Re: [microsound] AE patches and cute squirrels

[Andrei <andrei@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Slow day at the office, Kim ? :-)
I think I'll have to print this one out in order to read it.

Andrei


On Wed, 25 Jul 2001, anechoic wrote:

> some more thoughts on tools and categories:
> 
> I think maybe I'm not being clear...the term "tool" is just an
> abstraction...it could be a particular type of paint brush or it could be a
> photoshop filter...it doesn't matter but the fact is that we have been
> acclimated to the digital mediasphere via cable, mobile telephony,
> Internet, DVD, mini-disc whatever and they are all media "tools"...as an
> example: it is a cultural comment/statement to release music on
> mini-disc...the tool enters into the reading very directly due to the fact
> that the media will only play on the mini-disc format...the decision to
> release something on that format (it could have easily been 8 track) is
> also part of the contextual reading of the work...digital media has to be
> read as such or you have been living in a cave for the past 20 years and
> have missed out on the development of digital culture...even without
> knowing what a "patch" is or what "DSP" is or what "granular synthesis" is
> one knows that software (a tool) was used in the making of the content...to
> be culturally aware means being able to read a work and to access it's
> irony (how po-mo)...for me the term "tool" is an abstraction, shorthand
> for: "software technology", being informed by new technology, operating on
> the surface of a technological language etc...the abstraction becomes the
> message/comment in some work (how many Cher vocoder pop-hit knock-offs are
> there? the vocoder tool becomes a message in all these pop songs)...
> q: how many rave flyers did we see in the early 90's that were made by kids
> working with nothing more than Photoshop + Kai Power Tools? didn't we all
> think: "Photoshop"? wouldn't the tool be the message there?
> 
> anyone making glitch is by default a "sound designer" and approaches the
> act of creation with a specific language and personal syntax based on the
> conections made via their perceptual apparatus via the context(s) they
> operate in...
> 
> ear vs brain = cerebral vs emotional...leaving the "brain" out of the act
> of listening is being a passive consumer...some choose to load meaning thru
> emotional content into their music while others only want to express ideas
> (Copland vs Schoenberg)...besides, making the distinction between brain &
> ear is categorizing and as far as I can see it these two operate on a
> continuum...but it is human nature to categorize...Pimmon CD's don't go
> into the Country & Western section at Tower...glitch is a category...this
> list falls into a category...we always fit things into categories in order
> to switch our perceptual modes to the appropriate context (this also calls
> into play the concepts of "intent" and "expectation")...categorization also
> ocurrs in the moment of creation...by choosing a tool we are selecting a
> categorical framework: laptop: axe du jour of electronic music...a Martin
> acoustic guitar (sans processing) wouldn't be electronic music...this
> "otherness" implies categorical representation; difference...
> 
> back to tools: consumption without "reading the ingredients" is passive
> consumerism and if we are to take part in digital culture we will be left
> out on the joke unless we understand the subtext gained from a deeper
> reading of media...case in point: "All your base are belong to us"...it
> operates on multiple levels and without exposure to Internet-irony one
> would not understand the abstracted meaning...so the tool (Zero Wing vid
> game) becomes the meaning and when placed in the context of the Internet
> the phrase becomes "overloaded"...
> hip-hop is now commonly used in advertising...the tool is the turntable and
> most of the sounds/effects heard by Joe and Betty armchair consumers are
> attributed to said tool...it doesn't matter that samplers, and maybe even
> Max/MSP was used to make the track...hip-hop=turntable in the minds of most
> consumers and therefor the turntable (a tool) becomes a cultural reference
> (turntables were affordable to aspiring DJ's in the poor parts of urban
> centers)...hip-hop is a good example of "tool-music"...glitch directly
> references digital tools (faceless, untouchable, ephmemeral, highly
> technical tools) you can't listen to glitch without knowing the media is
> informed by some digital process...Oval is a case in point: CD skipping is
> a digital audio artifact...when you hear an Oval piece part of the cultural
> signifigence is the fact that we are hearing a systemic failure (failure to
> recover lost or missing bits by the CD player) used as an artistic
> device...we are let in on the joke (the abstraction) because we own a CD
> player and it has most likely skipped when trying to play a CD...the CD
> player becomes the tool...another case in point: "e - a novel" by Matt
> Beaumont...it was written in the format of intra-office emails and takes
> "place" in an ad agency office...everyone reading this has worked with
> email understands the cues and pointers of email etiquette...example: the
> hidden politics of Cc'ing someone on email...the tool used to construct the
> book was email...I can't read this book without knowing the politics of
> email...
> 
> "being culturally able to read a soundwork fully by being aware of the
> process that went into making it"...what I mean by that is that the process
> can be technological, political, cultural or all of the above...I know many
> people who don't grok the DSP world of magnitude and phase but can and do
> know that glitch music references a computer and that the computer is using
> "highly technical" (meaning "not easily understood" and hence acts as a
> political force which categorizes/separates people into "those who are
> computer literate" vs those who aren't computer literate") software to
> create the sounds...part of this is because they have not heard these
> sounds before and they "sound computer-y"...while glitch is also informed
> by the sound of vinyl "runoff" (vinyl sonic artifacts are also heavily used
> in hip-hop, and certain electronica...hence click-house and the glitch-dub
> music of Pole and Vlad Delay) it remains that glitch is a genre that
> cannnot separate the signifier from the signified (tool from content) no
> matter how you approach it...every review and article written calls up some
> reference to technology even in passing...
> 
> a piece of music "works" when the listener's perceptual apparatus conveys
> meaningful information during the listening process...the physical process
> of making music is directly effected by the way a tool is used (read:
> prowess, technique, sophistication of syntax)...there is no getting around
> attaching signifigance to technique and even the "lack of technique"
> becomes a technique in itself (Sex Pistols, Lou Reed, Daniel Johnston,
> Shaggs, etc)...if we want to remove the aspect of technique from music we
> can consider the music made to be "generative" in some way...the composer
> is removed from the "physical" process of directly making music (dice, I
> Ching as two posible means) and the process becomes an abstracted
> involvement of generating the algorithm which then generates the
> music...emotion and intent are also abstracted in this process and the
> categories become somewhat fuzzy...again, the tool (in this case the
> algorithm) becomes the message...
> 
> also, the "fast-brain" mode of listening started as a coping mechanism but
> like all evolutionary catalysts it has become a property of the human
> organism...a recent study at Universtiy of Tuebingen shows that fast brains
> have a greater capacity for multitasking and a display a higher tolerance
> for dissonance and contradiction...sounds like most the people I know...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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