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"There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing..."

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:47:44 -0600

“There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”

- Maya Angelou

"Now there is nothing I find more irritating than when people torment each other, and it is worst of..."

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:39:13 -0600

“Now there is nothing I find more irritating than when people torment each other, and it is worst of all when young people in their prime, who might be enjoying all the pleasures life offers, ruin the few sunny days they have by pulling miserable faces, and never realize the error of their ways till it is too late to do anything about it.”

- Goethe in The Sorrows of Young Werther

On Listening and Music In a speech delivered by Benjamin Britten...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:33:00 -0600

On Listening and Music

In a speech delivered by Benjamin Britten in 1964 he astutely pointed out that going to listen to music before the invention of the wax cylinder required a special level of investment:

It demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to a special place, saving up for a ticket, some homework on the programme perhaps, some clarification of the ears and sharpening of the instincts. It demands as much effort on the listener’s part as the other two corners of the triangle, this holy triangle of composer, performer and listener.

Listeners would have to invest themselves in a composition nearly to the level of a composer or a performer. Of course the old adage applies as well: the greater the level of investment, the greater the level of return.

Furthermore, Bob Shingleton, from whom much of the inspiration of this post was drawn, proposes that listening, like meditation and learning, are even more fulfilling when experienced as a group. Listening cannot happen casually. Unfortunately, the majority of music listening does. The simple accessibility of it makes this the case. Compressed music, portable music systems, digital music libraries, satellite radios, streaming web-based music; this amounts not to a condemnation but a simple statement of fact that we listen differently now than we did roughly 100 years ago. At that time, if you wanted to hear music in your home, someone would have to play it. There simply was no personal music listening unless you were also the performer - again another level of investment.

I’m not sure what the end result of this is. I do know that music is more often played like sonic wall-paper rather than something we’d normally think of as music. Just as we don’t think of manufactured linoleum as art, much of what exists merely for ubiquitous aural mood-setting might not be thought of as music. In the very least, it is perhaps less-so than John Cage’s 4’33”, a famous composition of “silence”.

It’s much less of an academic discussion than it seems. If aesthetics are important then we need another word for this so as to never confuse the two. These words are also the first step towards listening with intention. For example, it’s not the existence of Muzak that is the problem - it is the listener’s acceptance of it as music that is at the root of our everyday negligence.

I love a little perspective.

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:48:29 -0600

I love a little perspective.

Photo

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:11:48 -0600

starlightandpoison:‘january morning’

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:36:56 -0600

starlightandpoison:‘january morning’

© Metin Demiralay

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:40:42 -0600

Cherry Picking is the Enemy of Soul

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0600

Matt over at 37Signals recently used this title for one of his postings. I really liked his point on art and design. The premise:

In “A Talking Head Dreams of a Perfect City,” David Byrne describes what he loves in different cities.

There’s an old joke that you know you’re in heaven if the cooks are Italian and the engineering is German. If it’s the other way around you’re in hell. In an attempt to conjure up a perfect city, I imagine a place that is a mash-up of the best qualities of a host of cities. The permutations are endless. Maybe I’d take the nightlife of New York in a setting like Sydney’s with bars like those in Barcelona and cuisine from Singapore served in outdoor restaurants like those in Mexico City. Or I could layer the sense of humor in Spain over the civic accommodation and elegance of Kyoto. Of course, it’s not really possible to cherry pick like this — mainly because a city’s qualities cannot thrive out of context. A place’s cuisine and architecture and language are all somehow interwoven. But one can dream.

Byrne’s article is fascinating, but so is this inital warning about singling out individual elements — the idea that cherry picking is a pipe dream. Qualities cannot thrive out of context. Everything is interwoven.

He goes on to say:

The sum is often greater than the parts
In today’s isolate then cut-and-paste world, it can be tempting to go around trying to single out just the best parts of things. Think of the “show three comps” method of delivering designs to a client. Inevitably the same thing happens: The client picks a few elements from design #1, a couple from #2, and a few others from #3. Then the designer(s) try to frankenstein these pieces together into a “perfect” hybrid — which turns out to be quite imperfect. All that cherry picking destroys any sense of cohesiveness. The end product looks like a collage instead of something unified.

When you cherry pick, you lose integrity. You lose the below-the-surface aspects of what makes something great. You cut the invisible strings that hold the whole thing together. You wind up with a mash-up instead of something that’s got soul.

