Re: (idm) meta-modern

From m
Sent Thu, Aug 5th 1999, 23:24

Of course we can see all of time from here... ;-)

ChairCrusher wrote:
> 
> 1. Everything is just bits.  If you wanted you could build a piece of music
>    by typing in a few million 16 bit integers.

true, but so what... there have always been mutliple ways of doing
things, this is just the current incarnation/technology/modus operandi.

> 
> 2. The difference between 'authentic' and 'fake' is impossible to determine,
>    and probably completely beside the point.  Is there a difference between
>    a sampled string section and a real one? Perhaps, but I just edited and
>    mastered a recording of a string quartet, where I assembled a 15 minute
>    piece out of about 30 separate takes, and then did some not-so-subtle
>    sonic manipulations to produce the master.  How is that different from
>    what, say, Amon Tobin or Luke Vibert does?

It involved people that know how to play violins, violas, cellos and
were able to string two notes together without electricity. I am not
intending to devalue what anybody does with this statement, I am
answering the question.

> 
> 3. As a corrolary to 2, something can be completely synthetic -- i.e.
>    created from bits and bobs entirely in a computer -- and at the
>    same time be emotionally authentic.

true again, but so what, this has always been the case. Art created with
different techniques, attitudes and technologies can evoke the same
response, we simply have created different tools, from rocks to flutes,
to violins to computers. They are all just tools. Besides, one can argue
that the viewer supplies all works with life anyways, not the creator,
so where he/she is at in time/space/etc. is more important than where
the artist is and what he/she used as tools. ;-)


> 4. There's no separating the medium and the message.  So Oval making tracks
>    by defacing CD's and sampling the glitches is as valid as playing a violin.
>    The same thing holds for the continuing popularity of vinyl records -- the
>    fact that you're wiggling a diamond needle in a groove informs the music.

I don't think anyone here is questioning validity (though some others
might), all expression is valid, but perhaps not all equally useful or
emotionally connected. As for medium/message, yes and no. If you are
concerned with the response only, and if different media can evoke the
same response, then what is the difference? If you are trying to comment
on a specific context (time, place, culture, etc.) then the media is
inescapably part of the statement, and at least some of IDM claims to do
that.


> 5. Everything is interactive -- strangely enough before Cool Herc and
>    Granmaster Flash, people used to drop the needle in the first groove,
>    and then leave it play until the turntable picked the needle back up at the
>    end of the side.  The whole art of turntablism comes down to making something
>    interactive that once was a passive, unidirectional experience.

Life is interactive, art/expression is part of life, so what again...
atomization takes place. We break this down into finer and finer bits. A
record is played all the way through, a record is played one track at a
time, a record is played one second at a time... is it different or just
smaller and smaller?

> 
> 6. There is no such thing as physical distance in the digital world.  I can
>    collaborate with a musician in Germany or Slovenia or New Zealand as easy
>    as with someone who lives round the corner.  Easier in fact, because
>    my studio gets crowded if there's more than 2 people in it.

Yes, that is amazing. Read Virilio, he says lots about this. However, we
are still beings in the physical world, and so the physical world still
has an impact on our consciousness. What is the interaction between
levels of virtuality (digital, physical, psychological)? A VERY COMPLEX
QUESTION!

> 
> 7. Signal and noise are artificial distinctions.  You can make the noise
>    the signal -- see Oval again.

Not artificial, just subjective. We all draw clear distinctions, from
day to day, minute to minute. Today CD X annoyed me because it sounded
like noise, tomorrow CD X sounds like music... clear subjective
distinctions, just mutable in time and space, and of course between
people.

Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Kent, it is fun to read and write
about this stuff and turn ideas over. I like to see posts with content!

m
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