Deus Ex Machina

Deus ex machina starts from a reflection on AI If Le Corbusier said that buildings are machines for living in, we can think of instruments and the orchestra as machines for producing sound, or other things, such as ideals and myths. Everything in the world around us is artificial; nothing comes naturally. A table is artificial, our idea of a table is artificial, God is artificial, economic systems are artificial—and why not music itself? We are so good at imagining things that those things we imagine end up taking on a life of their own: God acts on his own and influences us, economic systems structure us, money never sleeps. These things we imagine and that acquire autonomy are the true artificial intelligences. They are the symbolic frameworks we construct that have an enormous effect on our lives and can become autonomous monsters. That is when we must fear our gods, power, economic systems, infinitely more than a computer program that works on the basis of statistical results. The myths we create dominate us, including those created around music and instruments. Nietzsche says that we create God in our own image and likeness. Marx argues that everything produced by the human imagination is capable of taking on a life of its own and ultimately rebelling against us. In this work, the orchestra is a great creature that breathes, grows, gains autonomy, and ultimately rebels.