MUSIC 256A
Mollie Redman
Principle 4.5: “Design things with a computer that would not be possible without!” (pg 181)
When Ge started explaining this principle my mind immediately thought, ‘oh I guess I better think of how to use computer beeps and boops and forget about using sounds I have heard before.’ Talking about all the things that can be done with sine waves made me think that was the medium of computers. Unnatural and mathematically exact. However, when I flipped the page, I took a sigh of relief. The next few pages dive into Paul Lansky’s Homebrew. I was not aware of how sad I felt by the prospect of trying to use only sine waves until I realized I had completely misunderstood this design principle.
When we listened to Lansky’s Idle Chatter in class, I was transported back and forth between states of unconsciousness and consciousness. This ebb and flow of awareness kept me continually engaged and interested in the composition. This reminds me of the talk we had in class about a designer’s responsibility to design vs. create an open-ended experience. Lansky has designed clear transitions within the music, however, what happens to a listener’s mind within each segment of time is totally unbound.
In Homebrew, it is the same case. In moments where individual clatters are more distinct, I am more aware of my surroundings. In moments where sounds are organized / composed, I lose track of time completely. The transitions are accomplished with an artful awareness of what is required to mentally shift perspectives.
Sine waves are not the medium of computers, the tools and structure that computers can provide are the medium of computers. Lansky designed something with a computer that is composed of normal everyday sounds that are neither unnatural nor mathematically exact. However, he used computer tools to transform these sounds in a way that has never been heard before. Making something natural feel unnatural. And making something inexact, feel calculated.
When Lansky created this first of its kind sound experience, I would guess he didn’t know exactly what it would sound like before he started (or maybe he is a musical genius and did indeed know exactly what it would sound like, but for the purpose of this response, let’s pretend he is a normal dude). I imagine his process to be something like a ‘domino discovery’. A process in which one discovery is made, which informs another subsequent discovery, so on and so forth until there is one giant discovery! When making something new, we need to have the trust to relinquish control. This can be difficult when our external sense of self judges. However, if we can be confident or careless enough to forget about the external world for a moment, maybe just maybe we can let our inner self guide our decisions.