As part of his AHRC Leadership Fellowship, Matt Brennan gave a series of free public talks and workshops across the UK on the changing economic and environmental costs of recorded music. These events featured an interactive musical sculpture called the SCI★FI★HI★FI: a science-fiction inspired hi-fi system that can play seven of the most historically significant recording formats (Edison wax cylinder, 78 rpm disc, vinyl LP, cassette tape, compact disc, mp3 on hard drive, and streaming remotely from the cloud).

 

Showcasing collaborative research between Matt (University of Glasgow) and Kyle Devine (University of Oslo), the SCI★FI★HI★FI explores how playback technology changed the parameters of musical work at different moments in history. It features hands-on demonstrations of recording format technologies, from lo-fidelity mono sound played on wax cylinder to a streamed AI-composed remix that is unstoreable and infinite in length. The event explores questions such as:

 

• What were the peak years of production for different recording formats?

• What natural resources and raw materials are required in order to manufacture and play different recorded formats?

• How much have consumers been willing to pay for the luxury of listening to recorded music?

• How have the answers to these questions changed over history and across formats? 

 

The sculpture also serves as the physical release of an album of original music made by Matt (under the pseudonym Citizen Bravo), and includes a package of three short films addressing the questions above. The SCI★FI★HI★FI is therefore intended to be not exactly a "concept album,” but rather an event exploring of the concept of albums as historical artefacts. How was recorded music valued before the advent of albums, and how might it be valued after albums are gone? 

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