On 11/01/2008, douglas edric stanley <destanley_at_mac.com> wrote:
>
>
> I make a point of this, because for me Livecoding
> -- and even more so the TopLap manifesto -- is
> very much a humorous redux of some of the debates
> that have traversed the history of art, but which
> really came into focus in the multitude of
> activities surrounding the period of conceptual
> art, and art after the 60's. A lot of that debate
> surrounded the question of art and
> representation, the repsentability of art, etc,
> and was a playful reworking of the more formalist
> aspects of minimalism, american abstractionism,
> etc.
I agree. Furthermore I think it works very well in this role. I've heard
people become as offended as they politely could and dismiss the whole
activity before even seeing or hearing it in person; surely the hallmark of
a great artistic statement if we are to judge by art's history!
It's a great thing that at the same time Livecoding is actually fun to do
and often enjoyable to hear and see but at times I wonder whether it will
-over time- rise above this context. The most enjoyable exhibition I saw in
the past year was on the work of kurt schwitters and his contemporaries and
friends so that meant DaDaism (as well as advertisement typography) in a
traditional museum, unthinkable at the time those works were made, probably.
Even more then this I wonder about the same process on a more personal
level. Will I myself, or somebody else, at some point lose a loved one and
like a guitarist or pianist might do sit down at his laptop and livecode a
sad song to deal with his feelings?
To me it's all language, from gamepad controlled icons to texts in English
handed to musicians and evidently it's communicating. We are communicating
things like "this too is performance", "this too is programing", "this too
is composing" with some luck "those nerds can swing too" but to a large
degree this is communicated the the usage of certain languages and not
entirely in those languages themselves.
On this art-history level the question "can I write about being sad in
ChucK?" may seem superfluous but I *personally* as a musician/composer find
it very interesting indeed. I realise that the piano is build to be a
versatile instrument and that if I wish to write a sad song at it the
expression will have to come from me and there is no burden on the piano to
facilitate that beyond having a keyboard that feels good and a well working
mechanism as well as some acoustical properties but does this become
different if the instrument is also at the same time a language?
I have no real answers yet and would like to stress I'm phrased this
somewhat sceptically but actually have high hopes in this direction. I just
wanted to share the question.
Yours,
Kas.
Received on Fri Jan 11 2008 - 13:21:55 GMT