Path: utzoo!attcan!lsuc!becker!bdb
From: bdb@becker.UUCP (Bruce D. Becker)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: ICMC reaction
Message-ID: <40170@becker.UUCP>
Date: 22 Sep 90 13:35:32 GMT
References: <EIVERSON.90Sep18203945@hades.nmsu.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: G. T. S., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 60

In article <EIVERSON.90Sep18203945@hades.nmsu.edu> eiverson@nmsu.edu (Eric Iverson) writes:
|
|Well I just got back from ICMC, and as a veteran of at least half a
|dozen conferences, I can safely say I've never felt so ignored or
|excluded in all my life.  Well, this isn't completely true.  I got on
|fine with the other AI types, but I kept on getting the feeling that
|they were being politely ignored by most others as well.  It seems
|that if one was not a composer or a DSP engineer, then one did not
|count for squat.
|
|After having recently attended the Artificial Life convention in
|February, I was inspired by the sight of people from disciplines as
|diverse as genetics, artificial intelligence, and thermodynamics
|actively trying to assimilate and understand the ideas of others.
|This kind of cross-fertilization clearly did not occur at ICMC.
|Borders were quite clearly drawn and very little effort was made to
|cross them.  I found this to be quite depressing.
|
|Perhaps the backgrounds of musicians and computer scientists are just
|too different for there to be a common ground.  Perhaps the objectives
|of the two groups may even be in direct contradiction.  However, even
|if this were the case, it would not excuse the sterile tone of the
|conference.  I began to wonder why some of the people were even
|involved in the field, as I saw none of the passion and curiousity
|that I have seen at other conferences.
|
|This was further reflected in the music that was performed during the
|conference; much of which did not even resemble music as I have come
|to know it.  Apparantly such trivialities as rhythmic pulse, phrasing,
|and tonality have become unfashionable, as they were not present in
|the majority of the pieces presented.  It was if I had entered a
|demonstration of gated noise generation machines and sound effects
|systems, neither of which I consider to be musical in and of
|themselves.  In fact I saw little difference in the pieces from that
|which was done in the 60's, save for the level of sophistication of
|the machines used.
|
|And this then is the final irony:  even with all the advanced toys at
|our disposal, it seems questionable whether we have developed a
|similarly advanced system for using them.
|
|I anxiously await a remedy to this situation.

	Uhhhh... Eric, I think the remedy might need to be
	applied to your attitude.

	It seems clear there is indeed a large gulf between
	your thinking and that of the musicians.

	Rather than criticize, you need to try to internalize
	their ideas so you will be able to communicate with
	them. I'm pretty certain that your ideas as to what
	music is came across in conversation, so that you
	were therefore left alone...

-- 
  ,u,	 Bruce Becker	Toronto, Ontario
a /i/	 Internet: bdb@becker.UUCP, bruce@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu
 `\o\-e	 UUCP: ...!uunet!mnetor!becker!bdb
 _< /_	 "I still have my phil-os-o-phy" - Meredith Monk