About —

In addition to being a vinyl DJ of 22 years, Tony Chackal daylights as Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Augusta University. He'll discuss his article 'Record Collecting As A Focal Practice' published this summer in the British Journal of Aesthetics, and will play a 45 rpm only rare soul set following.

Here's the abstract:

Vinyl and record collectors continue to be the subject of contentious debate. A social perception exists that frames record collectors merely as elitists who think their tastes are superior to those who listen to digital formats and streaming platforms, who resist novel technology for its own sake, and mistakenly think vinyl carries aesthetic advantages because digital is held to be objectively superior. Yet vinyl and record collecting have aesthetic and social advantages unavailable in immaterial digital formats. These aesthetic advantages are auditory, tactile, and visual, while the social advantages are ethical, political, and cultural. Vinyl’s aesthetic and social advantages enable a ‘focal relationship’ with recorded music. Viewing them as what Albert Borgmann calls ‘focal things’ within the ‘focal practice’ of record collecting and viewing digital formats as ‘devices’ reveals each format’s aesthetic and social advantages and limitations. While records themselves possess some focal character, full focality is achieved only through a cultural practice of collecting.