Juan, Scott,
> However I would suggest that the composer/improvisor/performer is not
> > always being subverted. In my own practice I often find myself
> > selecting a tool due to the easy of doing what I want.
>
> I agree with you, but this implies a lot of knowledge and experience to
> know what does what better and how to bind the systems. I think it's very
> important to know the limitations of an environment to know how to deal with
> these and as I said how to replace something with another system.
>
All true, and I would also add a third factor; we can change the system.
I think that we (list-members) are relatively lucky in that we tend to use
relatively unknown and experimental systems that are developed in a very
open way. On top of that many of us are expert users or even the designer of
the system and will have some influence on it. This seems to go both ways; I
heard Dave express his surprise over how some people in a workshop op Fluxus
that he gave used Fluxus in a way he had never anticipated, doing things he
didn't know possible.
Even in that context the system will affect and inspire us. One factor in
this may be that the frame of mind one has when implementing or proposing a
new feature may be different from the one when playing or composing.
Another factor is that seeing another artist use the same system (or
instrument) may too influence our perspective on it and hence our usage.
>From the late 90's to early in this decade there was a lot of talk on
subjects like how the 303 would have "made" acid and I even once read about
a claim that the CAD program used could often be recognised from looking at
a building. It is certainly useful to also contemplate this in the context
of programming, a field that has so far gone free, almost as though "Turing
completeness" implied "Turing neutrality"; I think the phenomenon is a very
real one but the relationship is not at all a simple one with just "one way
traffic".
In related news; I just added "Some thoughts have a certain sound", a quote
from Dune, to the Toplap slogans page.
Yours,
Kas.
Received on Fri Nov 27 2009 - 01:27:42 GMT