MachineMachine /stream - tagged with avantgarde http://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Sweetcron therourke@gmail.com Can Artists Help Us Reboot Humanism in an Over-Connected Age? http://artinfo.com/news/story/800410/can-artists-help-us-reboot-humanism-in-an-over-connected-age How does aesthetic experience fare in such an environment? Within art-tech circles, the buzz these days is about something called the “New Aesthetic,” a coinage of James Bridle, who launched a Tumblr of the same name dedicated to aggregating phenomena that blur together digital culture and real-world design, and seem characteristic of the present's plugged-in sensibility. In his response to the “New Aesthetic,” techno-pundit Bruce Sterling takes it to task for lacking any rigor or specificity, and just basically being a meusli of wicked cool images. My response to this response would be that it is this lack of rigor… ]]> Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:44:07 -0700 http://artinfo.com/news/story/800410/can-artists-help-us-reboot-humanism-in-an-over-connected-age Music moved on after modernism, but whatever happened to fiction? http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/oct/05/notes-letters-music-modernism-self The high arts of literature and music stand in a curious relationship to one another, at once securely comfortable and deeply uneasy – rather like a long-term marriage. At the securely comfortable end of the emotional spectrum we have those zeniths of song, the German lieder tradition, and high opera. In the best examples of both forms words and music appear utterly and indissolubly comingled. However, at the other end of this spectrum we have those kinds of music that attempt to be literary – so-called programme music – and those forms of literature that attempt, either through descriptive representation… ]]> Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:54:22 -0700 http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/oct/05/notes-letters-music-modernism-self Alphaland http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/5240562153

Alphaland

Ever wondered what’s going on in the background of your favorite video games, behind all the moving pictures and pretty sounds? A new Flash game from Jonas Kyratzes titled Alphaland answers that very question by placing players in a rough Alpha version of a minimalist platformer, and then placing them deep within said Alpha’s metaphysical guts.

If it sounds confusing … well, that’s because it is. But it’s also pretty short, and pretty sad, and pretty pretty. If you’ve got a few minutes, give it a play over at Newgrounds!

(via Joystiq)

]]> Fri, 06 May 2011 03:14:00 -0700 http://tumblr.machinemachine.net/post/5240562153 B.S.Johnson - Albert Angelo http://www.bsjohnson.info/novels/content.aspx?title=albert%20angelo&type=home Albert Angelo is the second novel written by the experimental novelist B. S. Johnson (1933–1973). Published in 1964, the book achieved fame for having holes cut in several pages as a narrative technique. It is written in an unusual and pioneering style, frequently changing from first-person narrative to third-person commentary, and often descending into stream-of-consciousness interior monologue. Like all of Johnson's novels it is an auto-biographical work. ]]> Wed, 16 Feb 2011 07:59:53 -0700 http://www.bsjohnson.info/novels/content.aspx?title=albert%20angelo&type=home Transition (literary journal) - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_(literary_journal) Tired of the spectacle of short stories, novels, poems and plays still under the hegemony of the banal word, monotonous syntax, static psychology, descriptive naturalism, and desirous of crystallizing a viewpoint… Narrative is not mere anecdote, but the projection of a metamorphosis of reality ]]> Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:09:00 -0700 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_(literary_journal) Art and Thingness, Part Two: Thingification http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/132 by Sven Lütticken

In a text written in response to the upheavals of the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet avant-garde, Carl Einstein claimed that tradition “piles up in the object”; that the object is a “medium for passive thinking,” bound to tradition and bourgeois property relations; and that in order to “assert the human person, objects, which are preserve jars, must be destroyed.” Going so far as to state that “every destruction of objects is justified,” Einstein proclaimed a “dictatorship of the thingless.”

In a Latourian manner, one might present the recent turn… ]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:08:00 -0700 http://www.e-flux.com/journal/view/132 Ignoring the mainstream, spreading enthusiasm for difficult music and sustaining sonic subcultures: Colin Marshall talks to Chris Bohn, editor of The Wire http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/03/ignoring-the-mainstream-spreading-enthusiasm-for-difficult-music-and-sustaining-sonic-subcultures-co.html Chris Bohn is the editor of London-based monthly music magazine The Wire. Subtitled “Adventures in Modern Music”, the magazine has covered the alternative, the underground, the experimental, the avant-garde and the generally non-mainstream since 1982, featuring a span of artists from Ornette Coleman to Björk to David Sylvian to Jim O’Rourke to field recordists like Lee Patterson to emerging Chinese sounds artists like Yun Jun. The magazine is also well known as a rarity in its industry for both its profitability and its loyal, growing readership. Colin Marshall originally conducted this conversation on the public radio program and podcast The… ]]> Mon, 29 Mar 2010 08:51:00 -0700 http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2010/03/ignoring-the-mainstream-spreading-enthusiasm-for-difficult-music-and-sustaining-sonic-subcultures-co.html Symphony in J flat http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/07/symphony_in_j_flat/?page=full What prevents Bohlen-Pierce from becoming unpleasant, dissonant noise is the fact that is not merely an avant-garde musician taking a hacksaw to our current musical system for sheer destructive glee. In the same way that languages share certain principles, Bohlen-Pierce takes advantage of fundamental properties that make our own musical system work. It makes some different basic assumptions, most notably by not using the octave. But it also makes use of analogous ways of creating harmony and chords. The result is music that sounds different, but not bad. “A different tuning system is almost like a different language,” said Ross… ]]> Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:55:00 -0700 http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/03/07/symphony_in_j_flat/?page=full Who’s afraid of the avant-garde? http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/10/whos-afraid-of-the-avant-garde/ There's a reason why we find it easier to "get" modern art than avant-garde music, and it's not just about our natural conservatism and love of Mozart... Arts & books Who’s afraid of the avant-garde? Philip Ball 21st October 2009 — Issue 164 Free entry There's a reason why we find it easier to "get" modern art than avant-garde music, and it's not just about our natural conservatism and love of Mozart Looking at Rothko: no harder to “see” than wallpaper Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko But Don’t Get Stockhausen By David Stubbs (Zero Books, £9.99) The writer… ]]> Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:53:00 -0700 http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2009/10/whos-afraid-of-the-avant-garde/ Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band – Hot Head http://www.last.fm/music/Captain%2BBeefheart%2B%2526%2BHis%2BMagic%2BBand/_/Hot+Head/captain-beefheart-amp-his-magic-band-hot-head http://www.last.fm/music/Captain%2BBeefheart%2B%2526%2BHis%2BMagic%2BBand ]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2009 09:36:00 -0700 http://www.last.fm/music/Captain%2BBeefheart%2B%2526%2BHis%2BMagic%2BBand/_/Hot+Head/captain-beefheart-amp-his-magic-band-hot-head