Force Majeure

Necessity illuminates objective facts that will not be subsumed under ideology or narrative.

Reality, rightly understood, yields to both reason and the imagination, to the sciences and the arts.

History and Impulse

Improvisation, atonality, minimalism.

These are means to creative perspectives, nothing more.  Audience and composer have perspectives of their own.  Other forces are in motion.

Conditions

Culture, character, and temperament impact artistic works.

This extends to audience expectations as well. The extent to which the artist allows these various pressures to be exerted upon the work is not always a matter of conscious choice, but it can be.

This is not to say that everything can be reduced to a matter of individuality, originality, and the ability to discern nuanced expression, but these are no less qualities of authentic significance, and as such they are not to be merely cast aside in the name of conformity to the social and cultural trends of the moment.

Duration

Immersed in cultural settings, many, including large populations, refuse to reason altogether.

The impermanent contemporary norms are neither questioned nor challenged; the sole real need of one and all so subjected is to conform.  In such a benighted state one cannot even comprehend the previous sentence, and the very idea of becoming engaged by an authentic experience of art or the critical perception of challenging music is ludicrous.

The artist who is not cognizant of these facts is doing no more than wasting time.

Only the individual is capable of realizing the gravity of the situation through objective observation, and only then is it possible to take the difficult steps necessary to remove oneself from these chains.

Craft, and Drive

Perspectives are innumerable.

Every point of view is, to some extent, flawed.  This is, regardless, the value of objectivity, and also of imperfection.

Clear

Complicate or simplify art, to any purpose whatsoever.

In either case art remains unchanged.  Perspective alone is altered.

Interest, Apathy, Darkness, and Light

This is an era of prolonged cultural void, lacking in intellectual and artistic vision.

The virtue of the empty vessel is that it may be filled.

Exercise II

Find patterns, tones, colors and dynamic forms in apparently unconnected events.

Translate these into representative artistic expressions utilizing sounds or the artist's palette.

Phantom Time

Give regard to arts unbound by time and place.

These are universal visions and sounds. When these are altogether absent from contemporary culture, there is only trouble, dissolution, and waste.  But one sees, one continues forward.

Curious, If True II

"So lacking in moral reason are they, that art is mere decoration and nature offers nothing more than occasions for self-indulgence."

Certainly no one would desire to agree with such an assessment.  Observation, nonetheless, lends difficulty to the act of devising argument to the contrary.

Dispatch from Afar

Where there is subtlety, transfix the attention.

What remains of the idea of the sublime depends upon such awareness, lifted by imagination.

Aesthetic Perspective

Art is not life, but life engaged with art sustains strength and resilience of attitude.

Art, and most certainly, to my mind, the art of sound, elevates awareness. It ultimately intensifies perception, reinforces critical reason, and reveals the reality behind the appearances of things that offers insights into the human condition.

Art spurs creative consciousness, and suggests the ways and means by which one may move beyond the shallow and mundane spectacle that falsely represents what life has to offer. This brings about a state of being capable of grasping what is, one that makes it possible to bring about what can be.

Survivals

It has become necessary to think beyond present-day experience in every cultural context.

At issue is the suppression of free expression and individual effort, and the dawning idea that the multicultural climate is being used as a tool to eliminate the existence of any common culture in order to consolidate ideological control of social and economic systems. It is against any and all such abominable developments that one has a duty to rebel, first as a free human being, and beyond this responsibility as any sort of visionary artist.

Transformation

Consciousness, perception, thought, action.

Give form to thought, shape to significance, sense to sound.

Exercise I

Visualize sound.

Reverse the process, by combining sounds suggestive of the visual.

Note: abstract, static visuals suggest sonic possibilities that may differ from direct perception of environmental atmospheres. This reflects the sensibilities of any artist, to one degree or another.

Follow Instructions

The basis of art as propaganda lies in direction toward conformity to type.

Predictability in the context of a museum is no less tedious, produced for and producing unthinking acceptance and bellicose ignorance in the service of inflexible repression-- in all its stale glory.

Perceived Atmospheres

Let silence speak.

Discover that there is no real silence, but only the silencing of expression.

