the rubricon improvisation to encompass the processes of designing and building effects boxes pushes scholars to understand relationships between music and improvisation as existing beyondthe boundaries og performance. Ultimately he posits that improvisatory behavior and exploratory engagement with material at hand is central to building pedals, and should be assessed as part of the continuum of social-aesthetic practices composingmusic makin
John Fenn
http://uoregon.academia.edu
