Collapse: Using Laptops Exactly as Intended
Written on March 23rd , 2026 by Brandon Woo SnyderPart of my dissertation research at UC Irvine’s Integrated Composition, Improvisation, and Technology
Abstract
This paper proposes collapse as a framework for understanding the laptop as a musical instrument. It is a term that encompasses the physical laptop itself, including but not limited to specific software instruments or tools built and operated within the laptop (e.g. like a Max MSP patch). This proposal challenges a conception of musical instruments as inert tools that, through disciplined practice, become transparent expressive extensions of the body. Rather, ‘collapse’ starts from a theory that technical objects for mediation (i.e. tools; like hammers, violins, or laptops) exert, alongside their users, subjectivities and ideologies imbued by their relationships with human and nonhuman beings. Collapse describes what these subjectivities and ideologies are for laptops, and ultimately aims to be creatively generative for artists building a musical performance practice for the laptop.