Black & White

Generally speaking, it is not difficult to take perspectives that allow enduring clarity and wide latitude of thought.

The so-called "black and white" viewpoint, denounced by its detractors as "narrow-minded" and "absolutist" is neither intellectually nugatory nor intolerant, rightly understood.  Fundamentally, an attitude that takes absolute ideals into account must acknowledge the dynamic nature of reality in order to be viable, and open to the increase of wisdom, that is to say, to expanding critical analysis and judgement.

Reality is no "sealed system", and its nature is a continuum of change.  One can speak and think with a great deal of certainty, while comprehending fully the fact that it is always possible to know more, and modify assessments accordingly.  Conversely, it is also necessary to understand that the dynamic in reasoning between poles, those "grey areas" between the black and white, is constantly shifting as well, making it clear that their ultimate disposition is in one direction or the other, reality being an ongoing affair not conforming to a static set of expectations.  One cannot simply expect reason, or the lack of it, to negate the truth of cause and effect.  Neither should one be subject to impermanent and biased whims simply to conform to social, political, academic, or artistic norms, regardless of the settings and circumstances in which they occur.

Simply put, it is a mistake, as Cicero stated, "to attempt to force others to believe as we do", and "to believe that success is made by crushing others".  It is possible, indeed, be right, regardless of any and all arguments to the contrary, no matter how cleverly or "passionately" they are proposed against objective evidence and experience.

Find the Future

To retrieve cultural vigor and autonomy it will be necessary to reject certain bad ideas.

Bad ideas are many, and they dominate cultural discourse.  Most revolve around failed visions of a Utopian nature that do not exist and cannot be willed into existence.

Speak against these and social, academic, and political forces unite with condemnation generally reserved for blasphemers and ex-communicants in ancient times.  These demand silence, and will tolerate nothing less than absolute conformity.

But there is no "we".  There is only freedom, and those opposed to it.

Balance, Rise, Decline

Find the mysteries of reality. Perceive within them.

What is viewed as an unknowable future inevitably becomes ancient history.

Opposing Forces

Recognize the dominant forces in play throughout cultural settings.

These are forces of control, and particularly in terms of discourse, intellectual judgement, and the arts.  All such spurious "authorities" are media driven, and are owed no loyalty or subjection as mere appearances of reality, shallow and unjustifiable.

As such there is no rebellion beyond individual choice, as a matter of personal integrity.

Made once, it is the choice of liberation, and it is permanent.

Fall in Line

Observe the predictable and the "new".  Apparently, they are synonymous.

This is the continuing legacy of groupthink.  All must conform to type, express no more or less than approved attitudes, and commit to reflexively perpetuating rigid, narrow points of view.

So what is new is old again, no less benighted than it once was, a morass of subjective ignorance.

Ephemera

Varieties of artistic experience dominate the cultural landscape from time to time.

Novels, films, music and fashion create interesting effects through their interactions. These are for the most part transitory, though for some they are difficult to abandon when they run their courses.

It is difficult to envision and create those things of lasting value. More difficult is to recognize the desire for them.  But such desire exists.

Hidden, Waiting

Inclusive language is ubiquitous, and insidiously manipulative.

While the implications for art and culture are obvious, they have not always been so, with the result that conformity of thought is now more rigidly enforced than in previous, less dangerous times.

The danger lies in loss of vision, followed by loss of freedom.

The Lake, The Sky, Disappear

When there is only darkness, or noise, perception declines.

But endless argument is pointless as well, and there are always those who will call day, night, and night, day.  So forward, from there, to evil ends, or beyond these to unknown tomorrow.

Nova Sound

The indiscriminate ear reflects the intellectual nature as well.

A simple bias toward things "random" is a key indicator of the mental laxity that will not put forth the effort to determine cause and effect or its impact on ideas and events.  Such minds cannot be troubled with "meaning", and are easily set in perpetual, escalating conflict with all who have the wherewithal necessary to acknowledge simple, objective perspectives.

Thus was established the environment of din and clamor that has plagued the past half-century and eviscerated its cultural arts.

Posed Little Time

Ideas are shaped and colored to purposes.

Some purposes are intentionally clear; others are crafted to be intentionally obscure.  What is necessary is to be cognizant of the ideas, rather than of their appearances only.

