Exercise VIII

Identify a continuous source of sound.

Give attention to the sound and the surroundings until no longer conscious of the sound.

Recognize, to the extent possible, the moment of becoming conscious of the sound again.

Analyze and note the differences in (1) the quality of sound and (2) the nature of subjective and objective perception each time the sound re-emerges into consciousness.

As in any exercise, make these steps habitual in the pursuit of creative, critical acumen.

Upheaval and Vision

It is nothing to bring about irrationality and chaos.

Only the most arduous efforts can focus and elevate aesthetic beauty out of disruption and turmoil, ignorance and evil.  But it can be done, and it has always been so.

Second Guessing, to Death

Only action effects change.

The contemplative mind yields insight, and the creative will acts accordingly within the parameters of proposed outcomes.  No outcome in any social order is ever permanent, and no total effect within the dynamic of culture is ever fixed and immutable.  To believe otherwise is absurd.

Equally absurd in the context of the human condition are demands for guaranteed outcomes, since these do not exist.  Action based on scientific method, with its associated meticulous refinements, may indeed place the human imprint on distant planets, but no undertaking that is predicated upon absolute foreknowledge of end results is possible in the world of human affairs.

True accomplishment comes from work leading to acceptable conclusions, and these are inspired by belief and confidence in the necessity and wisdom of change in the status quo.  This is the strength of risk, and of faith as well.  Nothing less, and nothing more, is possible.  Choose action.

The Beam in the Mind's Eye

Disaster comes from the failure to question; and so it has been wrought.

Think creatively.  Question self, question culture, question narrative and reality.  Think.

In Decline, Then Rising

Appearances alone are not acceptable.  There must be meaning, and there always is.

One does not allow culture to dictate meaning; neither does one allow it to deny meaning exists.

Mythos

Every artist must speak independently.  I speak for none other than myself.

The progress of art in every form of expression is one of continual revelation.

Exercise VII

See and listen clearly, with self-discipline and simplicity.

Where there is corruption, reject cultural expectations and ideologically conditioned responses.

Vision, Sound, Focal Point

The power of art is shared perception.

Thus the artist cannot allow culture to diminish the arts, beginning with personal, individual work.

Familiar, Yet Alien

No one will deny that current conditions set the stage for future events.

But there are other influences, as yet unknown, that will come to the fore as well.

Actionable Intent

For desired change to come into being, it must be created.

Therefore take action, regardless of scope or scale, and cause will yield effect.

Creative Will

When the artistic impulse balances chaos and order, there is change of a specific nature.

This is change that eliminates and restores, that casts down the superficial and elevates the real.

High Strangeness III

All creative acts engage cause and effect, action and reaction.

Yet some combinations of artistic activity generate peculiar responses that expand past the limits of the expected. The viewer, the listener, and at times, the artist, may be swept up in energies within the psyche that do, in fact, transcend the aesthetic event, and perspectives may be altered in ways that lead to deeper understandings and broader perceptions.

And it should go without saying that the nature of such power is not always understood.

Sphere and Compass

Integrity is the way of nobility.

Thus it is with the artist, if the artist strives for the light, regardless of the endless assaults of the ignorant and benighted.

Echo Sierra Papa

Culture, in the contemporary sense, offers no moments to pause and reflect.

Nonetheless, the failure to give due consideration to reality, history, and experience is great failure indeed; as long as the media, the intellectually mediocre, and a mundane cultural aesthetic offer no more than one benighted perspective after another, the development of the contemplative faculties is not only desirable for the forward-thinking individual, it is essential to human progress beyond the shallows.  Even the very idea of the existence of such faculties, for many, evokes the paranormal.

Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos

Any art, visual, musical, or otherwise creative, demands concept and goal.

In process, art also demands flexibility, improvisation, and recognition of total effect.

The Doom That Came to Pop

Give the people what they want.  

Over time, by extension: Everything must be free of effort, freely accessible, and free of cost.

Consequently, without challenge, with no intellectual or emotional investment, its value is defined.

Persistence of Vibration, Optic and Auditory

Perception and experience merge in memory.

One does not set emotion aside for creative purposes, but the even temperament senses more acutely the range of atmospheric variation, color, and sound essential to composition because the experience is broader and deeper than that colored by internal conflict or extremity of personal feeling.  This is the contrast between subjectivity and objective synthesis apparent in both visual and musical works. Consider the differences between Van Gogh and Dürer, or Beethoven and Brian Eno, for clarity through contrast.

Repeat Mode

Static culture replicates the same content continually.

Superficially, this appears to be a massive failure of imagination, but it is not.  Totalitarian culture replicates content with variations to inculcate ideology and agenda.  Ideally, force is not necessary.

Freedom of thought is rendered ineffectual by social influence, history is rewritten, and pressure to conform is continually applied through repetitions of idea and imagery.

Arc, Cycle, Totality

No gain or loss is perpetual.

