Hey guys,

I just wanna say that in terms of live computer music, to me lack of physical interaction makes it totally boring for me. When I've mentioned this to some artists who's 'live performance' consists of them staring at a computer screen hitting buttons-maybe there'll be some arbitrary visual display if I'm lucky-I could tell they were thinking 'Philistine! go see a Pink concert if you want to see someone compensating for a complete lack of musical talent, artistry or substance with a dazzling live performance complete with the obligatory crowd-clapping breakdown-I'm solely and purely about the MUSIC being created, and if you were too, the sound would be enough for you'.

But I reckon this attitude is, if I may be so bold, BULLSHIT. If that's your attitude fine, but in that case what's the point of a live performance at all (needless to say I'm not talking about installations or spatialised pieces)? When I go see a live performance, I wanna see someone creating the music, and to me, that means physically creating it in some way. I wanna see that their emotions or concentration or whatever is being used in their act of creation is so intense that I can see physical manifestations of it through their physical actions. I think the area of MIDIcontroller technology is so ignored, probably cause there's no market fo it cause of that dumb attitude. I wish someone would come up with some interesting physical controller that actually requires substantial physical effort to manipulate parameters, or at least could withstand and respond to it.

At the end of the day I don't think a live performance IS about the music, no matter how good-it's about seeing someone pour themselves into creating music you like, seeing their effort and passion in every action they perform, and most importantly hearing those actions effect on the sound being produced. If I were King, I'd be taking advantage of computer musical capabilities to make physical instruments/controllers that take MORE physical actions than any actual acoustic/electric instrument could require-MUCH more. I dream of having a set-up where I have to run around, smashing stuff with hammers, pushing giant sliders with all my strength, etc-now THAT would be a live performance I'd enjoy.

Let's get physical, and stop kidding ourselves-it matters ( . . . for live performance).

Babsyco.
 
> Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 09:24:55 -0400
> From: js0000@gmail.com
> To: fgadea@gmail.com
> CC: pd-list@iem.at
> Subject: Re: [PD] "computer music" WAS: Re: Pd at a livecoding event on the BBC
>
> hola
>
> thx for your thoughtful post.
>
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 10:09 PM, Fernando Gadea <fgadea@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 1- physical instruments
>
> well, yes; body, rhythm, instruments, music.
>
> but i think there is also something interesting in 'mental' music. or
> music that is achieved only through programming sounds. like those old
> vienese [and of course other places too] used to do with paper and pen
> ...
>
>
> > 2- About academic-high culture-Art and popular-low culture-art
>
> this is a religious war- completely outside the bounds of rationality.
> and really, i don't care which 'club' an artist comes fro i just
> want their work to captivate me.
>
> what makes something art? how do we know if it is any good?
> there are no laws about this. people assert them periodically, but
> they are soon enough forgotten.
>
> --
> \js [ - . . . ]
>
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