Musical Thought Networked

The processes involved in the digitalisation of audiovisual knowledge call for a change of perspective. This derives from diverse factors: the adaptation of perceptual abilities required for using digital devices, the change in social and cognitive profiles involved in computerhuman relations, and the operational dimension of time. While networked technologies introduces a system of proximity independent of distances in physical space, an overlapping of communication channels in on-line environments is accompanied by some uncertainty and non-linearity. Consequently, within the intermedial, interactive spaces of the net, the musical objects can be processed through ways which destabilise their original connotation. As for musical navigators, between retracing contents, extracting connections and meanings, and modifying musical features, they enjoy a sort of hidden co-authorship. This paper describes how on-line technologies are gradually modifying the relationships between the authors, music and audiences, and inquires whether the production of musical meaning can remain unchanged in a distributed environment.