Re: [microsound] laptops kim's article

[pelagius pelagius <pela_gius@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since I have brought up the luxury/commodity in the past I feel the need to 
respond.  This is not an objection to the use of computers in music in 
general or the use of a mac laptop specifically.  And I don't object because 
the laptop is a signifier of the business class.  The problem I have is that 
these tools have become foregrounded to the point that they are the sole 
focus of both the music and the music criticism.

I read Kim's article about a week ago so forgive me if the details are 
sketchy but if I recall he was arguing that the audience's hostility toward 
laptop music was due to a lack of "aura."  Of course the laptop itself IS 
the "aura" and that's what I find tiresome.  It's currently hip to use a 
laptop live and writers like to write about it.  Regardless of what kind of 
music you make on that laptop you will be seen as more relevant if you 
embrace the latest fashionable tools.

So when this focus is put exclusively on the tools we get music writing that 
sounds like the kind breathless techno-optimism you would have heard from 
internet startup types and venture capitalists a few years ago.

> From: Ian Andrews <i.andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> But the laptop aint gonna go away. It is clearly one of the best ways for
> experimental artists to perform their works. So what can be done?

I also find this attitude strange.  It is not at all clear to me that the 
laptop is one of the best ways for me to perform my works.  Your assertion 
sounds to me like more advertising copy.

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