Measuring Is Making: The Radical Indeterminacy of Music

Abstract

Abstract In Meeting the Universe Halfway, the feminist theorist Karen Barad explores the indeterminate nature of measurement. Drawing on empirical research into quantum entanglement, they develop an axiomatic approach to configuring the fundamental interconnections between processes of measurement and making. This article builds on this aspect of Barad’s work and uses it to consider how an indeterminate measuring-as-making process might manifest in music. By staging an encounter between the composer John Cage’s investigations of indeterminacy and two contemporary pieces of music—Space Golf by Hen Ogledd and Wildfires by SAULT—the author considers how a Baradian theory of measuring-as-making can be used to offer new perspectives on musical creativity.