I suppose that one reason for this argument can be traced back to Freudian theory and the concept of the super ego that controls the free flows of creativity. But this would suggest that identity is a social construct that dissolves in the subconscious, that is only manifested in the super ego. First of all, I'm not sure that the difference between super ego and sub consciousness is so clear cut. Secondly, I hate to think that identity and personality is not part of the sub conscious self.

If it is, freedom, as in free from conventions, is the only way to expressing identity, personality and originality (assuming that all individuals are also original) regardless of whether this expression changes over time or remains the same.

Gregory Bateson Bateson, 1972 writes about art in general as an excercise in communicating about the species of unconsciousness. Perhaps we can speak of the improviser’s personal narrative as a reflection of his or her unconsciousness or as an interface between the conscious and the unconscious. And this is why improvisation has to remain in a contradictory relation to the traditional notion of documentation; because, only confusion can come out of the attempt to decode unconscious expressions in the language of consciousness. According to Besteson:

... the algorithms of the heart, or, as they say, of the unconscious, are, however, coded and organized in a manner totally different from the algorithms of language. And since a great deal of conscious thought is structured in terms of the logics of language, the algorithms of the unconscious are double inaccessible. It is not only that the conscious mind has poor access to this material, but also that the when such access is achieved. e.g., in dreams, art, poetry, religion, intoxication, and the like, there is still a formidable problem of translation.

I don't have any answers to these questions but if we allow ourselves to compare group interaction in a musical performance with human computer interaction it is interesting that what is help in high esteem in HCI - user feedback - is rather different in musician-audience interaction. As a listener in a concert it is not important to me to understand the connection between that which I supply and that which I get back. Neither is it important for me as a musician to understand to symmetry of my interactions with the listeners. It is not even important that the interaction is balanced or equal. It is enough to know that there is an exchange going on.

In free jazz, as it was shaped by Ornette Coleman as well as the European school, musicians were encouraged to free the music of its harmonic, rhythmic, melodic and sonic predispositions. This was a step towards an even more individualistic form in which the 'self' was free to create without any ties to pre-existing musical structures. But in this movement lies also a motion away from the individual and the 'self' towards a universal, 'natural' music, loosly related to Stockhausen's experiments with intuitive music and John Cages chance music. Now, it should be noted that neither Stockhausen nor Cage made this connection, they saw their own art as distinct from jazz, free or otherwise. Cage wanted to imitate nature and chance was the method. He departed from music as an expression of the self and sought the music that we are surrounded with.

The self as something that is reflected in nature rather than imposed on it.

Read the full review here.

We welcome proposals that address improvisation from a wide range of perspectives and in various formats. We particularly welcome contributions in artistic form (also in artistic expressions other than music). Accepted contributions will be organized as parts of thematized sessions, establishing a critical dialogue. Deadline for proposals is May 15. The submissions will be peer-reviewed and a notification of acceptance will be announced no later than June 15. The description of the content and format of the presentation should be no more than 300 words and may also include audio and video material. The contributions may be of variable length but should not be more than 20 minutes. Please also indicate what kind of venue that might be suitable for the contribution and list any technical requirements. All accepted contributions will be published in the multimedia publication which will constitute the peer reviewed conference proceedings.

poll imap.lu.se proto imap
auth password
user [remote-user], with password [password], is [local-user] here ssl;

Now it works!

The heart of the transformation are these two functions which gets the pitch number from each note in the input. The rest is just mapping this to a list of output pitches and text scripts retrieved in the call to the (get-text mapping-table index) routine.

#(define (get-pitch music)
  (let* ((es (ly:music-property music 'elements))
         (p  (ly:music-property (car es) 'pitch)))
   (if (ly:pitch? p)(ly:pitch-semitones p) -1)))

#(define (make-text-script x) 
(make-music 'TextScriptEvent
            'direction UP
            'text (markup #:line 
                          (#:fontsize -3
                                      (#:sans (get-text texts x))))))

What strikes me about this passage is how it reveals something about the attention span of the dialogue of the drama. The lead character claims to have made the move from "waiting tables" to the CEO of the company in just 13 weeks. That is quite an achievement.

For the audio files I will use a Pd patch I developed for a concert earlier this year that allows me to scratch the sound-files using various techniques. What I would like to be able to do here is to play back the original sound file while at the same time scratch a copy of the same file and mix it in together with the original.

I have started looking for sounds and tools to use for my performance. I will continue using the Korg NANOpad which I bought recently for my Guelph Jazz Festival performance in September as it will be the perfect controller for the Sucktion laptop part. I will use build the main interface using Pd and use the Hexter and Bristol DSSI plugins for some of the MIDI sounds. The Thermin like sounds used, in particular in Scene I, I think I will create as small Pd sub-patches, possibly pitchtracking live input.

I will make stuff available here as I go along, as long as the composer will not object against it. ]]> 2009-10-15T20:17:22Z 2009-10-15T19:57:23Z tag:www.henrikfrisk.com,2009:/diary//3.123 2009-10-15T19:57:23Z