This is true in cultural and creative terms. Ends and beginnings are not easily recognized, patterns of social behaviors become static or dynamic over time, and every work proceeds from concept to conclusion according to factors both predictable and unexpected.

Ultimately, the foundation of forward-thinking is tradition.

Seasonal

Grasp subtlety by awareness of atmospheres.

There is a correlation between any environment, natural or man-made, and the ways sound rises and falls in such settings over time.  Observation reveals these processes are distinctive, and may be applied to sound compositions and recordings in ways that produce radically different works than those designed to merge genres or focus solely upon classically minimalist stylings.  And clearly, the jarring contrast in aesthetic purpose between my pieces and others considered to be, by specious academic standards, "sound art", is obvious.

In Gratitude

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Exercise VI

Clear the mind, to the greatest extent possible, of subjective thought and emotion.

Concentrate solely upon sensory perception, and sustain this focus. Consciously see, listen, attend to the atmosphere in every way, including the subtleties of scent and temperature, flavor and what may be called undefined experience.  Whenever possible, choose to engage this exercise.

Reflect upon the nature of these events, and, as warranted, make notes for later consideration, particularly as the writing may clarify or elaborate upon the aesthetic and creative perspective.

Not For Now

Attend to the sound of the far distance.

Know what few now living will experience.  Listen, and hear.

Emerging Figures  by Black Mountain School

Seeming

Some cultural losses cannot be replaced.

In consequence, cultures change; remote Time Past and Time Future are no longer recognizable.

Tabula Rasa to Total Effect II

Perspectives constantly evolve.

Nonetheless, a single perspective cannot be imposed upon reality, and there are such things as objective facts.  As a means of expression, the arts can promote specious and absurd ideas and viewpoints as easily as do other process of communication, and, in point of fact, have their own traditions for doing so.  One clean slate is as inconsequential as another, and the forces of history continue to have effects, with or without their being acknowledged by anyone in particular.

A "Single Shadow" Theory

Disingenuous, facile arguments to the contrary, music can have far reaching impact and influence.

When this is not the case, other, "more serious" issues have superseded basic cultural values at the expense of both individuality and community.  These issues always have the appearance of profound crises, and they always have a totalitarian source and origin, as the historical record of such times reveals.  But, for good or ill, one may only convey such things clearly through implication, thus art.

Far Ranges

Exceptional cultural developments, once grasped, elevate entire societies.

Not being understood, such developments are encountered only in whispers, scattered like seeds.

In either case, the work is no less essential, while the artist is of no more profound importance, and pretense is no less absurd.

Aesthetics

Every type of art illuminates, but cognizance of meaning is not effortless. Nor should it be.

Failure to grasp the abstract nature of ideas and the inability to sense the realities of the human condition are the consequences of individual and social errors for which civilization bears little, if any, responsibility.  The state of ignorance is one of worthlessness, and it was ever thus.

Exercise V

Conceive as does the sculptor, who "releases" the work within the stone block.

Listen, and hear, the sound composition within the sonic environment and in the mind, by perceiving in both active and passive perspectives, which is to say, consciously and objectively on the one hand, and subjectively on the other, observing perceptual, emotional coloration.  Using the most effective instrumentation*, recreate the conditions and experience.

* My preference is the Korg Wavestation synthesizer, for its subtlety and range of aural expressiveness.

Search and Discover

Observe appearances, recognize realities behind them.

It is the uncanny that is at once familiar and yet strange, alien, and unknown.

Remote, Immediate

Dissipated force of what has been does not become more, and is lost.

Loss of this nature is complete, and permanent. One understands that such things, people, and events impacted reality and culture in ways no longer evident, and that they are increasingly becoming entirely obscure.  At a certain point it will be as if they had never existed.

The artist who creates to evoke the uncanny seeks outcomes at a far remove from such scenarios.

If Purpose, So Meaning

Stylization reflects aesthetic sense.

As manner and gesture reflect tone and attitude, the artistic representation references tradition and nature according to artist intent. Impressions are thus altered as they become expressions.

Simplicity, Upon Reflection

Art offers perspective; propaganda indoctrinates.

Inability to form and sustain coherent thought, or to follow another's line of reasoning through a sequence of ideas, defines a state of mindlessness.

This is neither a "natural" state nor an "unselfconsciousness" one, though it is often so described by those who take advantage of it to manipulate people to various ends, criminal, social, and political.

Word Falling

Perception conveys what words obscure.

Above, one does not see the fountain if the attention is directed elsewhere, yet it is nonetheless real. Until it is seen, it is beyond awareness,  Once seen, it remains in mind and experience.

Language, particularly that which is highly "controlled" through cultural or political coercion, limits understanding to certain select elements of approved jargon and verbal cues, ultimately limiting the capacity to think independently.  This is, in point of fact, the goal of such constraints.

