Inhalt: #8 – Frühjahr 2007
MARIA DE ALVEAR
KOMPONIEREN ALS GRUNDLAGENFORSCHUNG
VYKINTAS BALTAKAS / VLAD IONESCO
CANTIO, AESTHETICS OF MUSIC
DIETRICH HAHNE
KOMPOSITION UND VISUALISIERUNG
JOHANNES KREIDLER
SOUNDFILES
YAN MARESZ
PLÄDOYER FÜR EIN LEHRBUCH DER ORCHESTRATION IM 21. JAHRHUNDERT
PAULINE OLIVEROS
SOUNDING THE BORDERS
CECILIE ORE
WHY DOES ART MATTER
SAMSON YOUNG
HORIZON OF EXPECTATIONS AND THE RETHORIC OF NATIONAL STYLE
An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense “intuitive linear” view. So we won‘t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century—it will be more like 20.000 years of progress (at today‘s rate). The “returns”, such as chip speed and cost-effectiveness, also increase exponentially. There‘s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Within a few decades, machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence, leading to The Singularity—technological change so rapid and profound it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history. The implications include the merger of biological and nonbiological intelligence, immortal software-based humans, and ultra-high levels of intelligence that expand outward in the universe at the speed of light. (Ray Kurzweil)
“the singularity is near” says ray Kurzweil, an inventor and futurist. he means the merging of humans and computers. Kurzweil believes this merging will take place by the end of this century with little difference between humans and computers. there will be no border. What kind of music will we experience in a post-human era? how will this music evolve? is it already evolving? how will it function?
Let us review a slower process common to humans:
When a sperm from my father succeeded in uniting with an egg from my mother, the sperm crossed a pre-human border. how many other primordial borders were established and crossed by countless subatomic particles through the millennia to slowly become the forms—sperm and egg? how did the process fusing sperm and egg first occur? Was it an accident of improvisation—acceleration out of the expand- ing primordial soup? how did the wondrous union of sperm and egg with their reciprocal actions in the union spawn the embryo that became me—a human? Fertilization is the process whereby two sex cells (gametes) fuse together to create a new individual with genetic potentials derived from both parents. Fertilization accomplishes two separate ends: sex (the combining of genes derived from the two parents) and re- production (the creation of new organisms). Thus, the first function of fertilization is to transmit genes from parent to offspring, and the second is to initiate in the egg cytoplasm those reactions that permit development to proceed.
Although the details of fertilization vary from species to species, conception generally consists of four major events:
1. Contact and recognition between sperm and egg. In most cases, this ensures that the sperm and egg are of the same species.
2. Regulation of sperm entry into the egg. Only one sperm can ultimately fertilize the egg. This is usually accomplished by allowing only one sperm to enter the egg and inhibiting any others from entering.
3. Fusion of the genetic material of sperm and egg.
4. Activation of egg metabolism to start development.
i wonder how the collision of sperm and egg sounded? Was the sound peaceful or violent—a subatomic phononic tinkling, a whoosh or maybe a gentle embracing mmmmm?
What if we could listen in on these natural processes at the subatomic level? What would we hear? and how many borders were created, crossed, and sounded by the developing embryo to evolve into the fetus? finally leaving the comfort of my mother’s womb where i listened to her heartbeat and all the biological sounds of her body, i entered the world and emitted my first sound—a cry.
how would it be to remember that sensation of air rushing into newborn lungs and out through the untested vocal cords to enable the first cry? how as an infant did i sense and hear this border sounding activity?
can you auralize with your memory and inner listening the quality and mystery of your first sound? the first cry seems to be an experience universal to all human beings. birth is leaving one world, entering another, and sounding at the border between mother and new world. What does border mean?
the word “border” is ambiguous as it can be a noun such as a line that divides two areas geographical, physical, political, theoretical, or virtual, or it can be a verb. one can speak of bordering along the edges of two different regions, systems, or thoughts. a garden can be bordered by a line of trees.
a border can be a decorative enclosure indicating a space for some kind of use or action. in my cultural understanding a place mat at a table indicates a space for dining. eating is also an universal experience for humans though the spatial indi- cation for dining may differ considerably from culture to culture. also the diversity of cultures has differing preferences, customs and rules for the way to eat—what and when to eat.
thus when we cross borders we may experience either the need to impose our own cultural preferences or to change our behavior to be more appropriate for the culture we are experiencing.
We have a hundred years of recordings of music from most parts of the world informing and challenging our musical preferences, customs, rules, instrumenta- tion, and venues.What are our musical customs and where did they originate? the earliest forms of sounding may lead us to universals that are shaped into the diversity of musical forms that we enjoy today. though music making is universal the forms of music are relative to their diverse cultures. among the most exciting forms of music making today are the fertile intercultural experimental border investigations by composers and improvisers. equally exciting are the attempted and successful fusing of acoustic and electronic instrumentations.
here are some musical universals:
hand clapping
foot stamping
body slapping
nonverbal emotional sounds
Vocal toning or singingthe universal basics of music making have come from the body.
there is still plenty of good music to be made with these human resources without instruments. […]
Excerpt from Pauline Oliveros: Sounding the Borders
Read more in the physical issue #08 !