Re: [microsound] RE : [microsound] the politics of digital audio

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Hi Dimitri, hugs from Uruguay

Personally (I'm a 1 individual statistic), y feel a little bit tired of
certain paradigms surrounding digital artists nowadays:

1_The increasing lack of physicality
2_The increasing lack of conceptual and/or ideological content
3_The increasing importance given to tools

Maybe in this boom of "new media art" some of us are really forgetting
what took us into art (especially music) in the first place.

Hernan

www.cooptrol.com


> Kim,
>
>> also, I think it would be interesting to resurrect and discuss the
>> topic of the 'politics of digital audio' -- using any framework you
>> like of course ;)
>
> Brainstorming session... Thinking out loud... Your questions are good, but
> as a
> sociologist I would rather ask, what are the ethical-political, social and
> technical
> grounds implied by the activity of doing computer music? Rather than
> studying music
> (ie what message does that music convey?), I would be looking at computer
> music
> through some of the following elements. To name a few that spontaneously
> come to
> mind, in no particular order:
> * Digital music relies on free/community software but also largely on
> cracked
> applications. There has been a recent shift in the musician/instrument
> relation (ie,
> more developers, more community development). Is using a cracked
> application only a
> matter of money?
> * Careers of digital musicians are now, more than ever, seen as an
> international
> venture. Do digital musicians get work permits/visas? Are borders,
> administration
> and states seen as illegitimate opponents of their careers?
> * Digital music relies mostly on solo careers. What social meaning does it
> have?
> * Digital music relies mostly on voluntary work and underground economy.
> What is the
> income of digital musicians? How are digital musicians stratified? What
> are their
> professional trajectories?
> * The life of labels is very short. What's a hot label? Why are some
> surviving and
> others not. How are they stratified?
> * Is legitimacy in digital music still attached to material objects (is
> releasing a
> CD better than releasing a MP3 album)?
> * The musicians/public ratio is very high. The label managers/musicians
> ratio is
> very high. How does that define digital music?
> * Only a very few digital musicians are know for their ethical-political
> positions
> while this is more common in the punk-hardcore scenes. What do we have to
> learn from
> these differences?
> * Why are most ways to legitimate digital music (magazines/websites/email
> lists)
> from the North? Can that be explained only in terms of technology? Why is
> it that
> there has been a recent growth of interest for non-European,
> non-north-American,
> non-Japanese music (ie China, South America)? What can we learn from the
> structure
> of the digital music scene?
> * Etc
>
> By answering these questions you will most likely be able to draw an
> accurate
> portrait of the ethical-political positions of digital musicians. Most
> likely:
> digital musicians don't like big companies; they are opposed to certain
> dominations
> they see as illegitimate. But their actions imply that a consumer-based
> society as
> legitimate. They are in the favour of communal development of technologies
> but see
> solo careers as the best way to exist in the scene. They also imply that a
> certain
> competition is right and good. I can browse a larger portrait but I would
> rather
> listen to others.
>
> Dimitri
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________
> Lèche-vitrine ou lèche-écran ?
> magasinage.yahoo.ca
>
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