Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!swrinde!ucsd!network.ucsd.edu!weber!kkothman From: kkothman@weber.ucsd.edu (Keith Kothman) Newsgroups: comp.music Subject: Re: ICMC reaction Message-ID: <3002@network.ucsd.edu> Date: 28 Sep 90 16:25:41 GMT References: <40170@becker.UUCP> <3456@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <15134@venera.isi.edu> Sender: news@network.ucsd.edu Reply-To: kkothman@weber.ucsd.edu (Keith Kothman) Distribution: comp Organization: Division of Social Sciences, UCSD Lines: 56 Nntp-Posting-Host: weber.ucsd.edu In article <15134@venera.isi.edu> smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu (Stephen Smoliar) writes: >[stuff deleted] >Having said all that, let me venture forth with some potentially dangerous >remarks about computer music. While we would like to think of computer music >as a fresh discipline as exciting as Artificial Life, the true is that is has >become quite established. The mere fact that there is this organization which >encourages membership in order to participate is a sign of such establishment. >I would even venture a guess that the discipline first began to become >established when a critical mass of practitioners started trying to take >the work which had come out of Bell Laboratories (primarily from Max Mathews) >and make a standard out of it. Standards beget establishment, and ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >establishment saps excitement. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > >========================================================================= > >USPS: Stephen Smoliar > USC Information Sciences Institute > 4676 Admiralty Way Suite 1001 > Marina del Rey, California 90292-6695 > >Internet: smoliar@vaxa.isi.edu > >"It's only words . . . unless they're true."--David Mamet Let me offer a different view of what standards beget. Standards beget freedom from those who control access. In the beginning, if you wanted to do computer music you had to be at Bell Labs. Until very recently, you had to be at one of the handful of institutions that had a workable computer music studio, mostly academic, mostly controlled by a handful of people. To work at such a place you had to submit to being a student or guest researcher, but you definitely had to SUBMIT. Because of standards and the establishment i can now go out and but a relatively low-cost NeXT machine with DAC, download Csound and other popular software synthesis packages via anonymous ftp, hook up whatever MIDI gear that i might like to also use, and work independently from the major institutions. I've heard the argument before that using tools of the establishment makes creates a dangerous relationship between artist and establishment, but it's usually made by people who have access to whatever they need or want--usually huge, proprietary systems that, while maybe "exciting," are unavailable to over 90% of the people actually working in the discipline. Remember that tools are tools, whether created by the establishment or the fringe. If they are useful--fine. But if they're unavailabe to me, don't tell me i'm doing the wrong thing by turning to the establishment to find something to use. Keith Kothman UCSD Dept. of Music --the day job just pays the bills