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RE: [microsound] math anxiety



> From: Beni Borja [mailto:beni.borja@xxxxxxxxxx]
>
> Isn't math a language as well??  Mathematics is the language best
> suited to
> describe the physical phenomena , music being  "air sculpting" in it's
> physical nature is therefore best described by math.

I don't think there would be much dispute over math being a language.  In
the case of music, I think it matters how you use and create it,
mathematically, meme- or phonetically, or "other".  And that would bring you
to...

> What's the purpose of music??  that is the question I supose
> bothers me the
> much these days..

Isn't it just great!?  A hundred years ago, painters used music as an
example of the "pure abstract", under the impression that music was a direct
line to emotional/spiritual experience.  Painters like Kandinsky were
struggling with the concrete and representational forms of painting
(certainly trying to repurpose painting after the challenge of photography)
and found abstraction partly through music.  And while music has a cultural
context which could be read as a concrete language, it also has something
that painting can't really achieve as an object, that is it's ethereal
nature.  Memory slips around sound even as it is experienced, while a
painting exists in a rather concrete fashion, leaving it's viewer to change.
It does seem to me that in the past century music has gained this
materiality of painting, primarily through the recording process.  Certain
sounds can be repeated until memorized; pop songs can be memorized note for
note, becoming the "genuine" version of a song.  Advertisers use sound as
part of their product's id, and can even hold copyrights for these samples
if they can prove that they are identified with a product.  Music can serve
a highly-specific purpose as language, or it can retain it's ethereal
quality and slip through the cracks of perception.  Which leaves the purpose
of music wide open to possibilities.

It's also interesting to note that in describing the developing solidity of
music in the past century you can also observe the cultural creation of that
form of sound.  Sound was formerly used as part of the spiritual experience,
to create sublime/virtual experiences in cathedrals of the past.  Sound now
is an object, becomes commodity or relates to commodity...one of the prime
uses of sound/music in contemporary Western culture.  We could consider the
use of a laptop to create improvisational/unpredictable/algorhithmic sound
and music as a reaction to that objectification, which I do think is in the
mind of many musicians who are drawn to improvised performance.  Eric
Leonardson, a Chicago musician, studied as a visual artist and said that the
immaterial qualities of sound brought him to music...I have had a similar
reaction and it is one of the primary reasons I'm interested in the
(non)form.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     Christopher Sorg
   Multimedia Artist/Instructor
 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
   http://csorg.cjb.net
     csorg@xxxxxxxxx
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~