Institut for Kommunikation og Kultur

According to Timothy Morton the creation of ambient art posses an inherent critical potential similar to the ambiguity of the dialectical image found in the writings of Walter Benjamin. Subscribing to an object-oriented ontological understanding of how objects are riven between essence and appearance, we develop Morton’s understanding of the ambient to include an ambiguous play between content and frame. Reflected through the presented theoretical framework, the paper seeks to initiate a discussion of varied piano pieces by La Monte Young, Peter Ablinger and Richard James (Aphex Twin) as unfolding the ambiguity of various political tunings of the piano.