[-empyre-] The horse's mouth? / Re: fragile identities / taboo of destroying property

[Pauline van Mourik Broekman]

Hello all,

As a colleague and friend of their editors/performers, I've been following
your discussions on Noise & Capitalism, and the 'fragile' performance in
Scotland with much interest... also telling those directly involved about
some of the discussions happening here.

Since the interest seems sustained, I asked whether there was something I
could mention or point to, where ideas might have been further
developed... Anthony (Iles) suggested the following, where a N&C blog (as
well as the book's full PDF) are housed.

http://www.arteleku.net/noise_capitalism/

He also mentioned there are plans in the works for a second book, the
editorial process of which is to be initiated by a week-long event
including lectures, workshops and performances.

If any of you would like to pose questions more directly, Anthony's also
happy to sub himself to -empyre-, or whatever might be appropriate :)

Thanks,
Pauline.


On Sun, February 19, 2012 11:58 am, magnus lawrie wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 06:56:42PM +0000, Johannes Birringer wrote:
>>
>>
>> dear soft_skinned listeners
>>
>> thanks Magnus for expanding, i found it very helpful, and also wish to
>> reflect, perhaps,
>> later on Menotti's responses, the current debate largely responding to
>> Marie's posts
>> and her performance.  Before going on to discuss, may I ask whether some
>> of you here
>> were involved in or have more information regarding some of the
>> references (I am
>> thinking of "Noise and Capitalism" - a publication I was not aware of
>> until now) and
>> how you understand the a r t o . a r t i a n [musika txikien katalogoa /
>> catálogo de musicas mínimas]
>>
>> http://www.artoartian.org/?p=1141
>>
>> project...... apparent re-released or published online in english
>> (edited?, translated?) by Mattin and
>> Anthony Iles,   and as i tried to track and then  read this interesting
>> manifesto, i saw a further reference
>> to this  (is is what Magnus also describes, a different even or same?)
>>
>
> I don't have any particular or direct involvement. In the past I have
> attended events that have some tangential connection - things from the
> london particular and other groups which feature in Mute (Anthony Iles
> et al). Thinking about the premises for this month's discussion and
> Johannes' information from the Funeral & Zombification at DAI event
> - I hazard a quess that this a variation on a theme and possibly
>   similar to the performance I've described - I located the following
> quote from London-based writer Howard Slater:
>
> "Dematerialization of the art object can only presage a 'void'
> if the passing of the art object is mourned. The mourning itself, in
> substituting a mimetic trace for the lost object, is, in the case of
> conceptualism's adherents, refashioned many times over from this
> mimetic trace to become fixated on, for instance, the 'pictorialism of
> a text based practice'or in the populist adventurism of indexing
> creative activity that has escaped the art institution. "
>
> "THE ART OF GOVERNANCE - on The Artist Placement Group 1966-1989"
> http://www.infopool.org.uk/APG.htm
>
>> >>
>> Noise & Capitalism: Funeral & Zombification at D.A.I.
>>
>> January 4th, 2012 by mattin
>>
>> ‘Noise & Capitalism: Funeral & Zombification’
With Mattin and
>> Anthony Iles
>>
>> 12 January, 20.00h
Dutch Art Institute
Kortestraat 27,
>> Arnhem
20hours
>>
>> This evening will inaugurate the first of a series of workshops that
>> will reflect on and ‘dig the grave’ for Noise & Capitalism (2009) a
>> publication edited by Mattin and Anthony Iles. More than two years after
>> it’s publication, what is the relevance for the book’s attempt to
>> understand the practices of noise and improvisation in relation to
>> capitalism? So many world-changing events have taken place in the
>> intervening years, how has capitalism and the struggles within it
>> changed and how does this reorient us critically to the object of this
>> book? The editors propose an open process of reflection for the
>> publication in joined effort to rework, rethink and identify its
>> problems. This process will be guided by a performance that will
>> introduce the book content and pave the way for ‘collective study’
>> between the authors and the audience; a proposed collaborative exercise
>> against the grain of self promotion often found in the ‘book launch’
>> form. Furthermore, this evening aims to blur the boundaries
>>  between ‘author’ and ‘audience’, to block the valorisation of
>> either authoritative or distinguished subjectivities, and to experiment
>> and put into question how we may invalidate such subjects’
>> accumulated ‘capital’ by releasing unquantifiable and
>> non-exchangeable ‘product’.
>>
>> Noise & Capitalism’ is a collection of essays by various musicians,
>> academics, activists which reflects on the artist-audience binary,
>> specifically how “noise,” “improvised” or “free” music
>> offers resistance and tensions that may, at worst, provide instruments
