‘Have you tried fixing it?’ Repairing (and not Repairing) the Fairlight CMI

Harkins, Paul

Abstract

In his study about the continued importance of old technologies, David Edgerton writes that ‘the majority [of scientists and engineers] have always been mainly concerned with the operation and maintenance of things and processes; with the use of things, not their invention or development.’ As the study of technologies has moved from a focus on their design to their use, it is also important to look at what happens when things become difficult or impossible to use. What happens when things go wrong, when things don’t do what they’re supposed to, when things fail, or when things stop working completely? Some instruments are left to gather dust in cupboards and storerooms while others are consigned to skips and second-hand shops. Drawing on literature in the field of Maintenance and Repair Studies, I want to look at those users who are also involved in repairing music technologies. Using material from interviews with Kent Spong, who restores vintage analogue synthesizers, and Peter Wielk, who fixes Fairlight CMIs, I want to find out what they do, why they do it, and how they do it. I also draw on data from an interview with Annie Jamieson at the National Science & Media Museum about the storage and preservation of sound recording technologies. What happens when it is not possible to fix instruments, not because replacement parts cannot be found or damage is irreparable but because of curatorial guidelines about the preservation and display of objects in museum collections? I argue that it is important for the historiography of synthesizers, samplers, and drum machines, and the study of music technologies more generally, to look at the repair, maintenance, storage, and preservation of technologies as well as their design and use and to ask what these kinds of work tell us about how technologies work and don’t work.

Citation

Harkins, P. (2024, June). ‘Have you tried fixing it?’ Repairing (and not Repairing) the Fairlight CMI. Paper presented at Innovation in Music Conference, Kristiania University College, Oslo, Norway

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Innovation in Music Conference
• Start Date: Jun 14, 2024
• End Date: Jun 16, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 20, 2024
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed