Image and Sensation

Observe the extent of vicarious and "second hand" experience.

Art is direct representation, experienced directly, not filtered through "media".  Remember that.

Fading False

Without common vision and purpose, there is no culture, but only its false appearance.

What remains is nihilism, centered upon obsessive and bellicose disputation over long-past failures of moral reason and creative vision, ideas rendered obsolete by the test of time.

The real goal of those engaged in conjuring such a state of affairs is one of totalitarian control.

It is the artist who is often the first to realize that the single, essential struggle is one for individual freedom and personal autonomy, regardless of whether society as a whole is capable of it.

Sounds Real and Imagined

Give conscious attention to the full spectrum of sounds in the surrounding environment.

This is a difficult task, and one that demands intent. Like any critical mental exercise, it does not "just happen".  Ultimately, over an extended period of time, one begins to imagine sounds one has not previously heard.  

This is an arduous journey, but a worthy goal, and one that the artist and composer may realize.

Momentary and Continuing

Attend to culture as it is experienced in personal ways.

This is how culture is extended and transformed.  All the rest is noise and debris.

Real Light

A balanced, yet critical and incisive state of mind is not effortless.

The purpose of my compositions and recordings, beyond the application of experimental and aesthetic principles, is to promote and enhance the emotional state of equanimity.

In terms of contemporary music, very little is done in that regard, and very little of that is done effectively.

Movement of Ideas

Culture includes both convergence and dissolution.

One may therefore realize both possibility and loss, choice and crisis.

Fire, Fix, Pose

There are uncanny aspects to contemporary experience.

Where cultures lack common subtleties of perception, and these qualities are suppressed within the social order, any heightened sense of reality beyond the mundane is stifled.  Those experiencing the transcendental are silenced.  Dubious materialist beliefs are held unassailable, and promoted with imperious ardor.  Still, those who most strenuously hold to such ideas claim to be so intellectually weak and helpless that they must be "protected" from perspectives they reject and denounce as a matter of faith, because these points of view make them afraid.