Mindful

The general Western perspective on living recognizes a central idea of continuing progress.

This is natural, given historical experience and the impetus to invent and to refine and improve existing technologies.  Even so, human progress, that is to say, the ways and means by which the human condition and state of being may be elevated, cannot be neglected without consequences.

And, again, it is often the artist who is first to recognize this fact, and to act upon it.

Stone

Access to knowledge is not culture.

A culture that countenances the belief that any view of the nature of reality is no different than any other is one step removed from barbarism, and may anticipate the immediate arrival of what will be known as a dark age.

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.

Not Hiding, Yet Hidden

Meaning is dynamic, or else it is lost.  It transcends limits placed upon it, or withers.

Where once authentic artistic expression was discovered, now find only political expression that appropriated and absorbed it.  It cannot transcend the limits of its narrow vision and purpose.

One is never told where to look, but knows what is real.

Outside

Connectivity does not unify cultural visions.

Rather, it renders them more distinct, and distant.

Unknown Extent

The mind imagines.

It is then a matter of drawing the future into the present.

Distant Sight

Expression of perspective requires an expenditure of effort.

The greater the effort necessary, the less likely the rewards will be commensurate with the work.

This, too, is control, and the expansion of control.

Seem and Be

Some face the real; some fabricate the unreal.

Some experience directly, while others negotiate every moment of existence through dense filters of supposition and pretense that may be utterly without foundation and self-evidently false to one with clarity of mind.  Think.

The Artist is Not Alone

The contemporary, modern person has a single, essential choice to make.

It is a simple and difficult choice: to live and act autonomously or to be a complete puppet, strung to innumerable forces of control, and especially to those beyond one's knowledge and influence.

Stakes

Rather than observe expression, determine what is not being expressed.

Consider the reasons why visionary works are not being seen, or heard, or expressed. Here find the origins of a continuing diminution of perceptual awareness, and of decline in cultural experience.

Something Will Break

For the past four decades, the tedious, incessant focus of virtually all media has revolved around a dubious interpretation of "human rights" that has had nothing at all to do with individual humanity or freedom, but has, in point of fact, been nothing more than a collectivist struggle for power over the common culture and its controlling interests.

As important as these numerous, familiar, interrelated issues may be, this collectivist perspective has done nothing to improve socioeconomic conditions for marginalized people through directed redistribution of wealth; nor have the unceasing demands of every available media to make their various struggles the central facts and most critical crises of all human history provided the key to the release of their human potential. The essential fact is that this awakening can only happen on a personal level, and it never has and never will "evolve" through the concept of a "collective will" that does not exist beyond false semantic constructs.

Culture, which has been within living memory a thriving force, has remained stagnant for more than forty years; very likely it has reached and remained at a nadir for a generation.  It will continue in this manner as long as the ignorant and narrow minded, abetted by highly, yet poorly, educated people, obfuscate cultural perceptions and create obstacles to individual expression that only exist in such totalitarian, dystopic states as these, their proponents, admire and glorify.

The virtue of human aspirations is built on the golden rule, and upon the combined strengths of patience and good will, but it will not survive if it tolerates this state of affairs and fails to rise above it much longer.

Yet to Be

No one finds without searching.

Therefore, some things simply remain unknown.

Recognition

Every work of art exists as an expression of its own merits.

Every work of propaganda exists for other reasons entirely.

Hive Mindless

Consider consciousness given over entirely to celebrity, internet memes, and gaming.

Any perspective on culture that fails to take decline in the transmission of knowledge and values into account errs greatly. It is an immediate, factual, existential threat.

Rethink

Look clearly at reality.

Every expression is an expression of consciousness.

Analyze, Create, Evaluate

Judgement is necessary; the "self" is not.

The creative act demands perspective, not ideology.

Unreasoning

Art, as a representation of reality, is not confined to material existence.

It is nonetheless absurd to claim a purely imaginative narrative is factual and somehow valid, as has become a constant cultural assertion throughout diverse fields.  Nor, unfortunately, can such claims be taken lightly. They have become not only foolish, but dangerous, and must be confuted, whether by art or by other responsible means, in the strongest possible terms.