Week 11 3/17/19

Direct energy, frequency and vibration toward balance and movement.

These are sounds not limited by linear temporal perception; the desired outcome is expansion. 

Compare, at this far distance, to expressive possibilities of Zaum and its linguistic metaphysics. It is not difficult to do so, and without graceless pretension it is revealing.

Ambimusica.com

Week 22 6/3/18

It is a curious thing to create something markedly different from previous forms, if similar in nature.

Research tone poems, Erik Satie, Debussy, Cage, Eno, yet move continuously away from both "music" and "noise". The aural aesthetic remains, while musical paradigms diminish.

Those who are said to have heard music in paranormal or "enchanted" settings describe a kind of enigmatic impression of beautiful sounds that cannot be recollected or re-created in musical terms.

Such impressions may lend themselves to altered perceptual awareness, changes in attention, emotional perspective, and cognitive acuity, or even elevated states of consciousness.

Ambimusica.com

Perspective Shift

Observe any environment carefully.

Detailed observation reveals that elements of the environment may be seen as both separate and unified forms.  With care, sounds may be composed and presented in ways that may be perceived in like manner, as opposed to methods utilizing the common aspects of musical composition and production.

Ambimusica.com

High Strangeness IV

The wealth of the artist is in the work.

At its highest level, the work is no more than expression of the real, the known, and the unknown.

Ambimusica.com

Extend and Elevate

Recognize the reality, rather than only that which is the appearance of reality.

With this recognition, the realization of direct perception may be grasped and sustained.

In any art form, this is a difficult concept to express, and it is no less so with the art of sound.

Nonetheless, it can and will be done, and those who are willing will listen, and hear.

Contemplative Depth

To hear, to see, perception must be freed of distraction in the guise of the marvelous.

Where specious excitement and frenetic sight and sound imagery cloud the day, the inner ear is stopped and the eye of imagination is blinded to the real.  Discard this clutter, choose awareness.

The nature of elevated consciousness and expression welcomes immersion and clarity of being.

Ambimusica.com

Simplicity, Expansion

Sounds coalesce.

Sensory experience suggests order, through a spectrum of degrees and myriad perspectives.

Ambimusica.com

Authenticity

Insight reveals reality beyond appearances, in life and in the visual arts.

That same insight reveals false appearances as well.  So it is for the composer in creating and sustaining atmospheric effects through sound.  Falsified experience sounds forced, frenetic, or artificial in emotional content, tone, and mood, while genuinely immersive atmospheres evoke contemplative settings conducive to the expansion of consciousness.

Ambimusica.com

Listen, and Hear

Language is music, laden with meaning.

Every perceptible sound is charged with intimations of equal moment, if we can but read them.

Ambimusica.com

Drift and Surge

Attend to limits as indicators of what lies beyond them.

What is revealed offers choices in creative action of all kinds.  For artist as composer, it is a means to the discovery and exploration of sounds and their interactions.

Exercise XIII

In any setting, consider the various ways in which limits apply to the conditions.

This is not to determine what is possible or what is not possible, but rather to observe the ways in which unforeseen outcomes might be set in motion within the confines of control and restriction.

Restrain what is predictable, directing action toward intention or purpose if, and only if, the desired effect is clearly realizable.  The result is a decisive gesture, whether concrete or abstract in nature.

This is true of artistic gesture, communicative expression, games, or other activities with set "rules", yet it cannot be otherwise that it involves risk.

Distortions

Absurdity is ubiquitous; it remains no less pointless.

There are those who believe, and who are being conditioned to believe, that reality must comport with one "narrative" or another.  There is no such reality.  What is needed is transcendence.

Imagery and Individuality

Imagery's representations are formed in perceptual impression and memory.

Out of these origins are formed poetry and narrative, the visual arts, and certain forms of music, in particular the tone poem, ambient music, and aesthetic non-linear sound arrangements or designs.

These are produced by the artist, not by "collective culture".

Normal

In the absence of noise, attuned only to the brash and frenetic, some claim to hear "nothing".

Surrounding atmospheres are only as perceptible as the auditory sense is awakened and alive.

Air Space

To grasp the term "aesthetic" it is necessary to know far more than its definition.

Aesthetic means a great deal more than "appreciation of beauty" or knowledge of a set of principles underlying a work of art, architecture, literature, poetry, music, dance, and etc..

These suggestions indicate little more than general impressions and appearances.

The aesthetic experience is not simply how a given thing "looks" and the reaction one is expected by others to have in relation to it.  This is superficiality, a shallow reflection at best.

The aesthetic experience is a full and clear perceptual awareness of what, and how, such a work of art means.  As such, it is an authentic expansion of consciousness.

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Two Essays By Kyle Chayka:  

From theverge.com: Welcome to Airspace

From theguardian.com:  Same old, same old. How the hipster aesthetic is taking over the world

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Approaching

Art must be, as it will be.

What any creator envisions that is brought into being serves to make the future present.

Symbol, Custom, and Balkanization

Rather than the case or situation of "audience", observe that of "participants".

It is a phenomenon of identity politics projected into the cultural setting.  One is no longer informed, experiencing, and sharing aspects and elements of culture and community, but separating into any one of numerous highly insular subcultures that evidence hostility toward all others.

This has nothing to do with art and artists, but is rather an anomaly of social conditioning that must ultimately run its course before a renewal of aesthetic values comes about.

Listening Beyond Music

Whether simple or sophisticated, music is subject to general principles of organization.

But what I am interested in are compositions based on evolving tones and their spatial and temporal relationships.

State of Being, Perceptual Acuity, Elevation

Rhythm generated responses develop as actions in individual and social interactions.

Hence, the art of advertising utilizes rhythm in its productions to enhance desirable effects, with the implication that rhythm may be consciously used to manipulate activities in various settings.

Conversely, stillness enhances reflection, equanimity, and reasoned decision making; these responses make external motivations difficult, if not impossible, to take hold in individuals and groups.

As an artist and composer, I assert that more of the latter forms of music and sound art, those based upon tone and atmosphere as opposed to frenetic movement, are called for in contemporary culture, for obvious, and yes, existential, reasons.

Exercise XII

Observe settings as a perceiver, or experiencer.

As a visual artist frames a photograph or sketch, the composer expands the aural sense into the sonic field, identifying individual sounds, their origins, their juxtapositions within the atmosphere, and the dynamics of the sound setting as a whole.

Transpose this sonic reality into an aesthetically rich representation, an evolving canvas of auditory impressions.