Re: [lowercase-sound] Re: [microsound] off-icmc

["David J. Topper" <topper@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dale Lloyd wrote:

> The Reinhold Friedl situation is a shame and obviously people like him
> should not be organizing arts events! Being at a university, there may
> have been some pressures coming from the faculty there. I'm one to bring
> that sort of problem to someone's attention to raise awareness and to
> remind certain people that an art's event should be enjoyable not only
> for the audience, but also for the artists. It should be obvious that how
> an event is operated can effect performances by the artists. Organizers
> like Friedl and whoever else that was behind the Media Art Lab event,
> seem to treat artists like machines that they can flip a switch and push
> a button to start and stop their performance when they want. Does
> computer music  partially and unwittingly inspire this sort of attitiude?

Having attended all but one of the off-ICMC concerts ... and the past four
ICMCs ... I feel the need to reply here.  First of all, the off-ICMC
organizers are to be commended for their efforts.  It was a new and unique
venue that hopefully will continue in future ICMCs.  The music was not
necessarily the kind of thing I listen to, but can still respect.  I feel
the venues worked fine.  The vibe was much like a club scene where you could
go from room to room and check out what you wanted.

The complaints I'm reading sound analogous to some very petty gripes I've
heard from dozens of performers and composers.  I think they need to take
into account what was involved in setting all this up and how it breaks new
ground for ICMC.  If the specific selection of venue was not 100% optimal
.... get over it.  90% of the people there needed ear plugs anyhow.

Computer Music inspires all sorts of attitudes.  Let's hope some of the
first are compassion and appreciation for hard work.

David Topper
--
Technical Director - Virginia Center for Computer Music
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~djt7p