Danube Riverfront, Saturday Afternoon

Now consider the imaginary landscape, having attended to the phenomena of sound in a number of given situations.

If every significant line, shape, form, pattern, and emotionally suggestive impression in this image corresponded to a sound, tone, pattern, and musical texture, the sound design would be reinforced by spatial separation, impressions associated with the acoustic properties of the elements therein and the perceived distances between them.  The resulting composition, then, is contemplated with attention to total atmospheric effect.

The same place at another day and hour would sound completely different.

Visual Music

Today my wife and I visited the 77 Million Paintings exhibit by Brian Eno at the YMI Cultural Center, 39 S Market Street, Asheville, NC USA. We would urge anyone with a love for the arts to attend this "visual music" presentation between now and November thirtieth. This is the first installation of 77 Million Paintings in the US outside Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is a unique work of art, and it is a masterpiece.  Below is a detail of an original Eno work we purchased at the Cultural Center gallery, where the installation is now open:

Still images and other means of representing this profound and marvelous work, beautiful though they are, can do no justice to the direct experience of the installation itself any more than a photo in a textbook can a Brueghel, a Van Gogh, or a Warhol. For true insights into the future of art and media, it is an opportunity that is not to be missed.

YMI Cultural Center Hours: 11:00 AM to 6 PM Wed - Sat / 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM Sun (closed Mon and Tues)

Accord

Conformity to popular culture is no transcendent experience, certainly.

Nor is it less absurd to consider the so-called highbrow culture to be more than what it is, refinement of taste and intellectual probity being a matter of character and principle, independent of particular mores, academic institutions, and social constructs.

To be knowledgeable and conversant in both contemporary and classical arts and attitudes is valuable for the simple reason that there are fewer limits to be encountered in doing so, and wise because it provides a greater fund of information through which to navigate the world of ideas and emotionally charged perspectives.

Cultural detritus is easily dismissed; the unexpected may lead to an epiphany.

Crisis and Discovery

Unconfined by conventional expectations, music moves in the direction of its own meaning.

The forms and genres have their pre-existing audiences, and consumer and celebrity culture contributes to their popularity as always.  The novelty of recasting a previous form into a different context is consistently attractive stylistically, if stale creatively.  A cursory overview of the state of music only a century ago, nevertheless, demonstrates the inevitability of development and change.

As forms fail to sustain interest over time, new directions are forged by throwing off the tyranny of the timeworn, the pedestrian, and the sentimental.

Exploration beyond known boundaries is an obligation to art, and to reason.

Solitudes

The sounds of lonely places have their own characteristics, wherever they may be.

At a distance from routine activity, textures and movements of sound strike the ear as being less predictable.  They may seem to have a stronger presence and a greater impact in the stillness of time and place.  Their quiet contrast to the common auditory sensations of everyday experience, whether encountered on an urban rooftop or in a pastoral setting, leaves a profound impression if it is heard with fullness of attention.

It is an impression that cannot be recreated, but musical efforts to suggest this state of consciousness, ones that follow such patterns and evoke similar textures of sound, may bring such an atmosphere to the receptive listener.

Integrity and Remoteness

The total effect of a work of art has as much to do with "feeling", or emotional effect, as with intellectual perception or appreciation.

While it is possible to be knowledgeable about particular forms of art to a fine degree, it does not necessarily follow that one will find such works to one's taste.  Perhaps only a very exceptional piece of, say, film or sculpture, will appeal to one's sensibilities, while others in that manner or genre will not.

Both content and style contribute to the total effect of a work, and to the degree that the audience experiences the intent of the artist.  It is a distance to be crossed.

Failure and Vision

No conventions need be adhered to in experimentation.

The idea is to look for ways and means and methods to accomplish a vision.  The experiment itself is a process, not an end.  Fail once, fail a thousand times, and then the eye of the imagination is opened.

That is the goal, and accordingly, the value of risk.

Peculiarity of Expression

Attempt to define the indeterminate, yet its nature remains beyond grasp.

That which is sui generis may correspond in some ways to some things and be communicated according to those similarities.  Call it a transformation ambient sketch; it consists of  an engagement of interactive sound forms lasting between a few minutes and an hour or more, developing and changing over time, moving without percussion or structured melodies according to patterns more likely to be heard in environmental, rather than musical, terms.  Hence it is atmospheric, and for lack of a more comprehensive term it can be called music of the twentieth and twenty-first century, given its roots in modernism and the reaction against atonality in classical composition.

It neither needs to be understood in a particular way nor defined by what it is not.

Media and Psyche

What is generally assumed to be “the media” is a combination of arts and industry associated with printed matter, radio, television, cinema, and most recently, the internet. 

For some, there is no other culture, and thus no original point of view, no past, no sense of curiosity, and ultimately no imagination.  Out of the burden of this shallow, passive and superficial perspective a host of problems arises.

According to the degree that it afflicts a person's relationship with the world at large, such problems may result in anything from minor misunderstandings in communication to heinous acts intentionally wrought by individuals and groups.

