Circuit Bending: the art of rumaging through bins to make ‘instruments’ from other people’s junk. Good Lord! After todays bombardment of buzzes, pops and zaps I can only imagine what the Ode to Headache Symphony No.1 will sound like in week 8. What can I say about the Victorian Synth? I don’t know, but I do know I was doing this exact same thing with speakers as a kid to bounce marbles off of. They’ve just put a name to it now. When you’re actually making noise yourself it is fun I guess, although it gets boring rather quickly, but from an audience perspective I found it completely boring. It takes no musical ability at all and just solidifies the old adage that computer geeks are trying to be musicians and producers. Once upon a time one could buy a computer and suddenly they’d rudely call themselves a Mastering Engineer. Now they can rumage through a bin and call themselves a musician or maybe even a Musical Instrument Engineer? Good grief. And judging by a few YouTube videos this really just seems to be a hobby for the unemployed to waste their waking hours on but that’s just my cynical opinion. ;)
Haines, Christian. 2007. “Forum Workshop – Electronics, Instrument Building and Improvisation.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 26th July.
Whittington, Stephen. 2007. “Forum Workshop – Electronics, Instrument Building and Improvisation”. Forum presented at the University of Adelaide, 26th July.
Seb Tomczak. 2007. “Forum Workshop – Electronics, Instrument Building and Improvisation.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 26th July.
3 comments:
Well said indeed. Are we musicians or scientists? I wonder if someone like Pink Floyd spent their early years electrocuting speakers? Or maybe they just played MUSIC and learned to play MUSIC because of the love of MUSIC, not noise for the sake of it, or even worse, to seem smart and intelectual. There are inventors and there are composers. Being an inventor requires an open mind. Being a composer or creating music requires not only an "open mind" but also musical ability!!! There's a shock... OPEN MIND IS NOT ENOUGH... and it's certanly not EVERYTHING!!!!!
This is not something emphasized in this course at all. Concept is king, while musicianship and creativity (in a musical sense) are often secondary or disregarded . Is this a music course?
What is music ?
The point of these potentially pointless exercises is to not so much to have an open mind, but to expand your limited mind.
John Cage said something about the zen thing of "if somethings boring after a minute, try it for two. If it's boring after two, try it for four....".
And WE all love John Cage :P
LOL crackle crackle pop buzz woo hoo i'm a musical genius
To me, music is something I would put on a CD and listen to for enjoyment. I'm in third year and am now used to stating the obvious in an environment where the obvious is the one thing not being acknowledged. Also it's funny how people that think like me are almost a minority. Oh well, whatever. EVERYBODY CAN MAKE MUSIC* :D
(the definition of music in this context may or may not refer to actual music).
Oh yeah. John Cage was eating LOTS of mushrooms when he was making those statements, but whatever we won't go there...
lol
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