Sunday 29 April 2012

A HEIDEGGERIAN APPROACH TO THE IPOD (NOTES)

A tune - what does it mean?

The way things are now:
A tune is an object, just one thing among many, isolated example, an entry in a catalogue, an item in a list.


Emphasis on its technicality, its volume, its power, its compressedness, its singular formal characteristics, its instantaneous appearance of "newness", its distinguishing features in the abstract catalogue of marketable goods.

What this leads to:
An emphasis on abstract technical qualities. Distinctions on the level of surface:

THE COLOUR CHART


HIPSTER CULTURE - the spectrum, the rainbow, the list, the catalogue, the cabinet, the jumble sale, the fancy dress box, the auction house, the antiques fair, the curated exhibition, the museum shop.


(The digital pseudo-futurism of "The New Aesthetic")

In sum:
INNOVATION AS THE RENAMING OF ALREADY EXISTING COLOURS
(eg. Brooklyn Beige, Lynch Lilac, Sixties Serge, Post-Punk Purple)

***
The Antedote:

What is this tune in the world?

How should we interpret it? (ie. what does it mean?)

How does it interact with its context/surroundings?  Does it even have a surrounding backdrop, or is it just an item in an ipod list, a colour in a catalogue?

Does it have a community? Does it have a milieu?

Might we say about it: they are trying to communicate something; we can hear something in what they are trying to say?
Or is it just an isolated object, a flash of individual brilliance, a display of technique, an assertion of power, the next big thing, this year's news, a trend, a gradient, a number, a filament, a degree, a letter in the alphabet, a chemical synthesis, a copper coin?

Where does it fit into life as a whole?

What is its location in the universe?

Where does it exist?

Across the span of our lives, and the lives of our children, and of everyone now living, what will it mean?

What is its resonance?
What is its harmony?
What is its position in relation to us?

What is its time? What came before, what will come after?
Why is it the present and not the past?

4 comments:

David K Wayne said...

What is it with you and Nazis? Pound, Heidegger, Moaty ... I shudder to think who's coming up next!

Alex Niven said...

You left out Wyndham Lewis!

It is a worry ...

David K Wayne said...

Is it Yeats next then?

Alex Niven said...

Yeats is MY FAVOURITE EVER POET EVER!