Re: [microsound] Re: laptop hell/ theory

[Ian Andrews <i.andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is great Bill. Very well argued. I'd like to add that many people who
distrust theory and theoreticians miss something vital.  Cultural theory,
like music, or maths, or cooking, or whatever, is a pleasure in itself. Not
all those talk theory do it to look cool or win letters to put at the end
of their name. Many enjoy it for its own sake. For many people theory does
not limit thought, it enables thought to expand, by providing more tools
for thought to work through.


>Well, observing something "empirically" is itself a "text," every bit of one
>as any text by Deleuze.  So is the text that we shouldn't read the empirical
>world according to any "graphic" texts, like a Deleuze or Kant, or Kafka for
>example.  Any time you listen to music like Alto Nova and notice a dub
>influence, you're reading a text.  The CD has the status of textuality that
>belongs to any book, whether it calls itself a text or not.  The observer's
>observation is always conditioned by the various texts of life, whether they
>be history, culture, familial background, etc., and these things can be
>"read" as biographers often do.
>
>It's interesting to see some of the "theory fatigue" around these parts from
>time to time (not necessarily with the comment above).  Some people don't
>bother reading any and become defensive.  ("I have a right to my opinions
>about theory whether I've read any or not"--the anti-intellectual
>remark--not worth taking seriously, which is why it exemplifies its own
>resentment publicly).  Or the scolding about the use of theory by the
>smarter audience--mirroring in a sense some of the criticisms of Derrida's
>reception in the Anglo-American world ("those fuckers didn't get their
>Derrida right goddamn it")--failing to recognize that there are such things
>as productive "misreadings" something Derrida himself was noted for and
>approved (the disapprobation toward certain American Derrideans by certain
>Derrridean scholars was not shared by Derrida himself, who was in fact
>encouraged by certain of these creative "misreadings.")
>
>A better approach:  if you're not on the theory "bandwagon," feel free to
>get off without uttering too many sounds.  If it doesn't apply to you, why
>not ignore it without comment.  If you're on the theory page but get uptight
>about the readings, why not specify when theory is simply being used to
>"look cool" rather than productively moving in more interesting directions.
>Is the use of theory with regard to music always a "bad thing?"  Blanket
>assessments are uninteresting, though they do keep one warm.
>
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Ian Andrews
Metro Screen
Sydney


Email: i.andrews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.metroscreen.com.au

Metro Screen
Sydney Film Centre
Paddington Town Hall
P.O. Box 299
Paddington NSW 2021
Ph : 612 9361 5318
Fax: 612 9361 5320