Visual and sound arts direct experience beyond the merely material and physical.  Abstract concepts and metaphysical fundamentals do not cease to exist simply because one will not acknowledge their being and reality.

There are essential expressions that will not be reduced to propaganda or subjugated to temporal power.

Rule and Order

Foundation yields meaning.

One incapable of sustained, rational thought cannot comprehend how any artist conceives, works, and expresses.  This is a perpetual issue within the arts themselves.

It is the scenario in which is found the soi-disant charlatan, capable only of  poor imitation, and unfit for the responsibility required of any chosen role.  Such a malign character imposes a huge, particularly repellent burden upon the arts, seeking nothing more than self-aggrandizement while spoiling the repute of any expressive field with meaningless, pretentious absurdities.  Destined for failure, most produce nothing, others go unheeded, while some small numbers benefit, in the way of predators and parasites, from the arbitrary distribution of government funding.

The solution remains what it has always been: rational thought, decisive action, and intolerance not only for fraud and corruption, but for the conditions which make it possible for them to thrive.

Exercise IV

Listen, and hear, while analyzing detail.

Consciously describe the specifics of each sound in an environment.  Determine each source, and identify the qualities of each element, clarifying objective comprehension of such things as tone, color, and pattern. Take account of subjective responses and relevant aesthetic perspectives.

Mentally delineate the sonic structures and juxtapositions that the imagination suggests.  Apply these experiences to the work of composing and recording representative expressions.

Marrow, Nerve, Light

Ideas have consequences; causes produce effects.

The most dangerous conflicts are not always won through armed combat.

Fail, Represent

Loss of culture overwhelms any form of technological connectivity.

Ignorance of such a profound nature renders abstract inquiry impossible, not because of the literal extinction of abstract ideas, but because of the loss of the cultural vocabulary needed to articulate them.

Gesture Forward

Reflect, consider critically, and act.

To do less is thoughtless, reflexive reaction, neither creative nor vital.

If, Then, Yet--

Physical sound media is being rapidly and purposely manipulated toward total extinction.

My pieces are created with due consideration given to the eighty minute formats, but are designed to be heard as segments of a single, unified work and listening process that informs the listener's internal and external experience of sound. Certainly this is compatible with the streaming media model, and time constraints are of no concern. At issue is not the process of creation, but that of its reproduction, out of which matters of intellectual property and artists' rights are at stake, along with the existential value of the art of sound.

It is not necessary to be degreed in behavioral sciences to comprehend the object of rendering all physical formats obsolete, as that is the outcome of making music ubiquitously accessible without the need of manufacture and distribution outside the digital domain.  And if, as is clearly the case, it is presumed that the music consumer is indifferent to the source, origin, and concrete existence of the "product", the artist as a free human being is a nonessential factor, even an obstacle, to the process. All that is needed is any subject who will acquiesce to manipulation of image for absolute control of the commodity to established and made permanent, and this scenario is already in place.

Consider all that has come before, understanding that very little, if any of it, will ever again exist.

Impress, Artifact, and the Windblown

Even realism is a stylized reflection.

The realism I strive for in my compositions and recordings is perceptual in nature, that is to say, it reflects how environments develop their impressions upon the listener within one's aural field.

The total effect is neither music nor directly perceived atmosphere, but the former structured as the enhancement of the latter's subtle forms, patterns, and movements.

Orwellian Generic Pop

Observe the diversion of all cultural currents into endless deserts of existential meaninglessness.

The choice is one of freedom of thought and action predicated upon individual responsibility or the subjection to superficially benign absolute power with its dubious comforts, ultimately resulting in the universal eradication of all essential liberties.

Exercise III

Compare original work with works of the masters in the field.

Similarities imply fundamentals; contrasting elements represent individual perspective. The former demonstrates competence, cultural literacy, and temperament, while the latter reflects expressive intent, personal experience, critical acumen, and stylistic gesture as influence yields to originality.

Coalesce, Focus, Disperse

Lies are artful concepts.

It is through Art that they must be destroyed.

Strange Tales

There are those who suggest self-expression is not a "right" and should be "controlled".

In one direction, horses are hauling manure; in the other, they are being bred for war.

Order and Flux

Observe the elimination of culture, and its replacement with ideologies.

Certainly this is never desirable, yet it is nonetheless within the rise and fall, the ebb and flow, as it were, of all things.

Patience, Repetition, Discovery, Sound

Perspective alters aesthetic.

Aesthetic alters perspective.  But the final understanding is personal.  Listen, and hear.

Foreseen, Unexpected

Engagement with change reveals innumerable potentials.

Therein lie choices, amid the impossibilities.

Unspeakable

The most direct expression often results from wide-ranging, complex and subtle understanding.

But there is a progressive globalist agenda everywhere in effect, most transparently in academics and the media, that obviates cultural expression which does not serve its purposes.

Thus the apparent void from which the arts have been excised.

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.