>> for capitalism but also, at best, point to modes of
>> ‘subjectlessness’.>.
>
> subjectlessness, different from objectivity/subjectivity ?
>>
>> what is meant by Mattin and Iles when they speak of digging the grave
>> for "Noise & Capitalism"?
>> And, fascinating as it is, how did (Menotti's curating?) Marie's posts
>> on noise shift our debate to sound performance (from initial focus on
>> in/compatible research)?  What exactly is noise incompatible with, if it
>> in fact is an everyday life experience for all of us continuously and
>> perennially negotiated? And possibly analyzed by Henri Lefebvre in his
>> "rhytmanalysis" as an elementary "rhythm" of and in our lives?  What
>> then does noise resist, or how does it rupture particular medium
>> specificity or particular reception situations in high or low or mass
>> cultures and high or low academias  (how come one never talks about low
>> academia?).
>>
>> This may all be obvious to you, and perhaps reading in starts and stops
>> is not good on my part, in a durational debate where continuity (apart
>> from contingencies that Marie validates in her writing) is perhaps of
>> some importance, but I am really interested in whether claims (on behalf
>> of noise in sonic arts/performance) of noise are here also claims on
>> behalf of "sharing" and the participatory pathos in much contemporary
>> art discussions (I see that the "Funeral and Zombification" event thinks
>> that participatory noise or silence is also a tool to struggle against
>> property and ownership/intellectual property?
>
>> is noise then conflated with open source initiatives or "resistance"
>> (yes, Baruch, I sensed your impatience), aesthetic and political, which
>> perhaps (if we remember the issues raised my Marc and others here,
>> regarding research and scholarship and practices-as-research
>> accreditations) links the noise in the system or authorization to
>> unacceptable knowledge or badly written up ideas?   quite apart from the
>> broken loudspeakers.
>
> Mention of open source brings to mind virality, with its association
> to noise and overload (just think of viral marketing). And now, I can
> see a reason free and open source software advocates could be unhappy
> with the description of the GNU license as a viral license.
>
> (for some other perspectives, see  "GPL: Viral Infection or Just Your
> Imagination?" http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/33968.html
> and "The GPL is not viral"
> http://metastatic.org/text/the-gpl-is-not-viral.html)
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Magnus
>
>>
>> with regards
>> Johannes Birringer
>> dap-lab
>>
>> PS  "Noise and Capitalism" proposes that improvisation and noise contain
>> or can produce emancipatory moments ...   these practices point towards
>> social relations which can extend these moments.
>> It might be good to talk further about these social relations and what
>> is meant by them,  and also define more closely in what sense
>> improvisation emancipates. From what? from order or adhered structure,
>> from
>> rules, and precise choreographies?
>>
>>
>> - - - -
>>
>> Magnus schreibt:
>> >>
>> > In response to Marie, Magnus mentions that he felt "lucky to
>> participate
>> > in a performance 'going fragile', involving Mattin and other
>> contributors
>> > to Noise and Capitalism. This was part of Arika's 'Kill Your Timid
>> Notion'
>> > festival in Dundee in February 2010. It seemed as if people
>> ('audience')
>> > couldn't bear the silence and the absolutely (radically) open
>> structure of
>> > this collaboration. The performace and the notion of 'going fragile'
>> made
>> > a real impression on me."  This was picked up by others, but i am not
>> so
>> > sure (Cage's 4':33"  and his ideas on silence go back to the 50s) what
>> > surprised audiences, what made anything un-bearable, or why an open
>> > structure (an indeterminate structure?) would be considered radical?
>>
>> To explain the performance......
>> ..[clip]
>> hope it is clear from what I've described that a drama unfolded, through
>> a
>> kind of direct improvisation (just dealing with the immediate moment,
>> without much expectation or intent) and from this point the public
>> really
>> entered the frame and were faced with some options, for example to
>> accept
>> the premise of the performance or retain a critical detachment, to speak
>> up or remain silent, to recognize the choice before them to become an
>> actor and director and to do something about that, or to not respond.
>> What
>> I observed and heard after the performance had ended, was that some
>> people
>> felt very challenged by this situation - intimidated or offended,
>> bemused
>> or wondering, overwhelmed or affirmed, as well as having many
>> contradictory thoughts and emotions.
>> >>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre


-- 
Pauline van Mourik Broekman
Director
Mute Publishing
46 Lexington Street
London, W1F 0LP

W: http://www.metamute.org
W: http://www.openmute.org
E: pauline at metamute.org

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