luka
Well-known member
relinquish the earth-suit. no more Schuman the Human. show's cancelled people.
i know, and dont need reminding that the first recorded music is the first real break here.i know dematerialisation doesn't begin with the digital. i also know the digital doesnt begin in the '00s
and yet it seems reasonable to suggest we are in the process of acceleration.
it wouldnt be unusual for a human of 2018 to wake up, reach blearily for phone, scroll through
news feed, after shitting and showering return to phone over breakfast, stayed glued to phone
throughout commute, get to work, put down phone and sit IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER SCREEN
ALL DAY, phone over lunch, phone home, phone in bed before sleep.
not to mention socialising on whatsapp and orgasms with pornhub.
at that level of usage it is no exaggeration to say that SCREEN IS NOW PRIMARY ENVIRONMENT
and that, like in the phantom tollbooth, the world outside is disappearing. (the screen doesn't begin
with computers, the page is a screen. a painting is a screen. the screen always has a frame, is boundaried.)
i've mentioned how architecture is dematerialising
and simon's recent article on autotune nudged me into making a whole thread about this process
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-auto-tune-revolutionized-the-sound-of-popular-music/
also worth linking to the autotune thread
http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=13199
and the vr building thread
http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=14196&highlight=architecture
it seems to me that once music making switched primarily to in-computer, and especially with the advent of autotune (and forgive me if this seems especially obvious/trite) sound no longer has a direct physical referent, and even the voice gets further and further away from the exigencies of breath of lung and tooth and tongue.
and it also makes intuitive sense that people who live their lives in a screen would require a kind of screen music. dematerialised tunes for dematerialised people. lusting after digital bodies. meeting in disembodied space.
i would never advocate any putting of the vehicle into reverse. we have the music of the past when we want physical referents. even something like dilla's dequantising (in the service of a fabricated organicism) seems retrograde. this is an area where i can happily be an accelerationist and want to see musicians lean into the process (not that they need any encouragement) and never look back
i know, and dont need reminding that the first recorded music is the first real break here.i know dematerialisation doesn't begin with the digital. i also know the digital doesnt begin in the '00s
and yet it seems reasonable to suggest we are in the process of acceleration.
it wouldnt be unusual for a human of 2018 to wake up, reach blearily for phone, scroll through
news feed, after shitting and showering return to phone over breakfast, stayed glued to phone
throughout commute, get to work, put down phone and sit IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER SCREEN
ALL DAY, phone over lunch, phone home, phone in bed before sleep.
not to mention socialising on whatsapp and orgasms with pornhub.
at that level of usage it is no exaggeration to say that SCREEN IS NOW PRIMARY ENVIRONMENT
and that, like in the phantom tollbooth, the world outside is disappearing. (the screen doesn't begin
with computers, the page is a screen. a painting is a screen. the screen always has a frame, is boundaried.)
i've mentioned how architecture is dematerialising
i suppose it blurs somewhat into the creation of and representation of purely digital spaces. and again i think this is where it's instructive to look towards architecture, which cant escape its physicality but looks to shed some of the more obvious signifiers of tactility and embodiment eg texture as it aspires to total dematerialisation. opaque glass. trespa. flat blocks of primary colour.
these buildings reflect their digitality in the same inescapable and crashingly obvious way
as computer music reflects its origins and the parameters of its creative programs.
and simon's recent article on autotune nudged me into making a whole thread about this process
https://pitchfork.com/features/article/how-auto-tune-revolutionized-the-sound-of-popular-music/
also worth linking to the autotune thread
http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=13199
and the vr building thread
http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=14196&highlight=architecture
it seems to me that once music making switched primarily to in-computer, and especially with the advent of autotune (and forgive me if this seems especially obvious/trite) sound no longer has a direct physical referent, and even the voice gets further and further away from the exigencies of breath of lung and tooth and tongue.
and it also makes intuitive sense that people who live their lives in a screen would require a kind of screen music. dematerialised tunes for dematerialised people. lusting after digital bodies. meeting in disembodied space.
i would never advocate any putting of the vehicle into reverse. we have the music of the past when we want physical referents. even something like dilla's dequantising (in the service of a fabricated organicism) seems retrograde. this is an area where i can happily be an accelerationist and want to see musicians lean into the process (not that they need any encouragement) and never look back