Re: [microsound] futurism and apocalypse

["tobias c. van Veen" <tobias@xxxxxxxxx>]

> "Futurism on the one hand and religious apocalypticism
> on the other are also defining a current
> aesthetic-political spectrum that merges in the mix of
> the digital."
>
> This is interesting. Could you eleborate what you
> mean, with perhaps examples?  I wonder if this
> formulation may be conflating a *root* of current
> sensibilities (particularly in digital music of late),
> futurism, with a current (last 20 or so years) of
> Apocalyptic imagination and imagery.  Most current
> music and digital art doesn't really share futurist
> ideas and concerns though it may have a significant
> formal set of practices that can be traced back. It
> seems like current aesthetic sensibilities (in music
> and otherwise) overwhelmingly harbor a strong degree
> of doubt/reticence in the Great Future, rather then a
> kind of manic enthusiasm for it (as something
> desirable and life-giving).
> - andrew

hi List and andrew,

I'd like to explain more here but I'm rather short on time at the moment. I
dislike doing this, but the paper is available as part of the _Unsorted:
Sonic Acts X_ volume, which is available at the V2 Store, Rotterdam:

    http://store.v2.nl

Search:  ' Unsorted ':

http://store.v2.nl/V2_Store/browse/FMPro?-db=products.fp3&-formatÞtail.htm
l&-lay=cgi&-sortfield=name&-sortorderÞscend&-op=cn&x"&y&all=unsorted&
-recidC999&-token655803&-find


[If you are unable to order a copy, let me know.]


+++


Another option is that  I am looking for a place to publish the actual talk
I gave at Sonic Acts X which acts as a preface to the article. An online
journal with free access would be best -- then this could go online, and you
could all read it. Any takers?

+++

Only a short comment: I wouldn't say that the Futurists were all that
positive toward the future. There is a dark apocalypticism to Futurism, to
fascisms of all kinds as well. They embraced noise, speed, abstraction,
metal, guns, modern warfare: that is, they embraced destruction, much like
DADA, the Cabaret Voltaire, Bruitism, etc. A revolution: 360 degrees, burned
to the ground the history of classicism and truth, to invest new truths in
gasoline, aeroplanes, acceleration.

That is they uncritically embraced emergent technology. So did  Proust--the
aesthetic doesn't necessitate a particular expression. And that's a trend
all too prevalent at the moment in new media circles, specifically aspects
of locative and mobile media, laptop performance, etc. Futurism, via the
manifesto, also sought to delimit various contexts for reception and the
essence of art. This bears some relation to claims made today concering the
essence and proper reception of microsound, for example.

Of course that Heidegger became critical of technology as delimiting the way
in which we 'be' in the world might be read as a critique of his fascism.
("The Question Concerning Technology" -- kind of cliché, but still
brilliant).

But the argument is far from clear-cut nor causal. It requires a kind of
analysis that links ideas, institutions, practices, much like Foucault tried
to do.. it's begun in the above paper and talk.

Enough from me! I am sure the rest of you have much to add here .. I await
with pleasure your discoveries.

best,

    tobias



tobias c. van Veen -----------++++
http://www.quadrantcrossing.org --
http://www.thisistheonlyart.com --
McGill Communication + Philosophy
--- New School Philosophy --------
ICQ: 18766209 | AIM: thesaibot +++


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