quoted 3 lines listening is great, but why should I pay $10 and be uncomfortable when
> listening is great, but why should I pay $10 and be uncomfortable when
> the listening experience is better in every way (in my experience) at
> home with headphones.
As someone curating shows of experimental -- as often as not laptop-based
-- electronic music and sound art, this is a question that vexes and
perplexes me.
One answer I've commited myself to is to make the listening space as
comfortable as possible -- in our case, we put out a lot of pillows and
futons on a clean floor so everyone can sprawl and sit -- no standing --
with some chairs along the back.
Relative to home/headphone listening, I think there are some benefits to
'live' shows, namely: community, sound quality, and attention.
Live shows are more than listening experiences -- they're social
experiences: opportunities to hang with friends, meet people with similar
interests, talk shop, and in our little niche scene, actually talk with
the artists -- all things I value at > $10.
Sound quality ... well that depends on your home system; but some of the
shows I've put on have used a serious PA with sub cabinets to full effect,
literally moving the body with the sound -- something that you're just not
going to get at home unless you're lucky. It's also nice to offer
multiple speaker arrays to fill the space, even without surround mixing.
But some of the work we've had presented is built around placing different
sound-makers (boomboxes? crickets?) around the space, too. (I'm not
knocking the subtle, personal transportation of headphone listening --
most of my CDs say 'please use headphones')
Finally -- and I put a lot of weight on this -- is *attention*. My own
experience is that even with the best intentions, it's easy to be
distracted while listening at home -- especially if I can grab a book and
try to double task. I think there's something inherently attention
focusing about being at a concert or show -- even if your mind wanders,
the paradigm I follow dictates that I don't read, check email, chat -- I
listen. Sure you can still space out, but there's some mental weight
behind the fact that you've gotten up and gone out somewhere to LISTEN,
that makes you do it.
This is all much on mind since the show i'm hosting tommorow night is
taking things in a new direction for me, and I'm really curious to see if
it comes off -- it's a show of 'tape music', prepared compositions. We'll
have good speakers (hopefully a quad system plus 4 pair house speakers),
so the sound will be better than most can muster at home -- but I
*really* don't know if people will come out for, or be satisfied with, a
show that's devoid of "performance". I'm going to try to speak a bit to
this stuff up front, and ask the artists to say a few words about their
work, in hopes of steering expectations. I'll report back post-facto...
...
Incidentally, there's a wider issue I have with performance in the
electronic music world: that our notions of performance rhetoric seem
strongly grounded in the rock/punk or DJ scenes. Stand in a crowd, face
the performer, watch them run their motor-program of behaviors for you...
Is that REALLY what's interesting (or should be) with this kind of music?
I recently discussed with someone how in this genre especially, 95% of the
work is usually done in the preparation -- building those patches,
preparing those samples, programming the sequencers, soldering the
triggers, etc. etc. etc. What the audience gets to see 'performed' is
usually (not always I grant) a scripted -- may I say, canned -- sequence.
So why not go the last mile and relax our expectations for that 5%? Build
new expectations for what composers/musicians in these genres will
actually DO for you in a situation that is already offering benefits
differentiating it from at-home CD listening (say)?
(Disclaimer -- of course, you could argue that a band going through a set
is doing the same thing; all the work went into composition, rehearsal,
etc... or argue, the improv seen offers a different conceptual model of
how effort is broken down, based on refinement of skills that are
actualized in a moment of feedback and intuition... but stay with me for a
moment...)
(Anyone remember Robert Fripp's 'zen and the art of guitar' column?)
After all this thread has emphasized how it certainly doesn't captivate an
audience when the performative behavior is knob twiddling.
Well, what are the alternatives? Other than 'unnecessary' dramatization
and histronics unrelated to the production of sound? (disclaimer -- I
realize some performances are just as much about those aspects... fine!)
Musing on use of expressive physical controllers ... I've seen some
amazing performances built on specific physical or acoustic processes --
mic'd objects, extended/destroyed instruments and toys, custom MIDI
controllers -- but nothing that's a universal or even widely applicable
solution, at least not yet.
Especially because there's such a premium placed on novelty -- if Atau
Tanaka or Stellarc's done some biometric control of media via MAX/MSP,
what will you say when I get up and do it? "Derivative" or "unoriginal"
maybe. Or maybe not, perhaps the best universal MIDI controllers (say)
will evolve in a way that lets people see them as simple instruments to
individual vision -- like a guitar, no one thinks Fred Firth is
"imitating" Les Paul because he uses a guitar, after all. But we're not
there yet.
Yet plenty of this music is not well-suited to demonstrative, physical
control -- it's too precise, too layered, there are too many factors
evolving in parallel. And when we can fluidly and well-control the
parameters we're interested in, the cause and effect are often either too
loosely coupled, or not obvious enough to the audience to satisfy (though
there's always hope for audience education...).
Hmmm. And you know, I don't want to play the keyboard -- laptop or
roland.
...
So my own thoughts are bent these days to trying to find a new context for
bringing experimental music/sound to an audience -- beyond 'performance'
like discussed above, and also beyond the other limiting categories (and
their own baggage):
'installation works' in pristine white Art galleries;
academic concerts ghettoized to contemporary music audiences; and...
CDs and web-distribution.
Not that any of those should, can, will be condemned or dismissed -- I
just want to find a new model, a new community structure for educating
people and bringing work to the world...
Soundwalks are a good idea. Interactive sound installations in unexpected
locations are a good idea. Weird music concerts in 'straight' venues
helps...
We'll see. Uh, I mean, hear.
...
Boy, I guess I needed to get that all out! Apology for the rambling
gamboling rant, but it sure felt good to type...
Best,
aaron
ghede@well.com
http://www.quietamerican.org
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