Radio Aleph Announces Summer 1997 Schedule of Classes:
Intelligent Dance Music 031: Participants are expected to have a broad
base in dance, hip-hop, drum'n'bass, and free jazz cultures & musics.
Students will be expected to familiarize themselves with some classic
records of the "IDM movement": Autechre, Aphex Twin, DJ Food, Coil, Igor
Stravinsky, Ali Akbar Khan, Babatunde Olatunji, Thelonious Monk, Cecil
Taylor, Oval, Insect, Seefeel, Disjecta, ELpH, etc.
Class sessions will be devoted to the open discussion of these and other
classic IDM records. Ten minutes of each class will consist of listening.
The other hour of each session will be filled with in-depth analysis and
discussion.
Texts to be read will include authors such as Jacques Derrida, John
Balance, Aleister Crowley, Rumi, Michael McClure, and Sean & Rob Booth.
There will be no exams. A short paper (5-7 pp) will be turned-in at the
end of the semester, along with two hours of recorded mixes done by the
student, using whatever mixing & recording equipment is available.
Live mix/performances are encouraged but not required.
Grades are not emphasized, and will be based upon the student's intuitive
rhythmic insights, brilliance in sampling, and selfless attitude toward
the generation & dissemination of "IDM".
Course issues: What is IDM? When/where/with whom did it begin? What are
its futures & possible directions?
Is IDM equipment-bound? To what extent can IDM be generated using acoustic
or non-electrical gear?
What sort of influence does IDM have (or can have, has had, etc.) on
social interaction, the construction of a "self", and the healthy
elaboration of "human consciousness"? Is IDM species-specific, or can
IDM affect multiple lifeforms?
Further issues, or topics for individual study: Is life a rhythm/
is rhythm life? What is the relation between repetitive vibration and
cellular structure? Are "bodies" really "speakers"?
Can IDM develop into a religion? Has it already? What are the political
implications of this? Is revolution-through-music a (desirable)
possibility?
By the end of the course, students are expected to acquire competence
in sampling, DJ'ing, programming, producing, and deep-listening.
Follow-up courses will be available in Electrical Engineering,
Futurist & Cubist Architectural Drafting, 3-D Design, Neuroprosthetic
Studies, and Poststructuralism (write for more course information &
availability).
Classes begin June 2, 1997. The semester ends August 7th. Application
deadline is open. Instructors to be announced.
Please send suggestions or write for more information:
Radio Aleph
ATTN: IDM 031
P.O. Box 2508
Chapel Hill, NC
27515-2508
U.S.A.
ion@email.unc.edu
"Local re-transmission of old self-interfering audio-video feeds.
Incomplete perimeters for overlapping reception zones.
Multiple stations at once.
Accidental antennas receiving always-partial broadcasts.
Shamanic language-babel (J Joyce on speed).
Time is a DJ mixing Languages & Minds.
With enough Glee,
we all Receive."