Terms that I enjoy
Interaction
This is something I really started thinking about after taking 451/452, and if I had to choose a most important consideration in design, this would be it. I think it is so important because it can cast a shadow on other elements if poorly executed. You could have the best sonic content in a sound installation, but if the interaction is not enjoyable, people could be easily turned away and miss it completely. Personally, I think it is critical to think about interaction as a two-way entity- not only focusing on how the user provides input into the system, but also how the system returns output to the user.
Intentionality
I chose this term because I think it can apply to all of the forms of art that I do and because it can speak on both large and small scales. I like to think of ‘intentionality’ in terms of ‘what effect are you trying to achieve?’ Whether it be on the micro scale like the phrasing of a musical line, or on a more holistic scale like the emotive response of an installation piece, I think it is crucial to always have intentionality in creating art.
Aesthetic
This word has recently grown on me. The reason I like it is because often it fills a need that no other term can. I like it use it generally to discuss the overall affect of a piece.
A reductive label that can be problematic
Button Pushing
A label that commonly gets placed on electronic music creation and performance is “button pushing.” To discuss this label, I’d like to present a spectrum. On one end, you have DJs who stand in front of a laptop and queue music with no real 'artistic' live performance aspects. I think, although degrading, this term is actually appropriate in this context. This gets complicated, however as you progress through the spectrum towards the other end where the artist starts to incorporate additional elements of live performance. Whether it be something remedial like crossfading or queuing scenes to something more complex like live looping, there is an element of artistry that must go into those actions. To simplify their performance as ‘button pushing’ is unjustly reductive. I think this spectrum is very subjective, but I also think it is important to recognize what the artist is actually doing in real time. If they are simply queuing songs, I don’t think this label is too far off in the critical sense.
Ah, "button pusher." Interestingly enough, it's seen plenty outside the music discipline too. It can describe political workers who blindly follow orders and simply "push the right buttons" for their authoritarian leaders. There are many fields of work that don't lend themselves an upper hand in being taken seriously. How many times have restaurant employees, writers, promoters, teachers, gas station workers, and people who work from home been patronized by larger society as "Oh, that's easy. I could do that"? In all these cases, prejudice comments and belittling titles such as these are born of ignorance. It's easy to reduce what we don't understand.
ReplyDeleteDJs who use automated playlists can greatly hurt the reputation of the many talented and hard-working DJs out there, but I personally try never to assume that the guy/girl behind the boards is faking it. Even if he is, who's to say how long it took him to put that mix together? It's hard to fake every part of the job.
I agree that the term 'aesthetic' is very unique in that it addresses that crucial aspect of what effect a piece has on the listener. And the cool thing is that there are SO many different types of aesthetic that people have come up with.
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