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 (nobody)...and 346 guests Last 5 registered Oplandisks nothingstar N_loop yipe foxtrotromeo Browse members... |
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tangent inspired by from BOC thread. quote: Sandison: "I absolutely agree with that. Modern technology often gives an illusion of empowerment while in reality it's increasingly all about removal of liberty, and homogenising the user base." while i understand where this perspective comes from, i don't particularly agree with it. i feel that technology is not inherently bad or good; it simply becomes whatever we do with it, like a hammer can become either a tool or a weapon. blaming technology for humanity's bad decisions just distracts us from the real culprits: ourselves. i also disagree that the empowerment is an illusion. technology is massively empowering, but most people are too lazy to see it through to its full potential. again, not technology's fault. i mean... are we really less empowered now that digital cameras are cheap, and photoshop can be pirated? were we better off when you had to blow $10k on a darkroom just to get semi-pro results? were we better off when video production required equipment your average teenage could never get near? bollocks, i say. |
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p.s. do you think BOC would have even managed to record an album before the "home studio" revolution? |
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I think a certain amount of this bitterness from the old hands towards new technology can be attributed to having to "serve their time" struggling with archaic crap that cost an arm and a leg. Even in my relatively short/recent and definitely amateur music career, I have spent many thousands, if not tens of thousands on my home studio, vinyl and music gear necessary. It is not as though I am rich; acquiring all this stuff meant, for a long time, a lot of overtime in the day job, sacrificing things like holidays and having a nice car. I could easily see how someone in my position could be jealous of some "new kid" effectively having the same tools with a £300 laptop, a decent pair of headphones and some pirated software and MP3s. Likewise, thinking of thousands of hours spent learning by trial and error, negated by the many youtube videos and presets that will allow a completely tone deaf novice to create something that is passable music in a hundredth of the time. Personally, I make music for fun, so I welcome this change; it means there's more music for me to hear, much of it free. If I was doing it "as a job" in an increasingly crowded marketplace, I could definitely see how this levelling of the playing field would be something to be feared/disliked. My view (in all fields) is that I'd rather remove all barriers and have purely the most talented ones find success. |
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Most coherent analogue-v-digital related post we're likely to get around here. 1080p post. Individual companies and developers may have a goal of monopolising the music software biz in sales, and by extension would cause some fairly widespread homogenisation if they had their way, but the reality is that there's a market where new tech has to be sought out by at least a few pioneers for Joe Soap to have an interest anymore. The result is we all have easier access to and higher control over sound-making-tings, which is bad for saturation and ambition, but good for anybody with low means and high-drive and talent. Net win for IDM wangs |
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Metaphysical control of flame |
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funny how this rapidly derailed into analog vs. digital.... you think about this, haft. raymond scott said it: "Perhaps within the next hundred years, science will perfect a process of thought transference from composer to listener. The composer will sit alone on the concert stage and merely 'think' his idealized conception of his music. Instead of recordings of actual music sound, recordings will carry the brainwaves of the composer directly to the mind of the listener." it's like one of those abstract physics thought experiments, really. that's the purest form, right? being able to just record your brain to hard disk. imagination is what matters. like i learned from jersey shore, you gotta stay fresh: "Your bank account can be low, but you always gotta look good — always have to get a new haircut, always gotta wear new sneakers, always gotta look fresh." --Ronnie |
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One of those clowns from Jersey Shore (I have no idea which one, I have only 'watched' the show through the RPG parody and Beavis and Butthead) tried to jump the queue in front of me at a Vegas nightclub last year. The bouncers knew who he was, but sent him behind us, to the back of the VIP queue as he "wasn't famous enough". How we laughed. Anyway, back on topic: With regards the scope for getting art direct out of people's heads. I think this would affect almost all forms of human endeavour to an incomprehensible degree. I would welcome it, but I suspect we would find the BoCs and AFXs of this world even less relevant come that day. They have taken a very long time (and gotten very good at) getting "the sound in their head" down on to DAT. They also have very interesting music in their heads. I suspect when suddenly the years of study and a dash of raw talent are removed from the equation, we'll find that there are lots of people in the world who make more interesting sounds. Again, a good thing for me, a bad thing for those who do this "professionally". I've often thought about that scenario for playing live instruments. Part of me thinks that watching a virtuoso playing a violin is always going to be more interesting than watching someone sat under an EEG/MEG machine thinking about it. Even if the quality of playing from someone's head is fractionally better. Sadly, if the rise of the laptop DJ and the decline of vinyl is anything to go by, not enough of "the kids" will make this distinction to prevent playing a real instrument becoming hugely devalued. |
