CHOIR OF WIRES AND SONGS OF SILOS: DEINDUSTRIALIZATION AND EXPERIMENTALISM IN BUFFALO, NEW YORK

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between deindustrialization and experimentalmusical practices in Buffalo, New York, from the 1960s to the present, comprising. It looks at three case studies: Maryanne Amacher’s 1967 project City-Links, WBFO; a 1971 performance by the University at Buffalo’s Creative Associates at Domus, a converted auto factory; and a 2024 performance by poet Fred Moten and bassist Brandon López inside of a repurposed grain silo. Guided by Isabelle Stengers’s concept of cosmopolitics and utilizing the tools of actor-network theory, the thesis draws on archival research, oral histories, and ethnographic fieldwork to argue that deindustrialization and experimental music in Buffalo developed in a mutually constitutive relationship—each mediating the conditions through which the other became legible, valuable, and contested in the city’s common world. This thesis further contextualizes Buffalo's avant- garde within the history of American experimentalism and contributes to the growing dialogue between music and urban studies.