Listen now | From Stockhausen to Nurse With Wound, soundtracked by Iancu Dumirtrescu, David Bowie and Throbbing Gristle, Andy Wilson offers a world-weary account of key decades in the birth of electronic music.
The relationship between technology and the use of that technology is unstable. It is true that, lacking critical thought about how one engages with technology, it is likely that the user will end up being determined by that technology. However, it is not true that the user is capable of mastery over, or dominance of, technology. Technology is not something added to humanity at some point, to allow the realization of human intent; instead, technology has always been implicated in what humanity is, from fire to the wheel to writing to hammers to algorithms, etc., etc.
Is it necessary for an artist to dominate the technology they use? I think it is more of a two-way street, inasmuch as an artist depends upon the capacities a given technology affords. There is a struggle with the technology. The difficult question – which is really one of artistic intent – is: how much struggle with technology is needed to qualify that struggle as art? For example, is there so much difference between Chris Watson recording a cheetah’s breathing and Autechre recording ‘rolling rock’? On what basis can we say one is an active use of technology and the other passive? Does that difference depend upon what (we think) the artist intends? If so, does that disqualify the unintended and unexpected outcome as art?
In addition to the question of artistic intent is the much more difficult (because today, it seems, much more avoided) problem of aesthetic value. Whilst, in terms of our own biography, we might have a soft spot for bands and artists that introduced us to an idea or potential in music, is it the case, for example, that we should consider Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle as aesthetically important as Stockhausen or Dumitrescu and Avram?
I write this not wanting to defend nor accuse anyone. Just trying to figure it out in my own mind.
I think there is a big difference in attitude between Chris W using recording technology to record a fascinating event, while Autechre basically just ran a default Supercollider program without altering it in any way. But I agree with you that it is all about aesthetic value, I just have trouble divorcing the aesthetics from the relationship to the technology as such.
I don't think the musician should 'master' the technology as such (though I may have slipped into using that language), it's more that the musician should play the technology rather than the other way around. To some extent, it's the job of the musician to explore the possibilities of any technology, whether electronic or not, but always in the spirit of exploration of the technology for what it can offer the music as such..
But with the slew of new tech in the 80s and 90s, too often people just got swept along in the tide.
Thanks for your contribution. I hope to pursue some of these arguments again in future.
Just to add, I agree with you re. cheetahs and Supercollider - but I have a problem justifying it to myself. Probably because I am thinking that, in both cases, it is a sort of ready-made/found object sort of deal... Thanks for a thought provoking podcast.
The relationship between technology and the use of that technology is unstable. It is true that, lacking critical thought about how one engages with technology, it is likely that the user will end up being determined by that technology. However, it is not true that the user is capable of mastery over, or dominance of, technology. Technology is not something added to humanity at some point, to allow the realization of human intent; instead, technology has always been implicated in what humanity is, from fire to the wheel to writing to hammers to algorithms, etc., etc.
Is it necessary for an artist to dominate the technology they use? I think it is more of a two-way street, inasmuch as an artist depends upon the capacities a given technology affords. There is a struggle with the technology. The difficult question – which is really one of artistic intent – is: how much struggle with technology is needed to qualify that struggle as art? For example, is there so much difference between Chris Watson recording a cheetah’s breathing and Autechre recording ‘rolling rock’? On what basis can we say one is an active use of technology and the other passive? Does that difference depend upon what (we think) the artist intends? If so, does that disqualify the unintended and unexpected outcome as art?
In addition to the question of artistic intent is the much more difficult (because today, it seems, much more avoided) problem of aesthetic value. Whilst, in terms of our own biography, we might have a soft spot for bands and artists that introduced us to an idea or potential in music, is it the case, for example, that we should consider Cabaret Voltaire or Throbbing Gristle as aesthetically important as Stockhausen or Dumitrescu and Avram?
I write this not wanting to defend nor accuse anyone. Just trying to figure it out in my own mind.
I think there is a big difference in attitude between Chris W using recording technology to record a fascinating event, while Autechre basically just ran a default Supercollider program without altering it in any way. But I agree with you that it is all about aesthetic value, I just have trouble divorcing the aesthetics from the relationship to the technology as such.
I don't think the musician should 'master' the technology as such (though I may have slipped into using that language), it's more that the musician should play the technology rather than the other way around. To some extent, it's the job of the musician to explore the possibilities of any technology, whether electronic or not, but always in the spirit of exploration of the technology for what it can offer the music as such..
But with the slew of new tech in the 80s and 90s, too often people just got swept along in the tide.
Thanks for your contribution. I hope to pursue some of these arguments again in future.
Just to add, I agree with you re. cheetahs and Supercollider - but I have a problem justifying it to myself. Probably because I am thinking that, in both cases, it is a sort of ready-made/found object sort of deal... Thanks for a thought provoking podcast.
Muslimgauze…..Nurse with Wound
I like the sheer breadth of what NWW did... liek Faust, they went to a lot of places.