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real instrument, hah. a violin is essentially just a piece of hardware with only one preset |
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We adapt. We choose. at least we think we do. |
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Not to derail the topic, but the original interview quote was in response to Jaron Lanier’s book about Web 2.0. Lanier isn’t much of an economist, but he does delineate the problems that collective groups are more efficient at solving (numerous), versus creative endeavors that benefit from “encapsulation,” temporary isolation, incubation etc. Considering the way Boards create their music (& the way Warp promoted it) I interpret their comments from this angle. The Oliver Sacks book they recommend is good :) |
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not at all. the analog vs. digital angle hadn't even occurred to me; you can credit Ceri for that. you've probably heard the stories about kraftwerk disconnecting the phone's ringer in their studio, because it kept interrupting. callers were told to call at precisely a certain time, at which point someone on the other end would pick up the receiver. even before i heard that, i found my own phone really annoying. it yanks you out of a flow state and demands you surrender your time to someone else for a few minutes, and that can be enough to tank a session. i like email much better. people don't expect an immediate response, and i can wait until i'm taking a break to read it. drexciya had another approach: you designate one day or evening per week as studio time... and you just go into a bubble then; ignore everything else for a day. then the rest of the week, you work and take care of all the nonsense that requires phones etc. just so you can have that day. sort of like church, i guess. you can shut a cellphone off. you can close the web browser and email... so, while life has gotten more manic in general, that doesn't mean it's difficult to "encapsulate" yourself. i suppose the real difference is you have to deliberately isolate yourself; it doesn't happen by accident nearly as much as it used to. if you like oliver sacks, try "phantoms in the brain" by ramachandran |
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i suppose there's also the longview, in that youtube sort of puts everyone on the same page regarding culture, which is limiting, sure. but again, you can elect to opt-out. don't watch youtube, don't read wikipedia... and get testy when someone quotes an internet youtube meme to you in real life, much like a grandma who thinks television is the devil. you'll note there's an "i don't watch TV" segment in the population. the "i don't do internet culture" segment is smaller, but also growing. it IS possible to just use the internet for email and airline tickets, and ignore the memes.... |
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Yeah the point is more about group creativity, than being constantly interrupted... But agree with lots of your points on that. Drexciya's a good example, + they had the added constraint of not going out, seeing shows etc. Sacks worked on that book too didn't he? Will check it out. |
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it's nothing new. the beatles started off as a skiffle band because that's what everyone in liverpool was doing. the internet nixes geographic isolation, sure, but there are still plenty of hole-in-the-wall places like this one.... and what happened here for the last three years? everyone made acid music on four-tracks while complaining about everyone on soundcloud making dubstep on laptops. yes sir, our encapsulation has really saved us from groupthink |
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Aphex heard cockver10 in his head?? |
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"I absolutely agree with that. Modern technology often gives an illusion of empowerment while in reality it's increasingly all about removal of liberty, and homogenising the user base." Perhaps he was having a dig at companies like Apple? People buy into the whole "Apple stuff is cool and shiny and innovative" thing without ever realising that by integrating everything you do into that one company's systems, you are limiting your capabilities - and making yourself LESS innovative. Or something. But that only happens if you let it. Modern technology can empower you, if you think outside the box, use things differently to how the manufacturer intended, etc |
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Me & My 303 Tasted It |
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