Re: [microsound] visual artists

[David Powers <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

It's funny, but from what I see, it seems to me it would be just as 
appropriate to ask who DOESN'T have a background in visual arts?!

It wouldn't surprise me if people with a "proper" musical background of 
some sort (I'm a music school dropout) are a minority, as I've noticed 
that people coming out of visual arts backgrounds are much more open 
about sonic exploration and what constitutes music. A lot of musicians 
still maintain very old fashioned ideas, on the other hand, and they are 
never forced to ask themselves hard aesthetic questions or consider 
broader questions on the nature of sound and music. They typically 
consider someone like John Cage to be a complete joke and crackpot!

I'm very grateful for the the training I got, which taught me to explore 
musical/sonic/aesthetic ideas in a disciplined way, but I must admit 
that I was somewhat of an anomaly, known even back then as listening to 
and performing all that "weird/crazy/dissonant/noisy/atonal" music that 
most musicians hated, or were at least overwhelmed and mystified. 
Performing in art gallery type situations, I have NEVER gotten that kind 
of reaction on the other hand. I put it down partly to the actual 
economic situation of working musicians, who normally don't get to be 
"artists" in the sense of creators - to make a living requires mastering 
a complex skill and grabbing one of a very few jobs in the market in 
some kind of orchestra (or worse, wedding band). I also put it down to a 
really low level of aesthetic reflection, combined with a disinterest on 
the part of many teachers for the nontraditional/experimental... 
Movements that questions the nature of art in a really strong way, 
dadaism, surrealism, conceptualism are not dealt with so much in the 
musical world. Musical creation isn't really related back to the kinds 
of aesthetic arguments and movements that have existed in the art world, 
and those people that did offer challenges to the status quo mostly get 
discounted (Cage. Feldman, Wolf, and even Schoenberg or the 
post-serialists).

~David

john kannenberg wrote:

>I'll jump in here as well...I'm trained as a painter, worked as a graphic
>designer for 10+ years, and now work as a sonic and visual artist (and
>curate the Stasisfield label + online gallery).
>
>You can view some of my visual work here:
>
>http://www.johnkannenberg.com/visuals/
>
>Best,
>
>john
>
>
>--
>  
>
>
>john kannenberg
>
>[ http://www.johnkannenberg.com ]
>
>[ http://www.stasisfield.com ]
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>website: http://www.microsound.org
>
>
>  
>