This is not "the media", but a construct of what might be called self-sustaining social and cultural errors.  Media is, in and of itself, neutral.  It is no more and no less than a tool, and it can no longer be dominated by one group or agenda. 

The results of this scenario remain unsettled, but bode well for the idea that mediocrity need not be the cultural and social norm it has been, more often than not, within living memory.

Rhythm, Pattern, Movement

The rhythms of nature flow so continuously and change so constantly as to appear formless.

Within these appearances are many forms, however subtle.  Tidal rhythms and waves over water are clearly recognized, but there are others discernible to the mind and the emotions.  The pull of the moon's gravity, the pace of an urban environment, the movement of seasons, weather patterns, and all types of growth and decay are rhythmic, but in ways we are not accustomed to in music.

Consider, in composition, such transformations represented by sounds.

Echoes Over Time

Music in contemporary life is virtually omnipresent. 

This has become possible over the last hundred and fifty years, during which time the process of recording sound evolved from initial concept to the high quality digital reproduction devices useful in everyday situations and easily available now.

In terms of recording sounds and music, this brings to mind the advent and development of the printing press. The technology is here, the medium everywhere, and culture and the human imagination define the future.

Perspective

Mindful of pattern, direction, aesthetic sensibility, and emotional content, the artist must free the design to suggest itself if it is to have integrity, balance, and purpose.

One does not tell the waves to reach the shoreline in a certain way, or leaves to fall in a particular configuration, or clouds to form and dissipate according to a preconceived notion.

With clarity of observation and subtlety of method, a deft brush stroke, a critical camera angle, or a thoughtful juxtaposition of musical elements, art may manifest itself as if by invitation.

Design

Expansion of simple elements.

When a system is sealed, growth ends.  When it it open, it expands beyond expectations and arbitrary limits.  Now reason and judgement play a critical role, in that the system will thrive under direction, cultivation, and care, but otherwise will become unable to sustain itself, and waste away. 

In art and music, one must recognize when a work is finished.  In life, one must know how to experience gain and loss.

Phenomena

Released on 10/31/11.

The Long View

Perhaps the future is present at times before we take notice of it.

My wife and I enjoyed the rare good fortune of the opportunity to attend Brian Eno's Illustrated Talk this afternoon at the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium in Asheville, N.C., USA. A great pleasure and an elevating experience, both for Mr. Eno's wit and his grace in delivering an artistic and scholarly presentation of ideas and concepts of genuinely profound cultural importance, it was also the finest example of public speaking I have ever seen, having been privileged in the past to attend talks by, among others, Carl Sagan and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Anyone given the chance to see the Illustrated Talk should not miss it, particularly if you embrace a love for the future of music and the cultural arts.

The Bob Moog Memorial Foundation / Moogfest

Moogfest 2011 will be held in Asheville, North Carolina, USA this weekend.

Tangerine Dream, Adrian Belew, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Tim Heckler, Moby, and many other featured artists will be present over three days.  Perhaps I will see you there.

Brian Eno will present his ILLUSTRATED TALK at 1.30pm, Saturday October 29 at the
Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville Civic Center, 87 Haywood Street, Asheville, NC 28801

77 MILLION PAINTINGS (28 October to 30 November)
YMI Center, 39 South Market Street, Asheville, NC 28801

Hour and Moment

Art answers the question, "What is your experience?".

Those to whom art communicates consider the answers.

Unspoken, Understood

In the absence of a direct narrative, atmosphere and tone communicate a sense of meaning.

A work need not be content-specific to offer such things as refinement of perspective and nuance of mood.  In fact, these may be made more apparent without the association of direct exposition. 

In poetry and literature, a character description or sketch of a time and place alone may entertain and inspire insights, while music, painting and sculpture need not reference a specific account of an  imaginative tale or historical event to evoke feelings and ideas in those who encounter the works.

Consider the sounds of seasonal change, of the rise and descent of cultural phenomena, or posit those suggested by light in landscapes or the movement of time through generations.  Intuit and put forward tones and musical textures that bring these into being, and though they are nebulous, they reveal worlds within worlds.

Direct Experience

The appearances of things are multidimensional.

One does not gain an estimate of an individual's character by looking at appearance alone.  That is an absurdity.  Neither is it of any value to accept or reject works of art, from the classical to the the avant-garde, by mere surface impression.  An interpretation offered by someone else is not an informed personal judgement, and an "open mind" is no substitute for a critical eye or ear. 

This is the value of self-knowledge as well.

Fields of Perception

Fragmentation, fractured awareness, spatial and temporal dislocation, sub-textual meaning, and the idea of word and image propagating as viral constructs have provoked debate for a century or more.

That these concepts are influential in cultural consciousness is beyond doubt, particularly in the arts.  Setting aside the often trivial disputes associated with analysis of these cultural and social phenomena, there is much aesthetic pleasure to be found in the happenstance encounter with surprising justapositions of sensory imagery, particularly those sounds and images which are often ignored as unintentional or as mere by-products of the environment.

The interested observer might consider this an opportunity for an artist to be less obtrusive in the creation of works of art.  Not absent, certainly, but mindful of the nature of the inspiration.