Re: [microsound] re: wrong kiosk .. list on the exhibition

[sediment@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

>> It seems to me that cleaving off 'sound art' from 'music' runs the risk
>> of promoting an ahistorical approach to understanding contemporary music
>> practices and seems to elicit a swathe of wild claims that all kinds of
>> 'experimental sound art' practices demonstrate 'new', approaches.

i third that.  although I see the difference between 'sound art' and
'music' as an opportunity for an endless semantic debate, this is a good
point.  freshness and creativity pop up in all kinds of places, not just
in boxes labeled 'experimental'.  it's easy to delude yourself about it
when you can't hear over the racket ::)

> I agree and I see a similar dynamic at work on this list when it comes to
> discussions about technology.  Excitement about the frontiers of digital
> technology sometimes overshadow the actual techniques and concepts      
 > involved which more often than not have a solid basis in earlier
analog
> technologies or existing musical theories and techniques.

i've been blessed with a thin wallet so I've have always had really crappy
hardware, and not very much of it.  i don't think that means i'm a better
musician, but it has forced me to fully explore the possibilities of the
tools I have.  It's given me more creative freedom, inadvertantly, by
limiting the time I spend oohing and aahing over new gear and putting my
nose right to the grindstone, so to speak.

Also, it's sometimes a case of abstraction being more interesting than
reality.  I mean, wow, this new thingy i made uses lasers which detect
dust particles in the air and morph their 3 dimensional coordinates and
velocity with data on the current x-ray levels coming from the sun. 
That's really cool, but gee, it sounds like tape hiss.  Why did I make
this thing?

It's abstraction for it's own sake.  Hmmm, that could maybe be another
interpretation of the 'sound art', 'music' schism.  The language of the
process is emphasized rather than/as well as the experience of the sound.

-- 
http://noiseusse.org

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