Re: laptop ethics

[Joshua Kit Clayton <jclayton@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Since Sean mentioned my name, I guess I should crawl out of lurk mode to
offer a few thoughts on it. All performances have theater, whether it is
GWAR or Oval or a tape piece, it is irrelevant. An aesthetic is being
presented to the audience. Perhaps performers do not think about it
enough, I don't know. Many choose to present only the playing of the
music. I think that this is a completely acceptable way of performing,
proven through centuries of musicians playing music without additional
theater. I don't think that there needs to be an additional visual
element to keep people's attention through an otherwise "boring"
performance. Just because we are a culture addicted to television, I do
not think that having a simulatneous(integrated or not) visual
presentation is a general solution.

So the question is, why are people bored with the category of music
performances discussed, and not a solo violinist? 

If the music is improvisational (or concerned with human musical 
expression within the context of a fully composed piece), what typically 
interests me in a performance is how well the performers are able to use 
their instruments to express. I think that many laptop (and sequencer/
synth/sampler/etc) performers who are interested in  presenting 
improvisational and/or expressive music don't take enough time to 
learn how to play their instruments. I am certainly guilty of 
performing with software that I have only finished making just  
before the show, and stumbled through the performace learning how to 
use what I've made. I think that this has made for a less enjoyable 
performance than times when I have been more familiar with my tools.

If the performer is talented in this way, able to successfully 
express his/herself, and this process is not theater enough, then I 
would probably cite cultural biases against technology as the culprit 
for the audience's lack of interest.

On the other hand, if the artist is presenting music that deviates 
from this model--e.g. music unconcerned with human expression, or 
exploiting human inability as a musical tool--and isn't interested in 
presenting theater in addition to the playing of the music, then 
perhaps the audience is missing something if they are bored by the 
lack of excitement on stage. I think that pressing start on a 
CD/DAT/Sequencer is a perfectly acceptable form of "live" performance. 

-jkc