Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.20.1701122040280.24212@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Meandering Areas In Competence
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 20:42:15 -0500 (EST)
Meandering Areas In Competence http://www.alansondheim.org/in-competence.jpg http://www.alansondheim.org/in-competence.mp3 (bass recorder w/ revrev) 1. Second Life / Mac Grid / Localhost But: I've exhausted these; without a programmer, my abilities are limited. But: architectures of desire, untoward architectures, alien architectures. But: the altered motion-capture dances, untoward behaviors. However: salvaged by texts entered one way or another into the virtual world. Nevertheless: no ability for true virtual reality, no equipment, no technical help. Still: attempting to avoid repetition and a descent into style, which is the death of creativity. So that: I continue to try new things, then find I've done them before. The worst of it: that the longer narrative and convoluted films and videos I did before are no longer possible - no actors, no equipment. So that: I burrow in my work, inhabit it, peer out, disparage the world; uselessly apply for residencies (none forthcoming); and so forth. 2. Codework However: I modify my little linux programs, already stale; continue to produce texts; cull texts. But: the texts are immobile, dead on the page, no gaming, no collaboration. However: the artifacts are dead before they even see the light of day. 3. Theory Whatever: theory comes and goes; I'm a theorist manque; nothing will stop me from the production of nonsense or respond to it. However: there are no resources for journals or books. Nonetheless: more and more sources are available online. 4. Music / Sound But: I'm a musician manque, without training, working my way through instruments and styles. However: there's very little audience for this and historically, no sales at all. Still: outside of Rhode Island, there's always the possibility of working with others, if I can get out of my self-pitying little jail. And: there's always the possibility of charting new ground with a philosophy and production of music based on universal constants and their modification. Nevertheless: there's even less audience for this. And: I have no interest in melody or harmony, which makes everything problematic. But: the exploration here is always rewarding, always gives back, even when working in isolation. Yet: I can produce cds, tapes, and vinyl; so that there is at least a record. But: I give them away as gifts or trades; there is no real market for them. However: if I were only Taylor Swift this would be entirely different. Still: you might note the use of the subjunctive, my favorite tense, in the previous. 5. Three-D Printing / the Cave / AR But: I have no access to tools of these sorts, although I've worked in all three environments to good effect. Nevertheless: the end result is that my research in these areas immediately dead-ended when the opportunities dead-ended. 6. My Little Artworks However: my little artworks 'go up' in social media and a few email lists; are visible for a day or two; disappear; as if permanently dissolved; within a year or so they may be removed from the web; I'm paying for twenty gigabytes of space; these are filled quickly. But: of course these works are all for free, gratis, a gift, potlatch; you are always welcome to download them; salvage operation; appeasement; therefore yours as much; no, more than mine. 7. Radio However: work with shortwave, very low frequency (VLF), crystal radio. But: poor reception in New England for VLF; nowhere to present the crystal setups; shortwave is poor in our area. Still: the National Security Agency (NSA) is across the street. However: have found very little use in that. 8. Photography But: who really looks at photography at this point; my one film camera (large format) is cranky; my one digital camera may be giving out. However: I can afford a new digital camera sometime in the future. 9. Fungi Yet: we are expert at finding and photographing slime molds and fungi, including jellies and other untoward forms. However: our ability to identify such organisms is less than zero. Still: I have learned a great deal about the epistemology and ontology of organic forms. However: through observing stromatolites and other extraordinarily early organic colonies (live and fossil) I have gained an understanding of the long view, long time, long space. 10. Maps / Unknowns But: I have studied earlier maps of unknown regions; coming to an understanding of projections of the uncanny into undefined 'blank' spaces. But: I have written extensively on such blanks; nevertheless, there is no audience for any of this. For: outside of any institutional context, these texts as well remain stillborn; con-text in the sense of textual connotation, extension. 11. Organology Still: I find instruments from other times, other cultures, mostly non-western; I restore them to playable condition and use them. However: I see myself as a steward at best of such instruments, and pass them on to other players, luthiers, or museums; they leave me, enter into wider dissemination. For: I worry about the disappearance of music's variety, outside the constructed domains of the digital; for example the disappearance of scales or rhythms; vocal techniques; anything that speaks of an elsewhere; it is my belief that every such artifact, scale, or song, opens up worlds we may learn from; new knowledge. However: this also continues in isolation; for example, what constitutes a miniature instrument or toy instrument; what are the cultural categories at work; who plays what. 12. For: there is no end to this. However: production continues uselessly. Still: nothing is to be done. Yet: I have certain skills. But: there is no point to this. Nevertheless: summing-ups are always useful at any time or place of life. And: this finality connecting to everything else