February 4ths

 

2/4/1998

Read interview in Computerlife with Brian Eno. He was talking about the generative nature of future music in which pieces are started from seed ideas and grow organically and evolve naturally, which mimics the way folk music resonates through culture. Computer programs also will have these types of characteristics whereby they are designed to develop and learn with experience, just as humans do. To me, generative music is useful in producing raw ideas from which to develop new pieces. This approach could also use the computer to solve the problems inherent in composition, for example, to design the form of the piece, dynamics, and so on. Eno also says that the most interesting connection is the brain, so we don't always have to associate images with sounds. He says we spend too much time syncing things together. He didn't even compose cues when he wrote for film, he just used existing music. And as in Edward Hall's observances, things can naturally synchronize regardless of whether they have anything obvious in common.

[2/4/2024: I find myself saying the same thing about the current state of AI i.e. that it produces "seeds", but also relates to the idea of things being more hands-off. But if systems generate seeds infinitely they have to be "planted" or sown. I think that's what humans do better. Since the advent of the PC and what was once called "word processing", we've been able to edit indefinitely and non-linearly. I realize that's how I'm working on music as well. When I start a new piece it might begin with just me playing a guitar or playing a bass part which evolves over time, sometimes over a much longer period, into something inconceivable from the seed ideas.]

2/4/2016

"Beyond Music" ideas: 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.