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Eno vs Laptop



Eno has never been fully comfortable with computers...he has always argued
that there is not enough of an "africanization" of computers and that the
whole human body needs to be involved in the creation of music...while this
comes dangerously close the the "great white hunter" syndrome I think that
his opinion might be a residual effect of having championed the "recording
studio as instrument" for too long (which was his schtick back in the 80's)
ie.: moving around the studio and moving a fader here, patching in a fx
unit there, tweaking a mic setup on a DX-7 thru a Fender amp, dragging in a
broken tape recorder and messing with it etc...the physicality of "musical
work" has changed just as the physicality of working on an assembly line in
Detroit has changed: some of the tasks involved have been delegated to a
computer...a similar bogeyman scare took place in the 60's when session
muscians were afraid of being replaced by a synthesizer in the studio...the
virtualization (laptop = electric guitar) of electronic music instruments
has been difficult for some musicians to embrace...it requires less
involvement working in motor skill space (resulting in a development of
musical performance prowess) and more work in intellectual/conceptual space
in order to actualize musical ideas...Eno's reaction is probably due to a
difficulty of adapting to current technology/working methods and is a
typical reaction by workers made obsolete by technology: the old way is
better, what happened to the concept of physical skills and craft?,
removing human labor from the production of goods is wrong, etc...as put
forth in any life science textbook: adapt or die...

as for Computer Wizzard: this title is a media construct...it is usually a
heavily mediated job title in which a clueless journalist awards said title
to a public personality who serves as a conduit between the under-the-hood
scientists and the public (read: evangelist)...for the past 20+ years it
has been rock-stars who are on the front lines giving "face time" to
technological wonders (Todd Rundgren, Thomas Dolby and Brian Eno are three
who come to mind)...anyway, this is a byproduct of "spectaclizing"
technology by creating a public aura around it via a public personality
(dumbing down new technological concepts for public consumption)...I'm
looking at an article in Time Interactive from June 4th 2001 where Thomas
Dolby is seated at a table filled with the latest gadgetry: cell phones,
PDAs etc, his hands are poised over something that resembles a mixer or
MIDI controller...this is the same sort of contextualiztion that happens
every night on the news where an "expert" is offering opinions seated in
front of a shelf of books, or a "musician" is seated in front of a mixing
console with lots of blinking lights, etc...consider the term "Computer
Wizzard" with just as much credibilty...Computer Wizzards are just
face-time for a technology they are trying to sell to the public...
just my caffeinated  .02
KIM

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