The Crisis of Post-Spectacle "Live" Contemporary Ambient Perfor

[Julian Knowles <j.knowles@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"pelagius pelagius" <pela_gius@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>I have a stupid question now.  Why is the emphasis on (or "fetishization
>of") an artist's creative output considered a "traditionally Modernist"
>phenomenon?  I would think it predates Modernism, and I think of Modernism
>as being a period filled with group work, chance, improvisation and
>conceptualizing.

not as it relates to music... all this stuff can be seen as a complete
reaction to modernism (europoean modenism in particular) in that they
embrace all of the things modernism tried to avoid or eliminate. When you
speak of modernism in relation to music, you are talking about the "Author'
or 'Originator' (ie groups suck), the ultra-determinate (ie serialism,
integral serialism). Chance and improvisation played a critical role in
moving the discussions away from this territory, which is one of the
reasons cage's work was so important.

Conceptualising? - ok but within the framework of artist as 'visionary',
removed from their socio-cultural context, art as higher purpose, the
embracing of the idea of linear evolution and the advancement of the
musical language to some more refined state. yawn..

the fetishization of one's output could be seen as a tendency toward
self-obsession/self-aggrandisement - which is certainly something which'
good modernists' were into!


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j  u  l  i  a  n     k  n  o  w  l  e  s
course co-ordinator electronic arts
co-ordinator/senior lecturer in music technology
school of contemporary arts (music), university of western sydney
web: http://www.geocities.com/socialinterior/