Re: [microsound] how to use raw data?

[Caleb Deupree <ctdeupree@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

John Duncan's work such as Infrasound-Tidal is IMHO much more 
successful than ndk's position would indicate.  Duncan used tidal data 
from a period of three centuries and composed a beautiful piece.  The 
liner notes, including some description of the process, are available 
at http://www.johnduncan.org/audio.html#INFRASOUND-TIDAL.  It reminds 
me to some extent of John Cage's work such as Etudes Australes, which 
was based on star maps.

I don't think either composer is trying to make us hear what the 
inspirational physical phenomena sound like (what does a star map sound 
like?), but rather are using the raw data to find interesting patterns 
to make new sounds.   Cage's stated purpose was to make sounds he had 
never heard before, and I see both his and Duncan's work in this 
context.

On the deceit, sometimes it's interesting to know the story of how a 
piece was made, but that story should always be kept separate from the 
piece itself.  Admittedly there are times when the story is all that's 
interesting about a piece, but in the best cases (such as 
Infrasound-Tidal), *both* the piece and the story are interesting.

On Jan 14, 2004, at 9:00 PM, ndk wrote:

> I've always felt that by taking a non-audio/non-music data stream and
> somehow convolve it into audio/music then the result operates almost
> entirely on the level of aesthetic curiosity, for better or worse.
> <snip/>
> But there is a potential deceit in the process if it's not disclosed. 
> In
> most cases the data can be convolved into audio by using any of
> inumerable strategies or techniques and even if disclosed many people
> will interpret the audio as if they are _directly_ listening to 
> whatever
> phonomena is being presented.
---
Caleb Deupree
ctdeupree@xxxxxxxxxxxxx


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