noise?

[David Michael <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Microsound,

Perhaps those on this list with an interest in "noise" can explain the 
form to me.

I have studied music is all its forms, from the beginnings of western 
music to the deterioration of sound art into concept - an yet, i still 
have no solid appreciation for the modern pandemic of "noise".  I post 
this here because I am actively looking for a persuasive argument which 
would sway my extreme aversion to this form of modern music. Let the 
diatribe begin.

I am aware that much of modern conceptual art regards aestheticism and 
execution as wholly irrelevant to the work - but I ask you noisemakers, 
how many different types of noises can we fill our artificial world 
with before the level of unstructured information becomes totally 
overwhelming - and by overwhelming i mean just giving me a fucking 
headache. Is it structured and i merely do not have the codec to make 
sense of the information stream? How can I as a listener, as an 
audience, as a musician, tell if the producer of said noise understands 
what they are doing - or if the discovery of the noises that their 
electronic and software circuits can produce has merely triggered the 
most base of adolescent fascinations - i do it because i can - aka - 
why not?.

Need I sit through 30 minutes of a gurgling sound mixed with shrill 
piercing waveform in order to learn that the artist was utterly 
obsessed with the process of this sound's inception. Does it ultimately 
matter to the audience if what s/he produced was the result of a 
sonified neural network? Must I read a 5 page essay or attend a lecture 
to understand what I am listening to? Maybe so.

I am obviously missing the point. I cannot even begin to give you the 
names of the artisans whose work I am speaking of, so those who know, 
please let me know who I am talking about.

So here are my questions about the form in a nutshell:
1. What is "noise" communicating and to what audience?
2. Why?
"intensity of experience" is an unacceptable answer (which i have 
already been given).

It may well be that noise is the gateway to a higher level of musical 
structures and possibilities - like the Kurzweilian (is that a word 
yet?) vision of future music being so sonically and structurally 
advanced that it is rendered uninterpretable by those without the 
proper implants.

Best to all you noise makers and listeners,
David Michael

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