Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 September 2005 19:13:42
More random thought I'm afraid. Isn't technology...like...just...soooo fab! Increased productivity, conception to finalisation, liquid workflow, creativity optimisation, web based musical collaboration, blah-de-blah. The potential is, in theory, really great chaps. Except I'm not totally sold on this idea about computers being great for creative tasks. My reasoning? Thank you for asking. It's not for a lack of processing ability that computers are bad tools at getting creative things done, they have tons of processing ability, surely you've seen the adverts? They're bad because over thousands of years human beings have evolved (..oh, no, let's not have that debate now...) immensely subtle and accurate ways of manipulating our bodies to carry out certain tasks, i.e., we can (with a bit of practice) swim reasonably well, not as well as a penguin or dolphin, but, considering (most of us) don't have webbed hands / feet and seem to be more predisposed towards drivi...er...walking, we're not bad at it. We can also do things like teach ourselves to play bizarre instruments like Chapman Sticks, smash patio slabs with our foreheads, rock climb up Kilimanjaro, and for the really daring, cycle to work in London. All that takes a fair amount of physical dexterity as we play with / in / on our environments. All this physical dexterity has, with the advent of the computer, been funnelled into the activity of clicking on a mouse with your forefinger. Now lets think about music. Music is, as any physicist will tell you, moving air. Guitars, pianos, speakers; all they are, are machines for making air vibrate. This vibrating energy output we call music, on occasion, has the effect of causing people to dance / headbang / crowd surf / cry / laugh, etc. This is simply energy transference, musical energy being converted to physical / emotional energy. What I'm asking is, can music made by clicking on a computer mouse (i.e., not much physical energy input) have a similar kind of physical / emotional effect as music made with 'traditional' instruments (i.e., a lot of physical energy input)? What happens then if someone records real guitar and bass (lots of physical energy input) onto a laptop and the goes out and performs with these recordings, manipulating the structure of songs / tracks and the sounds on the fly? Obviously that's going to be very different to seeing a band play, but different in what way? Do we need to actually see someone playing a guitar to appreciate the live performance aspects of that? If yes, then what about the people at the back of a U2 gig who can see a tiny video screen in the distance?
Anyway, I started thinking about all this because the internet has potential for immensely creative uses, but, the best I've managed so far this week has been to recommend a noodle bar in Glasgow to someone on a music message board. Perhaps I'm setting my sights too high?
Currently into Kafka's The Castle. It's stewing nicely.