The Tale and The Tongue: Expertise is the new genius

<p><em>Expertise is the new genius</em> is the second episode that follows a conversation with theorist, DJ and composer Justyna Stasiowska. After completing her degree in Drama and Theater Studies, Justyna Stasiowska is a PhD student at the Performance Studies Department at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In addition to her theoretical work, contributing to diverse media on theatre and contemporary music, she also collaborates as sound designer with various choreographers.</p> <p>With “Expertise is the new genius” Justyna encapsulates in a few words a cultural narrative strongly rooted in contemporary music. This narrative gives special relevance to the mastery of technology by musicians, who know their own instruments like no one else does, after years of difficult and painstaking never-ending learning. One keeps feeding the narrative of expertise that, at the same time, offers resistance to being fully achieved. Moreover, the notion of expertise also resonates with a monogamous relationship to sound, in which each musician is the connoisseur, protector and keeper of a very specific type of music that distinguishes them from each other. The cultural logic of specialized expertise means, that, by contrast, a preference for eclecticism is perceived as not very serious, as recreation or as a weak commitment to musical learning…</p>