Mixed Media

 When I look back at all my creative work over the last 40 years I realize that I've woven in and out of music. I exited music for a while in the late 90s when I started to get more into visual art, which changed my approach to music when I came back in.

As you might recall, the late 90s was when the idea of the Third Culture started to influence artists, and perhaps society at large because of the new internet. As a result, it amplified my interest in a wide variety of subjects: sciences, architecture, technology--which got woven back into the music. Even when I'm playing instruments (even just a bass) it can have a sophistication. You've become more of a sophist because of the internet perhaps. But it's not that things have to be categorized and compartmentalized as such. Approaching things from the intellect doesn't diminish the effect of simply playing an instrument. In fact, thinking can get in the way of good playing. We can have many different approaches without having to be concerned about whether it is PC. What I like about the idea of metamodernism is that it embraces that idea that you don't have to do just one thing--you can do whatever you feel like doing and it all works together--you're not compartmentalizing yourself.

Back in June I had watched a video about the Titan submersible that imploded. One of the reasons that it perished is that they had not used the correct materials or were using too many materials that conflicted with each other (Plexiglas, carbon graphite and titanium). You want materials that are more integral. When you're using too many things or you're in too many domains, involved in too many projects there can be an integrity problem. The solution is to "dovetail" them or put them in larger systems or frameworks. This is a solution to the inherent distraction built into all media, which is what the Third Culture sought to accomplish, as did Two Cultures (C.P. Snow) and Consilience (E.O. Wilson).