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Re: [microsound] music in the digital age



I find it strange that computers have predominantly
impoverished rather than enriched music by reducing it
to the status of a filetype,
subject to an unimaginative filing system,

On the other hand I would argue that Mtv has impoverished music by putting the focus on image and surface rather than musical substance. So is it possible that by stripping all visual aspects and physical artifacts from music, the mp3 player actually does enrich our experience of music? When every piece of music in your collection is reduced to a short line of text in a list does that allow you to focus your attention more deeply into the sound and musical content of the "file" and free your listening experience from the infuence of external visual packaging?


If we want to move forward to a more personalized way to organize and interface with our musical collections, perhaps this period of depersonalization is a necessary step. In that sense the applications which allow you to arrange small pictures of album covers could be considered a step backwards. A step forward might be a program that would allow you to categorize your music collection by visual system of your own design (abstract colors and shapes associated with mood or maybe a horizontal chronological timeline divided into separate vertical strands that part and converge following different music-historical lines.). I think this is what your article is getting at.

I wonder what hypothetical extraterrestrials who have been-there-done-that
with digital computing might have to say about our software design
techniques.

they'd probably say "been-there-done-that." Preferably in some sort of alien-valley-girl-accent.


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