[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[microsound] Re: State of Music
On Nov 23, 2004, at 4:45 PM, graham miller wrote:
i'm trying to write my master's thesis, the whole hund=
red and what not pages, in a
similar but even more elaborate style... that's why it's taking me so
dam=
n long:) like kodwo eshun, i
really feel writing and syntax has to catch up with the kinds of
futurist=
ic and abstract topics that
form the content. if the medium is truly the message, then we have to
br=
eak out of standardized
academic writing. and if this means writing without capitals, writing
one=
word sentences, writing some
of it computer code, in java script, then so be it. it might actually
be =
a better and more accurate
way of describing things best not described in english, or any other
spok=
en language for that matter.
exactly. i've been chipping away at a thesis project of my own for
about a year now, and these really are the issues that need to be
confronted when writing on so-called "new media." in fact, my sense
throughout this project has been that cultural currents such as net art
and software art resonate with the treatment of issues such as
authorship, syntax, intellectual property, generativity, and
intersubjectivities in earlier conceptual and performance art, fluxus,
dada, among other prior moments to an extent sufficient to form an
imperative for the contemporary theorist that s/he dramatically
reconsider such questions as the project of academic writing and the
real implications of hyper/intertextualities for it.
the point of my jumping into this is that it's fantastic to hear from
others out there who are engaged with similar issues in their work.
i'd love to continue hearing about any or all of your projects.
and with regards to greg's original question about his paper, my advice
is that even though you're writing for a nonspecialist audience (which
is a good thing), you should familiarize yourself with recent writing
in the field to give you an idea of what not to keep repeating.
historical background is only really useful in a few cases. unless
it's new information, or newly focused around a different argument,
specialists will already be aware of it, and it will fail to engage
most casual newcomers.
in other words, rather than repeating the stories of pierre schaffer
and luigi russolo, then explaining how cage changed everything, like
the lead-ins to most accounts of experimental music/sound art seem to
go these days, try to find a hook that doesn't rely on an exhaustive
historical survey just to get to the beginning of your actual argument.
as suggested by tobias, being aware of current and accessible
literature in your field will enable you to avoid a lot of unnecessary
summarizing by referring your readers to external sources, unless
you're working on a really complex narrative that isn't adequately
served by one or two referrals...then you might make things a lot
simpler by offering your own concise, if extensively footnoted
runthrough.
besides this, i suspect that the best "hooks" for these topics are of
the "always-already" sort, meaning that it's a lot easier to explain
(say) automatic writing once you've linked it to scripting and search
engines, which virtually everyone in your audience will have had some
experience of. i'm aware that that's not your topic, but the general
device might have some use all the same.
i've rambled for far too long, but i should close by recommending
christoph cox and dan warner's "audio culture," recently published by
continuum, which is a stellar anthology and a pretty handy "desk
reference" for experimental music writing.
best,
chris madak
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org