[microsound] process and preset [was: Re: [microsound] ovalprocess - Average laptop geek?]

[Frank Barknecht <fbar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hallo,

aleks vasic hat gesagt: // aleks vasic wrote:
> I just find it interesting that so many people in the Computer music 
> world, wether it be Glicth/Microunds/Idm what ever, are so nuerotic 
> about the process with wich the music was made.  This has never 
> interested me outside of experimental music/micros sound, and even 
> there its more the thought process inregards to the work that 
> interest's me, not the process itself.

Good that you mention the word "process" here, as I think, that this
is the core of all of this problem/confusion/aesthetic.

Basically the difference between "preset musicians" (note: I don't
intend to use this term derogatorily here) and "process musicians" is
a difference of goals and interests. 

"Presetters" are interested in the result, they want to achieve a
certain goal, create a certain mood or emotional reaction. 

"Processors" (sic!) OTOH are interested in how things work inside a
dynamic process whose outcome is not always clear, it's not even known
in advance. Important to them are things like interaction, movement,
evolution etc. in their own rights. 

One of the advantages of the computer is of course that it provides
the "Processors" with processors, which help them to explore and
experiment with these processes directly. This is different from just
building a guitar, as the guitar is more or less done, once you have
built it, you don't really create or modify a process if you built a
guitar. 

Using a computer software/language like Max, Pd or Lisp can be done
purely to create or play presets, which is fine (most of what you hear
on the radio is made like this, also things you'd never hear on a
radio, like R. Stevie Moore, are made like this.) However many people
(maybe not *that* many) think: Why bother learning a software, which
visualizes or textualizes a process(or) if not to modify the
process(or)?

In the end this is a philosophical question: how much of the world is
created just through running processes and how much is preset or:
fate.

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                               _ ______footils.org__
             
          _ __latest track: "scans" _ http://footils.org/cms/show/41

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