Re: [microsound] techno-mysticism (ne purple) with a side of Ae

[Clic-Clic Alondra <a_clic_clic@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >
(3) does the addition of a mystical layer enhance the making or enjoyment of 
digi-music, or does such an addition represent a mystification, an 
additional opacity in the way of more direct
aesthetic experience?
> >

I doubt the cognitive clarity you beg for in your analysis is tenable.  And 
much less when it will posit an unmediated access to aesthetic experience.  
What would that be?

I agree that some time back criticism of digi-music tended towards the 
banal, nostalgic and mystifying.  "New Age" conjures that time.  But I don't 
think that's most of what's going on now.  Rather we are all run over by 
other opacities.  The approximation of musical experience through words is 
rarely a perfect fit--rather its going to be either too large or too small.  
But that's not in itself a bad thing.

The Wire vs. Spin, you are right to point out the relevance of contexts.  
And, granted, some will pass for criticism what is neither lyrical nor 
critical.  But if language is the (hidden) joy of discourse, critical or 
otherwise, shouldn't the key word here be "enjoyment"?

Don't get me wrong, I am as invested in congnitive science as anyone.  And I 
almost prefer your elegant expository method to my own.  But you point out 
the pleasure of these texts yourself.

To come back to Barthes via Bataille, isn't the pleasure a bit on the side 
of excess (pardon the pun)?  I suspect that's as close to the aesthetic as 
we get.

Case in point, the cliched equation between electronica and technology 
(notably emerging out of the deeply humanist loose threads of post-1950s sci 
fi) is totally unstable yet still productive.  Somewhere between mystical 
proyection and technological fetishization there is space (pardon the pun 
again) for enjoyment.

Of course, I could be wrong.

Alondra

on now: rehberg & bauer's "ballt." (touch '99)
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