Thinking Through Alfred Gell (1945-1997)’s Art and Agency

Legend of Interaction Paradigms

1. Ancestral Invocation

Where music serves as a ritual conduit for spirits, ancestors, or land-based cosmologies.

Examples:

• Didgeridoo and Clapstick (Australia) – Enacting Dreaming-time through drone.

• Micronesian Chant – Vocal cartography of genealogical and oceanic memory.

• Sufi Dhikr (Turkey) – Repetitive invocation inducing divine presence.

2. Embodied Precision

Where rhythmic systems directly structure movement, danger, or test human responsiveness.
Examples:

• Tinikling (Philippines) – Dance built from the constraint of percussive bamboo poles.

• Toere Drum (Tahiti) – Movement and drum interlock in warlike formation.

• Lavani (India) – Gendered performativity choreographed to wit and tempo.

3. Collective Harmony

Where musical form reflects or produces social alignment, cooperation, and shared identity.

Examples:

• Samoan Choral Song – Layered harmonies enacting kinship ethics.

• Angklung Ensemble (Indonesia) – One-pitch-per-person creates tonal democracy.

• Dabke (Lebanon) – Rhythmic footwork binding land, memory, and resistance.

4. Narrative Activation

Where music is integrated into drama or ritual storytelling, animating characters or myths.

Examples:

• Vietnamese Water Puppet Music – Music cues puppet agency and guides plot.

• Wayang Kulit (Indonesia) – Gamelan aligns with mythic shadow play.

• Pansori (Korea) – Solo vocal epic performing character and narrator at once.

5. Modal Emotion

Where scale, tuning, and timbral inflection generate and transmit refined emotional states.

Examples:

• Dan Bau Lullaby (Vietnam) – One string, endless emotional gradients.

• Maqam Saba (Iran) – Microtonal sadness embedded in santur improvisation.

• Guqin “Flowing Water” (China) – Scholar-mystic soundscapes of inner weather.