Beyond Music
A common misconception about future music is that it's an electronic phenomenon when it might be more of an extension of human consciousness and for some people, a way of transcendence or spirituality.
There seems to be a lack of connection between myth and spiritual narrative. Agnosticism in all our affairs, especially with computers, has blinded us to what music has made possible. In the haste to move on to whatever is new, we are discarding what has been useful to us this far through the humanities. (In extremis, Oliver Sacks called it "musicked along". At the same time it is endlessly exciting but with intrinsic cost.)
Instruments may be a way of shaping energy fields into physical objects (as they were with apports, for example). If the potential for music is the raw energy, then any instrument is an attempt to harness a part of it, but not all. I am not a believer in the paranormal, but using that as a metaphor is useful in understanding fields. Other instruments that rely on invisible energy fields are of course the theremin (and the Faraday cage which blocks them).
The problem with future music (at least at the instrument level) is that it is too concerned or involved with industrial design and not how music affects cognitive function and pattern-making and pattern recognition, which then informs the design. But music is also tied to fashion as much as visual art is. (In fact, it doesn't have enough "ism" in it), and consequently instruments are mutely sculptural and beautiful, regardless of what sounds they make.
Perhaps future music will become more commingled with the art world and already has, with bands performing as an art installation. People go to a gallery to see art, and instead, they get in another form they are accustomed to and familiar with, and see electric guitars as a "material". (Materials used: Plywood, enamel, wire, nails, electric guitars, bass, oscilloscope, holograms).
Placing instruments in different contexts, rather than on stages, may be a way to let them be more generative in terms of having specific events happen to them, and have them be more absorbent of the current times. Christian Marclay's work is exemplary, especially Guitar Drag, i.e. an electric guitar's capacity to produce sonic distortion and social cognitive dissonance.
There seems to be a lack of connection between myth and spiritual narrative. Agnosticism in all our affairs, especially with computers, has blinded us to what music has made possible. In the haste to move on to whatever is new, we are discarding what has been useful to us this far through the humanities. (In extremis, Oliver Sacks called it "musicked along". At the same time it is endlessly exciting but with intrinsic cost.)
Instruments may be a way of shaping energy fields into physical objects (as they were with apports, for example). If the potential for music is the raw energy, then any instrument is an attempt to harness a part of it, but not all. I am not a believer in the paranormal, but using that as a metaphor is useful in understanding fields. Other instruments that rely on invisible energy fields are of course the theremin (and the Faraday cage which blocks them).
The problem with future music (at least at the instrument level) is that it is too concerned or involved with industrial design and not how music affects cognitive function and pattern-making and pattern recognition, which then informs the design. But music is also tied to fashion as much as visual art is. (In fact, it doesn't have enough "ism" in it), and consequently instruments are mutely sculptural and beautiful, regardless of what sounds they make.
Perhaps future music will become more commingled with the art world and already has, with bands performing as an art installation. People go to a gallery to see art, and instead, they get in another form they are accustomed to and familiar with, and see electric guitars as a "material". (Materials used: Plywood, enamel, wire, nails, electric guitars, bass, oscilloscope, holograms).
Placing instruments in different contexts, rather than on stages, may be a way to let them be more generative in terms of having specific events happen to them, and have them be more absorbent of the current times. Christian Marclay's work is exemplary, especially Guitar Drag, i.e. an electric guitar's capacity to produce sonic distortion and social cognitive dissonance.
