Re: [microsound] correspondence between hand-made electronics and Pd/Max/MSP (was Socio/political implications of microsound music?)

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I agree with you in the point that limitations in tools provide better
creative results. That has been my point of view for many years,
considering the natural economic limitations we South American artists
have. We are used to having to deal with scarce resources. But lately I
have found that there`s a gap to be leaped to another creative universe
based on the complete opposite. Software provides a rich and unlimited
world of tools, that is something thoroughly discussed already. What I've
found is that I have finally overcome my fear of complete freedom, and
realized that endorsing limitations for creative purposes is an excuse.
It's like an agorafobia, fear of endless resources. Being used to extract
the most from the minimun, it was hard to transit to a god-like place with
unlimited possibilities (although this is only an illusion since hard and
software is always limited in some way). I mysel feel that I'm in a
superior position now that I'm capable of doing whatever I wish in audio
and video, without having the creeps of complete freedom, and have relized
how stupid it was to think limitations were better. Off course, I have a
very hard time now trying to maintin myself within boundaries, and this is
my merit.

Hernan

www.cooptrol.com




> On Jun 30, 2006, at 9:56 AM, Kevin McCoy wrote:
>> So let's consider craft again: many of the pioneering electronic
>> artists of the 1960s and 1970s (from what I understand) were very much
>> into fashioning their own electronic equipment for their sound and
>> music pieces.  I see a direct correlation between their activities and
>> those working with Pd (a considerably broader base).
>
> Very interesting discussion so far; I have some other things I'll
> want to add later, but for now I want to jump off of something that
> Kevin wrote.  That is, what exactly is the correspondence between the
> development of electronic hardware and abstractions of that hardware
> in software?  I definitely don't want to turn this into the dreaded
> hardware versus software discussion again.  Rather, I'm more
> interested in what I see as possibilities for serendipitous
> discoveries that come with long-term involvement with a physical
> system (i.e., acoustic instruments, bought as well as hand-made
> electronics) that I feel is somewhat absent from the enforced
> exactitude that is inherent in a digital system.
>
> Let me try and explain further.  In my experiences with learning the
> violin and viola over the last twenty years or so, I have developed
> an extraordinarily developed relationship with the instruments that I
> use.  They are _my_ instruments, and while another violin might have
> the same acoustic set-up, I will not want to play it because of the
> idiosyncrasies I have developed with my instrument.  Thus every once
> in a while I come across these moments of discovering something new
> that _my_ instrument can do, that I wouldn't be able to discover if I
> were switching instruments often.  From my limited understanding and
> experience in the area, this also can happen with home-made
> electronic instruments as you discover by chance some incredible
> sound that can be made because you, for example, chose to solder a 1K
> ohm resistor instead of a 2.2K ohm one.
>
> I don't seem to have the same experience with software-based
> systems.  The mutability of a patch enables me to change things I
> don't "like", rather than developing my performance or compositional
> practice around what I don't "like", only to find, a few months down
> the road, that this seeming constraint has actually turned into
> something door-opening.  I also don't feel a strong affinity towards
> any one software-based system and realize that if somebody told me
> tomorrow that I couldn't use Pd, I'd say okay and move onto something
> else; but if somebody told me that I couldn't use my viola I'd be
> extraordinarily upset.  The end result would be the same: I'd move to
> something else (buy another viola and begin the process again), but
> the reactions would be quite different in the two cases.
>
> I'm trying very hard to not make a value judgment amongst these
> differing correspondences and relationships, and I'm sure that others
> have contrary experiences and views.  And perhaps in the end my
> wedding to my instrument is inherently limiting.  Yet in my view
> there is an interesting difference between the long-term (decades)
> experience that people have with certain types of physical musical-
> making objects, and the shorter-term, often-times constantly
> changing, mutable software systems.  I want to understand what this
> difference is.
>
> Full disclosure: I'm working on this for my thesis.  :-)  If anybody
> is interested in continuing a longer-term discussion off-list, drop
> me a line.  I'm also going to be doing some ethnography-style
> interviews about peoples' relationships to their instruments, so if
> you'd be interested in being interviewed for this, let me know as well.
>
> Best,
>
> nick
>
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