This article reflects one of the ideas that were shared in the lecture I attended about “Digital Music Instruments”. The lecturer explained that some digital instruments share a resemblance with the acoustic and has been augmented by various sensors. They were built for the purpose of overcoming intrinsic limitations of the original instrument.
“Traditional instruments have long been used in innovative ways the designer did not anticipate. Distortion on the electric guitar was an engineering limitation before it became the sound of rock and roll; and the turntable was a home playback device before it became a creative tool in the hands of DJs. We want to explore how encouraging that same spirit of adventure can transform digital instrument design.”
So I found this video of a musical artist’s project in which he incorporates the movement of one’s body to generate specific sounds and it reminded me a lot of what was demonstrated in one of the events some of us attended (the one demonstrating performable digital instruments– DMIs). What I really liked that Ryan Holladay states at the end, which really got me thinking about people’s argument that the music industry is taking risky steps that may eventually lead to its demise, is that his creative integration of GPS with music “speaks for a larger vision for a music industry that has sometimes struggled to find its footage in a digital age… That [people] begin to see these new ways of technology not simply as adding bells and whistles to existing models, but to dream up entirely new ways that people can interact with and experience music.”
Music. Sound. Ears. I believe that the profound beauty of this world doesn’t come from the music produced but the ears we have that are able to interpret and feel music.
I definitely agree with Tiffany’s argument that music is everywhere and that music will play forever. Now, there has been many musical technologies made as our world has been constantly enhancing and changing. Here’s a positive example of a musical technology made to help deaf people experience music. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l80bxaFrQuM
Yes, musical technologies are gradually drawing people to conform to it, but I don’t think the technologies intend to bring harm to pure music. No matter what, there will always be enhancements to anything in this world, and music is a part of that. No matter what improvements and changes are made in the music society, music will always exist.
Just a random thought. This discussion about music reminded me of Adorno and the culture industry. He believed that culture industry wanted to keep us in a state of sleep. The industry did not want us to think and thus presented us with much of similar material. Only things that were different, like 4’33”, are able to wake us up and think critically about art, society, and ideology.
I hadn’t heard of John Cage prior to today’s discussion, and experiencing 4’33” was surprisingly pleasant. Like some people said, I thought it was refreshing to have silence since we live in a society in which we’re constantly bombarded by sound. In my case, I thought it allowed for a more introspective experience and I’m curious to try depriving myself of music for my own experiments since I didn’t try it for the project.
As for the topic of beatboxing and music, I was reminded of Hikakin, one of the YouTubers I’m subscribed to. I think it’s incredible that humans can mimic sounds like this, but I’m not sure that we’d be able to without the use of technology; I’m not familiar with the history of beatboxing and what prompted people to practice it, but I don’t know if we’d continue making sounds similar to drum machines and other devices without the influence of the digital age.
Today’s discussion about music reminded me about another Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s work called “Experiment in F Minor” that was part of the same installation with “Road Trip”. In “Experiment in F Minor”, shadows activate each speaker that plays a different sound/instrument so you’re literally making the piece when your shadow passes over the speaker(s). When I checked out this piece, I found it absolutely immersive and beautiful. Though the sounds could get annoying and dissonant when there was a large number of people in the room, it could be a very beautiful composition when you’re the only one controlling the speakers. Here’s a short video of the piece.
Today’s discussion made me think of the anechoic chamber. An anechoic chamber is “a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.” John Cage visited the chamber and he stated that he heard two sounds, one high and one low. An engineer told him that the high one was nervous system and the low one was his blood in circulation. Other people have also visited the chamber before and the “quiet” has driven them crazy. http://news.discovery.com/human/life/worlds-quietest-room-will-drive-you-crazy-in-30-minutes.htm
http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/2014/Pages/digitalmusic.aspx
This article reflects one of the ideas that were shared in the lecture I attended about “Digital Music Instruments”. The lecturer explained that some digital instruments share a resemblance with the acoustic and has been augmented by various sensors. They were built for the purpose of overcoming intrinsic limitations of the original instrument.
