FREQUENCY 4 – IDENTITY 2: Process and Categorisation

Footnotes on degenerative systems:

MICHAEL MOSHE DAHAN - TWO POINTS OF FAILURE (2014)
HOLLIS FRAMPTON - NOSTALGIA (1971)

Opposing iterations of similar data: 

MAMORU FUJIEDA - PATTERNS OF PLANTS (1997)
STELIOS MANOUSAKIS - EXAMPLE 1 (2006)

Simple, incommensurable and indeterminate phasing approaches:

STEVE REICH - COME OUT (1966)
BRIAN ENO - MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS (1978)
BRIAN ENO - LIGHTNESS: MUSIC FOR THE MARBLE PALACE (1997)
BRIAN ENO - EXTRACTS FRO MUSIC FOR WHITE CUBE (1997)

Additional listening:

STEVE REICH - PIANO PHASE (1967)
Ø - TWIN BLEEBS (1994)
JONNY GREENWOOD - CONVERGENCE (2003)

Toward a taxonomy of generative approaches:

GOAL-DIRECTED v RULE-DIRECTED
GENERATIVE v TRANSFORMATIVE
INDETERMINATE v DETERMINATE
MATERIAL-BASED v INTERACTION-BASED

Systems that codify performer interactions...

INUIT GAMES AND SONGS – ASSALALAA (r. 2006)

Although these vocalisations are not considered as music in Inuit culture, they are on formalized a system of rules that determine patterns of singing. The game is for two participants, usually female. One singer leads by setting a short rhythmic pattern, which she repeats leaving brief silent intervals between each repetition. The other singer fills in the gap with another rhythmic pattern. The first to run out of breath or laugh loses the game.

JOHN ZORN - COBRA (1985)

...or environmental interactions

ANNEA LOCKWOOD - PIANO TRANSPLANT NO.1 - BURNING PIANO (1968)
ERKKI VELTHEIM - TURING TEST (2014)
JAENEK SCHAEFFER - RECORDED DELIVERY (1995)

The tape recorder recorded sounds above a volume threshold for the duration of its journey, automatically editing the 15-hour trip through london into a 72 minute recording. Schaeffer describes how the device would capture 'only the most sonically interesting elements', how it would 'automatically edit the recording, allowing an essential selection ... a truncated impression of its trip rather than a perfect document.' Schaeffer explains: 'I imagined that these parcels had stories to tell us about their history. Stamps and addresses told only a fraction of this story. Being able to record it's journey I would then be creating an interesting level of information for the audience.' The method employed here by Schaeffer produces a fragmented, yet fundamentally linear record of events.

MAX EASTLY - SOUND SCULPTURES

 ARCHETYPAL TRANSFORMATIONS TO RATES OF CHANGE

Linear, Non-Reversible – Segmented/Non-Segmented
Linear, Reversible – Regular gradient/Irregular gradient
Non-Linear, Non-Reversible – Consistent change/Inconsistent change
Non-Linear, Reversible – Consistent change/Inconsistent change
Instantaneous, Non-Reversible – Segmented/Non-Segmented
Instantaneous, Reversible – Segmented/Non-Segmented
Combination/Motivic – Repeated/Developing
Combination (Free) – Restricted/Unrestricted