Re: [microsound] humorous beasts

[David Powers <cyborgk@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/4/06, Xdugef <info@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> --- Michael Edwards <m@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> I could be wrong but I don't think Marx or Socialism has been mentioned
> here outside the context of music... at least not recently. Therein
> lies the (my) question of how does either of those work in the context
> of music or more specifically now "digital audio"?

Well, I feel these ideas influence (NOT dictate) my approach to
digital art, or at least problematize it. So let me give one
perspective on its influence.

Artistic production, to me, is simply one example of production in
general. Production in modern capitalist society (and, one assumes,
whatever might follow it) is a social, not an individual, phenomenon.
It can easibly seen that many of the tools in digital art, were
produced socially (ie. computers, software, instruments). So the
digital artwork is implicity social, it requires society to exist -
but the presentation and the creative portion of the work, may be
either collective, or appear to be the work of a lone individual.

This has implications for artistic practice. I'm interested in going
beyond capitalism, in the possibility of future alternatives. I
believe that democratic, worker-managed collectives would be an
important part of such a society. So, although it's not a fixed rule,
I believe that it is generally better, when feasible, to work in
collaboration with others on artistic projects. Such work makes the
social nature of art explicit rather than implicit. It allows artists
to divide labor in a rational way, in order to create works that no
one individual would be able to realize. It allows for information and
knowledge sharing, and the building of solidarity. It also allows
artists to work together in distribution and presentation, which
increases the ability of artists to reach an audience. And it
establishes working methods of production and an institutional basis
for a transition to such a future society, if a time came when such a
transition was feasible.

With the advent of the internet, this idea could be extended, with
local collectives across the globe and networking, sharing
information, and working together on distribution and presentation. To
some extent, this occurs, and spaces like the microsound list can
facilitate things. However, I believe that the cult of individualism
many artists subscribe to tends to work against these possibilities.
There don't see a lot of artists trying to consciously advance the
idea of collective production. What happens, seems more to happen
accidentally here and there.

Anyway, on the practical and personal side, I do hope to start a
collective at some point, and put my concepts into practice. In the
meantime, I've begun to actively search for artists interested in
collaborations. (I'm not sure if there are others in Chicago
interested in serious collaborations, but if so email me offlist!)

~David

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