“Traditional instruments have long been used in innovative ways the designer did not anticipate. Distortion on the electric guitar was an engineering limitation before it became the sound of rock and roll; and the turntable was a home playback device before it became a creative tool in the hands of DJs. We want to explore how encouraging that same spirit of adventure can transform digital instrument design.”
So I found this video of a musical artist’s project in which he incorporates the movement of one’s body to generate specific sounds and it reminded me a lot of what was demonstrated in one of the events some of us attended (the one demonstrating performable digital instruments– DMIs). What I really liked that Ryan Holladay states at the end, which really got me thinking about people’s argument that the music industry is taking risky steps that may eventually lead to its demise, is that his creative integration of GPS with music “speaks for a larger vision for a music industry that has sometimes struggled to find its footage in a digital age… That [people] begin to see these new ways of technology not simply as adding bells and whistles to existing models, but to dream up entirely new ways that people can interact with and experience music.”
http://www.ted.com/talks/ryan_holladay_to_hear_this_music_you_have_to_be_there_literally
(specifically 2:44-5:20)
Music. Sound. Ears. I believe that the profound beauty of this world doesn’t come from the music produced but the ears we have that are able to interpret and feel music.
I definitely agree with Tiffany’s argument that music is everywhere and that music will play forever. Now, there has been many musical technologies made as our world has been constantly enhancing and changing. Here’s a positive example of a musical technology made to help deaf people experience music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l80bxaFrQuM
Yes, musical technologies are gradually drawing people to conform to it, but I don’t think the technologies intend to bring harm to pure music. No matter what, there will always be enhancements to anything in this world, and music is a part of that. No matter what improvements and changes are made in the music society, music will always exist.
Just a random thought. This discussion about music reminded me of Adorno and the culture industry. He believed that culture industry wanted to keep us in a state of sleep. The industry did not want us to think and thus presented us with much of similar material. Only things that were different, like 4’33”, are able to wake us up and think critically about art, society, and ideology.
I hadn’t heard of John Cage prior to today’s discussion, and experiencing 4’33” was surprisingly pleasant. Like some people said, I thought it was refreshing to have silence since we live in a society in which we’re constantly bombarded by sound. In my case, I thought it allowed for a more introspective experience and I’m curious to try depriving myself of music for my own experiments since I didn’t try it for the project.
As for the topic of beatboxing and music, I was reminded of Hikakin, one of the YouTubers I’m subscribed to. I think it’s incredible that humans can mimic sounds like this, but I’m not sure that we’d be able to without the use of technology; I’m not familiar with the history of beatboxing and what prompted people to practice it, but I don’t know if we’d continue making sounds similar to drum machines and other devices without the influence of the digital age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv2u8chsvME
Today’s discussion about music reminded me about another Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller’s work called “Experiment in F Minor” that was part of the same installation with “Road Trip”. In “Experiment in F Minor”, shadows activate each speaker that plays a different sound/instrument so you’re literally making the piece when your shadow passes over the speaker(s). When I checked out this piece, I found it absolutely immersive and beautiful. Though the sounds could get annoying and dissonant when there was a large number of people in the room, it could be a very beautiful composition when you’re the only one controlling the speakers. Here’s a short video of the piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T51F3izQ08E
Today’s discussion made me think of the anechoic chamber. An anechoic chamber is “a room designed to completely absorb reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves.” John Cage visited the chamber and he stated that he heard two sounds, one high and one low. An engineer told him that the high one was nervous system and the low one was his blood in circulation. Other people have also visited the chamber before and the “quiet” has driven them crazy. http://news.discovery.com/human/life/worlds-quietest-room-will-drive-you-crazy-in-30-minutes.htm
The discussion also reminded me of an installation called Lost in a Memory Palace by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. The installation transforms sounds into an aural space that transports the listener to a different place. https://www.mcasd.org/exhibitions/lost-memory-palace-janet-cardiff-and-george-bures-miller