Re: [microsound] Susan Sontag

[derek holzer <derek@xxxxxxx>]

I bought Sontag's "On Photography" in an English-langauge bookshop in 
Vilnius last fall while on tour. For the most part, a fascinating read, 
even if you have to put aside some of the shallow, 1970's pop-feminist 
cultural analysis. Where it is especially insightful is in locating 
where the taking and collecting of images has gained importance in our 
society. In several passages, she pulls up marketing hype about how 
"simple" and "easy" consumer technology has made the process of 
photography. "Great reusults every time!" etc etc. Reminds me quite a 
bit of the current consumer hype on "user friendly" audio or video 
creation software.

Another interesting exercise is to read it and subconsciously replace 
"photography" with "phonography" and see if the arguments hold. While I 
don't see too many attempts to make the *gathering* of sounds so "simple 
and easy" [replayed sound just doesn't have that sense of immediate 
gratification for consumers that instant pictures do, I suppose], quite 
a bit of the rest of Sontag's analysis still carries water. Try it 
yourself and see.

d.

Thanos Chrysakis wrote:
> Susan Sontag died today.
>
> http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/la-122804sontag_lat,0,4918993,print.sto
> ry?coll=ny-entertainment-headlines
>
> http://www.swisspolitics.org/en/news/index.php?section=int&page=news_inhalt&;
> news_id=5434306
>
> “Soon Sontag’s provocative essays on Albert Camus, Simone Weil, Jean-Luc
> Godard, Kenneth Anger, Jasper Johns and the Supremes began to spice Partisan
> Review’s pages. Sontag recoiled at what she regarded as the artificial
> boundaries separating one subject, or one art form, from another.”


--
derek holzer ::: http://www.umatic.nl
---Oblique Strategy # 36:
"Consult other sources
-promising
-unpromising"

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org