Re: [-empyre-] microsound as music's digital praxis

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@uiah.fi>]

> * I gravitate toward the anti-labelling critical practice of Derrida's
> "Plato's Pharmacy"; here, "pharmakon" can never function as critical
> shorthand because it always echoes and reverberates with other connotations,
> operates on new frequencies, or mutters quietly in the background.

David Abram "the spell of the sensuous" makes a hell of a case that 
the movement from oral to written language at that time in Greece 
marked a critical juncture in the consequent separation (in Western 
societies) of the human from the greater roaring flux of nature 
around.  The ability to abstractly reduce a dynamic situation to a 
text is the ultimate separation, a small death, repeated each time it 
occurs.  I see the results daily of that separation in the massive 
alienation or (alien)(nation) that I happen to be embedded in ... 
self included...  Freedom from that comes only when one gives first 
validation to ones own internal worldview, literally, the accumulated 
input from the embodied presence, and

> * critical and creative processes are not antithetical -- at least they
> don't have to be. Of course, they very often are positioned as such, and
> unfortunately, this split is frequently institutionalized; but I find myself
> eager to discover and embody the critique as creative function and not an
> afterthought or gloss or "artist's statement". Unfortunately, I think in the
> sonic arts many perceive DJ Spooky or Kodwo Eshun as the model for a new
> kind of critical practice; to the contrary, I consider them
> "jargon-grinders" offering very little that is new and engaging to the
> table, working only from surface-scans of Derrida or D&G, but without
> getting into the psychedelic interstices of the mesh.

again, (see below) critical, if it is solely about a textual 
reduction of a dynamic flow, it is quite problematic; on the 
contrary, if it is a chant that is in reflexive or transmissive 
chorus with / against the original creative event, then it has a life 
of it's own.  Remix, as you point out, is OFTEN about necrophilia! 
Churning dead things with stasis of soul.   I would say that critical 
and creative cannot be linked or divided by "antithesis" -- creative 
action is not related to thesis at all, except that thesis often 
claims to be spawned by creative action, but I doubt that lineage. 
It is a social (institutional, as you say) fabrication.  There is 
never an explicit need to verbalize (write about) a creative event, 
it is never explicitly necessary.  It's only when we need to socially 
share our reflections.  And so, I place at least part of the concept 
of 'critica'l in the realm of socialization...  maybe just a 
necessary evil so that we avoid endless groping...

faugh, I'd prefer blotter acid, a disco ball, and at least two 
Wheatstone Bridges to measure the potential of life in any instance: 
when resistance goes to Zero...

> * John Hopkins wrote: "sonic/music/audio work is essentially divergent from
> labels" -- punning this, though, I would say the opposite is true,
> particularly in indy.alt Internet-cultures of sound; that is, we witness a
> proliferation of labels and microbranding. Elsewhere, I wrote the following
> to characterize this process: "Long associated with the histories of hip-hop
> and techno subcultures is the phenomenon of the independent label. Event
> promotion, compact disc production and distribution, web development,
> creation of art objects, and clothing styles all bubble together in the form
> of a micro-culture, an alternative reality that steals from, then remixes,
> the capitalist impulse. Shadow capitalism tracks across pantopic webs of
> sound, leaving behind material reconstructions of an ideal of the civic
> organism." It seems to me that audio work now depends on label identity in
> newly complicated but vital ways.

but labeling does indeed end up very often reifying (mortifying 
even!) what are, in one moment, dynamic, living, and indeterminate 
human practices -- in the next, they are committed (re-produced, 
re-created) to text, and take on a power which can be wholly 
unrelated to their original manifestation (i.e., I can trace the 
lineage of the term net.art in this manner).  It is clear in this 
society that linguistically adept people gather social power.  (not 
that social power is the penultimate measure or anything).  now, I 
would make a clear distinction between labeling (written language) 
and naming -- which is essentially an affectation of embodied 
presence 'aspiring' life to those energized flows around her/him.  I 
think this is what I am talking about in the divergence concept.  And 
the basis of the discursive process you speak about: the casting 
about -- I like the independent label about which I know only the 
name, and nothing about the 'content' of what they are producing, not 
even the form of the packaging!  Surprise me.  My criteria for 
listening to anything is -- can I stretch, change myself, to feel 
something of the energy that the Other imbued in their creative 
manifestation of being alive.  If I can, I can celebrate with that 
Other, or, simply celebrate the Other.  If I can't stretch enough, 
then I apply the maxim -- "I'll do anything twice, three times if I 
like it" -- I'll try again, another day...

> * John Hopkins wrote:
> >  it seems to be a process that social 'safety' is built on -- if I can
> >  use a term like 'microsound' I fall into a social comfort zone
> >  instead of groping in a linguistic landscape devoid of over-arching
> >  terminologies, risking mis-understanding (and so the Tower of Babel
> >  fell).
>
> interesting that immediately upon the launch of this panel, we
> guest-participants pretty much launched into a strategic dissolution of
> "microsound," and that this created, in my opinion/experience, a greater
> respect and admiration for these fellow artists. So, rather than acting as a
> safe shorthand, the term provided an intersection of conflicting
> interpretations and practices; only out of the ensuing conversation did I

yes, I'm not critique-ing the list discussion, but some wider 
issues...  I've known some of the list participant/works for some 
time now, and, well, simply liked the granularity of individual human 
production, and personally would avoid using 'microsound' as a 
lumping mechanism on John Hudak and yourself, Trace...  I prefer to 
grope ;-|  Problematic as it may seem socially, being on the edge of 
un-knowing seems a more lively place...

> realize that few of us indeed use this term to characterize our work, but
> rather employ it, on the fly, as a set of tools/approaches to our own work.
> And believe me, I enjoy a good grope as much as the next person, but I also
> appreciate art's ability to construct meaningful social navigation charts.

gees, I like it's ability to render all social navigation charts 
redundant... ;-\

> I'm not sure I see how overpacked terminology provides a zone of comfort in
> this case, or why comfort zones are suspect -- particularly given the

SURELY, though, in your position, you've had the awkwardness of 
explaining what you do to someone who doesn't have a digital clue -- 
"oh, so you make web pages?"  "oh, you're a musician?"  Anything else 
but an affirmative nod chutes you into a zone where you KNOW that 
other is afraid to go...  pharmakology?  yikes ;-)

> current USA media/gov't tendency to pack up and discharge strategic social
> discomfort zones of fear, loathing, suspicion and hate (e.g., "weapons of
> mass destruction"). I'm interested in more discussion along these lines.

I think that is the end game -- when one gropes for meaning, or even 
dances out ahead of 'meaningful' interaction with socialized spheres, 
suspicions are raised -- that one does not conform, and is thus the 
Other, and, in this culture, that is the greatest crime -- to be the 
Other.  There is no defense, except to BE the Other.  That way one 
can step out of the need for fearing.  Once out of that space, the US 
gov't is, indeed, a 'straw dog.'

>  > I wonder, while we are bringing our linguistic meanderings into
> >  juxtaposition here, how interesting it would be to be able to take
> >  all the personal sonic threads and weave them, and NOT comment on
>  > them...

maybe I'm dumb to crit written language on a mailing list...

>  > You are doing something of that, Trace, in the ADAPT project ...
>
> Thanks, John! And wait until you see the critmixer I'm going to unveil at
> EBR in the near future!

yup!  g'nite...

jh

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tech-no-mad : hypnostatic
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