Futurism's overrated

[sadmanbarty]

Saying now is exactly the same as saying the future when it comes down to it because it's defined by being distinct from the past

now is reflecting and emulating lived experience. futurism isn't.

 

[droid]

There are no discrete units here. Futurism is a strain that runs all the way through 92-95 alongside many other threads, all promiscuously intermingling.

 

[droid]

Fundamental rule of dissensus is you can't win an argument by posting youtube as if quality was self evident

Rules?

 

[luka]

Rules?

Yes. The Rules. You should have been sent a copy.

 

[droid]

It's the historian's curse, Ive done it myself. Slice and dice into neat packages and weigh each segment like an academic Anubis. A fatally flawed method that ignores the glorious mess of culture.

 

[luka]

Everyone watches science fiction. I was just thinking the other day of how its influence hasn't been properly appreciated. You have to factor video games into this too.

 

[luka]

Worn out tropes for sure. I don't disagree with that. Recombination of a small number of elements with diminishing returns.

 

[sadmanbarty]

the matrix wasn't futurism. it was nowism.

 

[luka]

Yeah, very now movie. This is a difficult distinction to draw though. Where's craner I want to know what he's thinking

 

[sadmanbarty]

terminator 2 is a perfect film. perfect insofar as it's faultless. it's majestically spot on in every capacity.

 

[luka]

It is hard this cos it's all about the technology. It comes with its own associAtions. It's why kraftwerk went around pretending to be robots

 

[blissblogger]

while we're at it, overrated:

you had to be there

 

[thirdform]

the most innovative music was in persuit of the Now, not of the future.

why are they mutually exclusive? that's what the deconstructed club lot think and they are wrong.

 

[luka]

It is hard this cos it's all about the technology. It comes with its own associAtions. It's why kraftwerk went around pretending to be robots

Although granted the idea of robots is itself very very old. What are the dominant tropes of today's futurism? AI of course. Gene technology....

 

[mvuent]

i'd go with 'not overrated'. seems like in music-making at its best/most inspired there's some element of searching/longing for something that's not otherwise found in the present, and that's often what pushes people to do mind-blowing things w/music. (there's a thread on this, probably from the glory days of 2005.) but some engagement in the now is needed, otherwise you'll just be daydreaming about how cool music could be without doing much about it (i.e. what I do mostly).

 

[Corpsey]

To me pop music is the sound of now - all glossy, digital, programmed, airbrushed, photoshopped, strangely unreal. Yer Ariane Grandes et al. Perhaps it always is, by definition.

 

[Corpsey]

Synth modulators like Snapchat filters

 

[thirdform]

the future:



now:

no, I knew barty's contradictions would come out. u can't post some of the most futuristic cyborg garage and call it the now in contradistinction to grooverider.

If you wanted to make that point you'd have to post something from nicenripe circa 1995.

 

[thirdform]

anyway i understand what barty's getting at. future as cultural hegemony. except darkside hardcore/early jungle wasn't that would have been sven vath and them lot, south london tech house, some cringey strains of ambient dub, etc etc...

Ironically when jungle (or dnb) became hegemonic it lost any pretence to the future.. that was then replaced by the weirder ends of garage, broken beat hardcore/harsh breaks etc.

I mean in the bladerunner film rick decard doesn't die, so ive heard. in which case that is a fucking arsewank way to analyse the future, surface level of the commodity fetish. that was the whole point of do anroids dream about electric sheep...

 

[luka]

no, I knew barty's contradictions would come out. u can't post some of the most futuristic cyborg garage and call it the now in contradistinction to grooverider.

If you wanted to make that point you'd have to post something from nicenripe circa 1995.

This is probably more a problem with the thread-as-provocation model than with Barty's contradictions. If you wanted to put it onto a more secure footing you'd have to frame it in a way which would lack the initial impact to lure anyone into discussion in the first place. So it's tricky.