Tuesday, May 26, 2026 - Friday, May 29

Susanne K. Langer Conference 2026, Vienna

Muse Foundry founder Jeffrey Anthony has been accepted to present at SUSANNE K. LANGER: Artistic Angles, Philosophical Circles, Poetic Dots, and Technical Lines, the 2026 international conference organized by the Susanne K. Langer Circle, TU Wien, and the Institute Vienna Circle.

The presentation, "Operationalizing Langer's Presentational Symbols: The Certificate of Embodied Production as Musical Praxis," argues that contemporary production techniques - quantization, pitch correction, algorithmic alignment, unlimited undos - eliminate the conditions through which music functions as a symbolic form capable of carrying meaning.

Philosopher Susanne Langer understood music as a presentational symbol: a form that objectifies patterns of lived experience that language cannot convey. Music's significance resides not in correct pitch and ‘perfect’ machinic rhythm placement, but in the risk, contingency, and temporal unfolding of performance itself. Modern "gridification" erases these qualities, reducing music to perceptual form while stripping it of symbolic function.

The Certificate of Embodied Production operationalizes Langer's theory by requiring that recordings preserve human timing, authentic pitch, and committed decision-making - the very conditions through which music retains its capacity to carry meaning.