Re: [microsound] Re: an interesting monolake answer

[Frank Barknecht <fbar@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hallo,
Eric Lyon hat gesagt: // Eric Lyon wrote:

> Nice thread, thus Robert's provocative statement must be respected.
> 
> >Visual representation of sound is evil.
> 
> Perhaps aural representation of sound is *live* ? Only Miles could tell us
> for sure.
> 
> A defining distinction between BR (before recording) music and PR (post
> recording) music is that the former requires a visual representation for
> propagation, the latter does not. How much do we still need a visual
> representation to concretize the musical conceptions we conjure in our minds
> (for those of us who still consider ourselves composers)? I want to argue,
> really not much at all anymore. In this regard there is an important
> distinction between visual representation and abstraction. The latter is
> inevitable in music conception since any musical conception I know of,
> whether a tonal fugue or the decision to listen intently to the sounds
> outside your dwelling, involves abstraction; if nothing else, then by virtue
> of attention to the processes of auditory cognition. Abstraction is
> indispensible but visual representation is not. 

But let me add that both abstraction and visual representation can
show up together. You and me, we both are Max rsp. Pd users, and
Robert Henke is a Max user, too. I consider these programs to be
visual representations of music or sound processes and thus maybe even
of music and sound itself (though this is debatable). They aren't the
one-(or actually two-)dimensional view of sound as a wave form , which
indeed I do consider very limited and even dangerous (or evil), but
they are clearly a visual representation of abstracted sound, or of
sound symbols. It's no coincidence that higher-level modules in Max/Pd
are called just that: abstractions. Abstractions are tools for the
mind, and to some people, visualising abstractions is a big help for
thinking. So in this regard, visual representation of sound is not
evil at all IMO.

Btw.: I can code in a text language as well, but when trying to think
about certain sounds and music, I always find myself coming back to
the abstract, but visual approach of Pd. It just works better for me;
though I know and respect, that it doesn't work for other people at
all (like those in the SuperCollider community).

Ciao
-- 
 Frank Barknecht                 _ ______footils.org_ __goto10.org__

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