VART3456 Ideas and Process Week 1

Readings for Week 2:

Plumbing the Exquisite Psychic Depths of Robert Ashley

I can relate to this notion of seeking to appropriate classic modalities into a current and localised context. This notion of distilled culture, not opting to favour the dramatic peaks and troughs but reflecting back the banal and the absurd as a study of the contemporary context which is before all else, dramatically banal and absurd.

I can relate to the themes of transposition inherent in his approach. Especially in his use of dialogue not as a linear narrative device, but texturally - retaining the visage of a conventional structural form rather than abstracting it completely. This only serves to heighten the juxtaposition further, fixing our focus on dialogue based medium in an absurd context.

This notion of the Libretto and the apparent overarching objective of  "pure storytelling" seems perpendicular to this abstracted approach, but that is purely from my own limited perspective informed by the litany of western conventional linear narrative structure. 

It appears that his abstracted methodology is all born for a yearn for a new naturalism, rather being gratuitous or arbitrary. It is also clear that the development of his own form is perpetuated through reinterpretation and reappropriation of language in a theatrical medium.

a few thoughts on the language of improvisation

No contest. 

Here are some thoughts from January this year relating to improvisation in my own creative process.

"Recommenced work on the midi based studio/live/improv environment that finally addresses a fundamental truth that when i adopted linear, non reactive, predominantly hand sequenced, traditional edit based composition i stopped writing lysdexic.

It's an odd feeling that as your skills develop and as you implement them, you are further drifting away from your creative objective.

my early music was impulsive, non contextual, self reactive and had a strong non human component that became the main focal point of manipulation, coaxing it into the state where i'd look at my speakers like someone else had entered the room.

that feedback moment when you trace the line of abstraction back to an empty project then follow it forward again you see that the actions that occurred to arrive at that point are increasingly autonomous.

pulling bizarre shit out of your subconscious by using a DAW like a ouija board, that point where sound becomes language."

• wireless game controller (looping/resampling/momentary effects) + mouse control
• MPC1000 (percussive oneshots/bassline oneshots/vocal+fx stabs)
• MPC1000 Q-Link (Faux "Scratch" effect)
• M-Audio X-Session (Herrmutt Lobby Style "Beatfaderism"box)