Enacting Musical Creativity: The Value of Human Agency in the Face of AI
Journal of Consciousness Studies April 1, 2026 DOI: 10.53765/20512201.33.3.123 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Case report Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that musicking provides an enactive entanglement that allows humans to embrace risk, resist rules, and learn new modes of orientation, serving as empowering tools for navigating the resistant path to being human. Proposes that human creative agency should be regarded as more valuable than artificial creativity offered by AI. |
Abstract
In his recent critique of well-established simplified comparisons between the human mind and AI, Alva Noë encourages us to 'rage against the machine' (Noë, 2024). In this article, I build on Noë's timely encouragement, and sketch perspectives from both music studies and enactivist philosophy in order to interrogate what musicking might add to the debate. As a case study, I explore the recent public discourse surrounding the AI-band The Velvet Sundown and consider the implications — mental health related and ethical — of engaging with AI-generated music. I draw on current scholarship on musical creativity and AI to discuss the possibilities and limitations of creative agency in AI, laying the foundation for why human creative agency should be regarded more valuable than the artificial creativity that AI offers. I also discuss some ethical implications of sharing agency with AI, suggesting that we should continue to foster attunement to our creative agency and capabilities, as empowered but also vulnerable musicking human agents. I argue that musicking offers an enactive entanglement through which we are granted an opportunity to embrace risk, resist rules, and learn new modes of orientation and reorientation that serve as empowering tools for navigating our way through the resistant path to being human.