Re: [microsound] site of sound

[duul _drv <thisoutleague@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I feel slightly compelled to reply to this investigation. I bought the book 
thinking I would read the entire publication from front to back in the 
matter of hours, which I usually do with enlivening books(bataille's 'story 
of the eye'). This book after a couple of read articles sits on my shelf 
abandoned, and has been for some time now. The potential of this book, well 
for me was very high and thought this mightbe the book that answer all my 
questions about lowercase, microwave and audio art. also the idea of the 
book intrigues me more than the articles. The book is very aesthetically 
appealing without a doubt in layout & graphics, size, and quality of paper 
in and on the cover, and the accompanying cd is such a great idea that if I 
ever publish a book I want to mimic labelle and roden's idea. The cd is an 
aubile version of the articles, or the sound interpretations that inspired 
the writing. after reading one of the written articles, uber die stille 1997 
by christina kubisch i just had to hear the accompanying track on the disc, 
and did so over and over. Living in winnipeg, mb in canada I rarely get the 
chance to participate in performance such as hers, so having the disc as a 
conduit for a fuller understanding of her ideas was so helpful. This is 
probably the greatest thing about this book. One of my criticism is, being 
from the academia I was hoping for more academic writing, and I was a little 
let down by some of the non academic and poor writing. I am not making the 
claim that academia is the only field for good writing, but one can sense an 
absence of writing quality in these articles. My own writing is by far not 
the best, or even of the high academia I claiming these are not, so please 
don't make the impression I am letting my ego write this review. I think 
that it takes a very skilled artist to be both expressive in their prefered 
medium and in language. The potential for the latter is great, but I found 
in this book that the writing was more representative of the style of sound 
creation, using methods and language like they would use sound in the 
creation of a composition, than an academic explication. The ideas are very 
abstract, often too abstract too be made coherent and distributed like 
juxtaposing sounds, "distribution of place that is extended towards the past 
and towards the future; this is exactly what allows the place to exist 
there" (p.138)Although suiting for the time and era our thinking is in right 
now, the ultra modernist and hyperfocused state is no excuse for poor and 
unclear writing. There are a lot of problems in our use of language and the 
reasons we use language, I find some of the symptoms of these problems in 
this book. (sorry for the divergence) My want for the academia version of 
this style of sound should have not prompted me to want this book, but 
because it comes as a book, and my views on publishing are so narrow I 
expected a book and I was let down. two pieces are very inspirational in the 
package; the alison knowles article 'untitled' and the composition by achim 
wollsheid "piece(for a listener)". Both engage the listener in an active 
role opposed to a passive role of interpretation. Something I am very 
interested in and find very challenging.

sorry if this has gone on for too long. I just felt like responding in very 
personal length
ad.ll


"What passes for reality seems to me mostly a load of
old rubbish invented by not very inventive minds. The
reality that interests me is strange and flickering
and haunting"
 -Russell Hoban, the Medusa Frequency

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