Re: [microsound] organic computers

[tim kugel <guitardo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Christopher Sorg wrote:

>  Computers, IMHO, are certainly considered disposable.  They become obselete
> with insane regularity <clip>  I think this is also the point you were trying
> to make with CDs, and it is what I like about digital media *in concept* but
> not in practice.    <clip>  digital media requires a medium in which to
> tranfer and store the immaterial materials, and those mediums are now in
> continuous
> flux.  <clip>

I should have made this clearer. I agree. I still use a beige G3 and although I
have gotten a more modern one, the costs of changing other hardware have kept
me in an older state (Audio Media III and G3). CDs though lovely do not serve
as many diverse functions and have aa much happier use to obsolescence ratio.

I would like to empirically know how much energy it costs to maintain the net
and power computers and screen/peripherals, and improve that. I think the
computer's usefulness as a coordinating tool and as a diagnosis tool has also
led to certain inefficiencies in health care, as a hospital stay can tell you.
Also the encouragement to a growth model, even in population and reliance on a
lifestyle model which is less healthy.

I did not mean to make it a either/or view though.  I agree with what Greg Mann
said.

> you could see a phase-out in
> a very short time.  <clip>

Yes and I can see a main argument being a Fahrenheit 451 logic, but led by
industry as a "profit" argument. CDs might contain certain scientific or
cultural information that can be a threat to homeland security.

> The way I see it,
> however, the industry is ham-handed.  They need to offer these highly
> compressed video and audio formats to respond to a demand that they created;
> a demand for immediate and personalized media marketing and targeted to
> individuals.  Quite a dilemna for the film and music industries.

This industrial metaphor is apt. Industry's workers are definitely aware at
personal levels of this dilemma but can't act except by threatening their own
livelihoods. I am sure many are depressed about it, not because of personal
economics, but because at a deep level it threatens or saddens them, Some
individuals have a knee jerk reaction to defend some part of the status quo, or
go into denial mode. And of course nihilism and fatalism.  Trying to make a
buck while changing the direction of consumption is what has led us here, but
we cannot seem to get off this track.

> They can continue to offer the aura-laden, high-quality medium, but <clip>
> seems one of the catch-22s of the democratic/capitalist combination is that
> in
> order to make the most money (hording), you cannot sustain production of the
> high-quality "aura" product.  And it is cheap production and mass access
> that makes it the big money maker for the labels (and, indeed, any
> mass-produced product), but it is also those qualities that make it
> difficult to hold on to a digital medium.  So technological obsolescence
> must be built in to the system in order to move on to the next "stage" of
> production. <clip>

> What I had (and still have) hopes for <clip> equal access to information.
> <clip> There is something more to ownership than just owning and coveting.
> Having a personal library is a very personal thing, a record

> <clip> the dreams of a digital revolution are dashed because of obsolescence
> practices and increased attention paid to intellectual property rights.  I
> don't really understand how a free exchange of ideas can happen under those
> terms; they appear to be in contradiction with one another.

Yes. The IFPI
http://www.ifpi.org/
led by the former head of the RIAA, Jay Berman, is the center of this clog for
sound, along with the RIAA.
also WIPO
http://www.wipo.org/
is the general IP org

dbuchwald wrote:

> Fortunately there are a lot of worthy things on earth left which cost no
> money.  If I climb a mountain for hours (sweating like a donkey)

I have not read the Bloom book, but I would like to see very hardy efficient
laptops be almost like the Dutch bicycle (always stolen) and always cheap and
capable of lasting a few decades, like the first dial phones. For what we need
them for, this is the state of today's chip sets. The need to plug into a net
can be very small.  The tax on that use should mostly be higher than on the use
of the direct pc to pc link, which should be free for a while at least.  I
think then the experience of trading files would fall into the same category of
sweating like a donkey, my favorite animal.

Also the theft of this experience is impossible. Microsound and other genres of
electronica contain a mechanical/digital qualities that are IMO less
memorizable and more organic experiences than traditional music. Perhaps though
this is a reaction to an environment.

Kim Cascone wrote:

> no actual genre of microsound per se...only a wide collection of various
> styles
> and 'takes' on post-digital culture as it applies to creating music/sound
> with software...the purpose of this list is to synthesize new ideas that can
> help stimulate new work/discourse in the field of electronic music...

I am using the term microsound in this sense.

By the way, I have noticed that my ears really seem to be able to transition
from microsound to acoustic music more easily than from microsound to
electrified instruments.  I also prefer a continuous live stream to anything at
times.  I like the sync between me and radio in a different country, knowing it
is live and hearing a voice is great.

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