Re: [microsound] white geeks on jazz

[devslashnull <dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>It's hopefully clear with the folk music analogy that someone is trying
>to be toungue in cheek.

I never do this, and advise against it for fear of biting it off. the 
laptop can be a folk instrument. the folk distinction is in fact a 
class distinction, but perhaps not accurately so. "folk" as "people" 
is a bit broad too... since people make all sorts of music and it 
gets called all sorts of things depending on where you are standing. 
some kids in a small village in africa jamming on gourds and 
stretched skins... what are they playing? "world music"? i doubt 
that's what they'd call it... in fact a few hours from this village, 
a well-educated man at the university studying music might call it 
something more akin to "folk".

"folk art" was/is generally considered "outsider art" where ( among 
other distinctions) the practitioner has no formal training in what 
is considered the accepted avenues of cultural production and works 
with whatever materials are on hand. these artists may be physically 
outside of the culture which has deemed their work "outsider" (which 
was the case with Art Brut and the "art of the savages") or only 
mentally so as in the case of psychotic individuals (which was the 
original inspiration for the Art Brut distinction by Dubuffet). folk 
art fights against what art brut artist Roger Cardinal describes 
as..."that force which feeds on blind obedience, fidelity to 
stereotypes, the denial of spontaneity, the repression of 
individualism and experimentation." The "enemy" in question here is 
academy art, and gallery- controlled avant garde.

just as many artists used the "primitive arts" as inspiration for 
their more culturally and academically acceptable productions, so too 
does the academic music world feed on the output of laptop folk 
musicians... although some would be remiss to admit it... likewise 
the distinction of the folk artist as "uninformed" with regards to 
the current practice within the ivory towers of academia is somewhat 
inaccurate as well, since many of the tools and technologies used in 
their own practice have been "liberated" from the confines of these 
institutions... albeit sans the baggage of rigid adherence to any 
formal approaches to cultural production.

>
>Finally, out of the context of toungue in cheek statements, I might add
>that over the years I've often seen and heard a thread of desire to link
>some "new" art with something well accepted. What can elevate it to
>concern is so often it seems to reflect a worry that the medium or
>context that one has chosen to work in can't fully function
>freestanding, it needs some kind of stated reinforcement refering to
>other art that is already perceived in a good light, a sort of standing
>on the coat tails effect. Saying that sort of thing tends to really
>trumpet a defficiency if it comes across with hubris.

to me it is more of an attempt to grant a point of entry to 
individuals who may not have any points of reference. for instance, i 
gave a co-worker  a CD of some of my stuff. a couple of days later 
she came tome looking very confused. she told she really liked some 
of it, but could not place it, had no vocabulary for even discussing 
it, and asked if this was what people called "ambient"... i just said 
"sure". my intent was not to enhance my own works impact by 
associating it with the lineage of "ambient" music, but to merely 
give this person a place to begin their own thread of investigation. 
i also told her i thought of it as "folk music", and she laughed 
(being a singer-songwriter kind of gal herself).
-- 
CommTom
Communications of Tomorrow
"it's only a day away"

unique electronic music for the adventurous ear.
http://www.commtom.com

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