Of course, the entire identity of post-modernism is this cherry picking and self-referencing. This is why so much post-modernist work fails to stand on its own - until you get what it’s referencing, it is difficult to see its value. At one extreme of music sampling, this is the case as well. The sample is often not chosen because of its inherent beauty but because the musician is interested in the collage of cultures. Unless you get this, a sampled bar of music looped over and over again seems sterile.

This picture is composed of a SOHO image of the Sun in extreme...

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:30:00 -0600

This picture is composed of a SOHO image of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light for each year of the last solar cycle, with images picked to illustrate the relative activity of the Sun.

[Nasa.gov]

Scientists have recently observed the golden ratio in full display on the quantum level in chains of magnetically linked atoms spaced one atom apart that behave as if they were a nanoscale guitar string when “plucked” (quantum uncertainty). In sum, there is a perfect relationship between the first two notes of the overtone system. Their frequencies amount to a ratio of 1.618: the oft-cited golden ratio that can be observed throughout nature in our everyday world.

The universe is an ordered place with patterns that can be seen throughout the smallest and largest systems. That order is what comprises our entire identity as humans. When we venture from it we feel disconnected and so we work to tap into it. Music, art, empirical study, religion. They all speak the same truth.

Fiona Stewart (Glasgow 1734)© Edd Carlile

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:09:00 -0600

Fiona Stewart (Glasgow 1734)
© Edd Carlile

"Perfection is static, and I am in full progress"

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:03:16 -0600

“Perfection is static, and I am in full progress”

- Anaïs Nin

As pointed out on another blog, I really love the idea of...

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:47:21 -0600

As pointed out on another blog, I really love the idea of generative identity. In this case - a distinct and compelling shape that can take on many different personalities but remain essentially itself.

In urban areas such as Melbourne or Chicago, if you walk a mile you’ll see many different faces of the same city. So why should city identities be staid and uncompromising?

photo credit: unknown

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:49:00 -0600

photo credit: unknown

It’s the Saturday after New Years Day in Chicago,...

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 14:29:00 -0600

It’s the Saturday after New Years Day in Chicago, Illinois. The first thing I thought when I stepped outside to go for a walk and grab a cup of coffee: it’s so quiet out.

A conversation about winter almost always settles first on how you feel about the cold and then how you feel about the snow. However, I love winter for two reasons outside of those parameters. The quiet stillness outside gives me creative headspace. A time for my ears, which work 24 hours a day, 365 days out of the year, to relax. Secondly, the smell of crisp, clean air. The smells that float to the nose under winter conditions are absolute and un-compromised. These are experiences you simply can’t have anywhere else.

photo credit: Carey Primeau

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still..."

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0600

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples, then you and I will still each have one apple. If you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”

- George Bernard Shaw

"If you meet the Buddha, kill him."

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0600

“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”

- Linji

Something worth repeating should be thought provoking. I cherish this quote because it encourages us to find our own Buddah - the knowledge of self. If we see it outside of us, it is false, and we should eliminate it as a possible sense of identity - even if it is Buddah himself.

“UVA’s kinetic installation with sound by Mira...

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0600

“UVA’s kinetic installation with sound by Mira Calix, recently featured in Artichoke’s ‘Lumiere’ in the world heritage site of Durham Cathedral. An array of motor-assisted pendulums weaves through space emitting light and sound. The rhythm of the work evolves through chaos and returns to unison, producing a hypnotic and seductive performance that heightens the viewer’s awareness of the space and their relationship with it. More than 75,000 people visited the festival, over the 4-day period.”

— UVA

Satori is the art of knowing which only comes through...

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0600

Satori is the art of knowing which only comes through experience. The inside feeling of rightness validates the functional mechanics of life. “You alone are the replete knower and the method of your knowing is the self.”

In any fulfilled life there must be time to listen to yourself. As R. Murray Schafer likes to point out: silent and listen are anagrams - you cannot have one without the other.

(photo credit: Irwin Romain Jules Arthur)

Photo

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0600

"A movie should be there in rough cut,” the film editor Paul Hirsch once told me. The same is true of..."

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 10:00:00 -0600

““A movie should be there in rough cut,” the film editor Paul Hirsch once told me. The same is true of books. I think it’s rare that incoherence or dull storytelling can be solved by something so minor as a second draft.”

- Stephen King via 37signals.com