“No ideas but in things.” I am sitting in a room, by Alvin Lucier, as a material-affective device and vibratory assembly between human and non-human agencies

This article proposes an analysis of I am sitting in a room (1970), one of the best known works by composer Alvin Lucier (1931-2021), from the perspective offered by some of the new currents of materialistic thinking, the doctrine of affects and agential realism. First, the uniqueness of the composer’s work will be presented, highlighting the importance of its material-affective dimension and examining the meaning of Lucier’s maxim “no ideas but in things”. The concepts of assemblage (Jane Bennett) and intra-action (Karen Barad) will be reviewed  and placed in relation with some contributions made from the field of sound and voice studies to the discussion around vibration. After explaining the operation of I am sitting in a room in detail, Lucier’s piece will be understood as a form of “entanglement” (Barad) resulting from the vibratory intrarelationship between the effects of the various actors, human and non-human, who participate in the work. Finally, taking into account the performative capabilities that Karen Barad attributes to scientific apparatuses and their role in the production of phenomena, it will be concluded that I am sitting in a room can be understood as a multi-agential and transontological apparatus that affirms the interdependence between materiality and discursivity and reverses the phenomenological experience, pointing at other possible ways to feel, say and inhabit the world.