homemade noize

****WARNING semi-stream of consciousness philosophical ramblings ahead****

I didn’t start out to write this much.

There are something things that just get stuck in my head that I struggle to get my mind around. For the last few weeks since The Wire series finale I can’t stop thinking about the show. The Wire said this is the world, this is how it is and you know it is true. It was the truth that got you. An example of something else that got stuck in my head is the the quantum double slit experiment. This got stuck in my head because it seemed impossible and unbelievable despite the fact that it is true. The strangeness of the quantum world demonstrated by this experiment extrapolated out leads to a number of very large questions about the nature of our universe like if the is a such a thing as free will.

Celemony’s Melodyne and its new Direct Note Access technology is stuck in my head like the quantum slit experiment. It too seems impossible. I have not posted about it before figuring it was all on a ton of better informed and well read sites but if you haven’t seen it check out the videos:

It is unbelievable. It doesn’t seem like it should work. How ever well it really works this kind of thing will most likely get better and better. Eventually it will be possible to take apart and manipulate every piece of music to form something entirely new or just make subtle changes. Wow think of the possibility. Think of the horrible remixes.Technological advances are usually made up of tiny steps of incremental increases. Whether or not something makes a big leap forward as along as it is perceived as a big leap forward debate of it’s merit and peril are sure to follow. The Direct Note Access has spawned some debate and rightfully so. Most people are excited by it. Some have questions about its uses that are valid.

Will it remove yet more humanity from music? Someday will every tiny imperfections we smoothed out of music creating sterile inhuman music. Will it become a marketing tool rather than a music tool used to make pretty young faces without talent sound good? Will it be used as another weapon by big time producers to further homogenize mainstream music? I think the the answers to some of these questions will be somewhat yes. But I also think that the power of this kind of technology it will out weight way any damage done. But these questions do not interest me as much as another. It if cleans up my sloppy guitar playing can anything be wrong with it?

It is not really the new Melodyne that makes me think about it. Another big step forward could have spurred on the same thoughts. And maybe this does not lead to questioning the nature of the universe like the quantum double slit experiments but it does lead me to question the nature of Art. Art is a tricky thing just like the quantum world. It too can be a definite point, everywhere and nowhere all at once. Defining concepts like Art most likely drove old Noah Webster mad. It is based on aesthetic choices that are completely subjective. But we rarely do think about how many of those choices are made for us. At least it has been that way through most of time. Those choices are made by the information we have available, our influences and conventions surrounding us and the very real and tangible physical limitation of the medium and its availability. You can not cast a bronze bust without bronze or without the knowledge of how to do so. Mozart could not be influence by Taiko drummers despite being of his time. He had no access to them being half way around the world in in a isolated country.

Most of these restrictions are disappearing. There is the free flow of knowledge and yes Art across the Internets. There is an overload of influences and information. Technology continues it ever faster pace of development. There are less limits everyday. Its democratizing effects are wonderful but I worry about the other effects.

I wonder if you gave Mozart a modern studio loaded with the fancy computers etc. would he produce more beautiful music? Doubtful though not assured. I am sure that notation software would have let him get more idea out of his head with out having to do it with ink and quill. But I am not sure about anything else. Would the White Album be any better with new technology?
This is not just a musical question. Would the Mona Lisa be more iconic if it was a hanging in the Louvre as a mixed media work. Would Picasso have broke more ground with photoshop? Would Mathew Brady capture more haunting images of the aftermath of war or shown more of the essence of Lincoln with a digital camera? Would Hamlet be as good as a Hollywood scene play. Or would the Wire tell more truth as a interactive holograph? You get the idea.

The always is the fear of new technology and what its impact will be. There is always resistance to if only for the reason that humans are generally resistant to change. And some of us have a deep rooted streak of cynicism. Some of it of course is unfounded and some of it is not. It is an old debate but I think of the nature of art rather that the nature of technology.

I think we can drown in choices. To many options we can founder or tinker forever. If art is a reflection of our humanity than trying should there be very restrictive limits when it comes to creating art? That is more true to life. It maybe that be great art is not a limitless creative expression but rather being able to squeeze a little piece of life or the world where it doesn’t really belong. Like an enigmatic smile brushed onto a poplar board. Maybe that is brings out the best of us. Finding away to say something profound that could not be described in any other way with all the technologies and options in the world.
Or Maybe not.

Some people use this argument to explain a perceived lack of great art. And if look just at “modern art” you could easily start to believe that. The same argument is made for the lack of great men. It is hard to find a modern analog for Da Vinci or Picasso. Or outside of art a Napoleon or Edison. I am not sure I agree that we a lacking or if we are that it is a byproduct of technology or the constant change accompanying it. But maybe our Picasso’s are designing websites and make amine fan art to hang on their bedroom walls. Maybe it has to nothing to do with new creative tools. Maybe our Di Vinci and Mozart is just playing WOW or Guitar Hero instead of painting another Mona Lisa.

Naw, they probably all went into advertising and are using their genius to sell us sneakers.