[microsound-announce] [framework radio] #613: 2017.10.08

Tue Oct 10 05:34:44 EDT 2017

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#613: 2017.10.08
listen to this edition here: 
http://www.frameworkradio.net/2017/10/613-2017-10-08/

this edition of framework:afield, entitled 'audio-DH', has been produced 
in the netherlands by francisco lópez in collaboration with 250 creators 
from the city of den haag (the hague). for more information see the 
project website at http://audiodh.nl.

audio-DH:
sonic manifestations by 250 creators from Den Haag / The Hague

Rejecting nostalgia and elitism, I am among those who believe that the 
current sound creative situation worldwide is not only particularly 
appealing but also has no historical precedent in terms of the magnitude 
of the phenomenon of creativity socialization (a term I prefer over the 
more equivocal of ‘democratization’). This state of affairs is not a 
consequence of ‘the internet’ or ‘the social networks’ –as many seem to 
dogmatically assume nowadays. In my opinion, the causal sequence is at 
least an iterative bidirectional succession, if not the outright 
inverse. The essential mechanisms of this process were present before 
and they have indeed manifested themselves in their outcomes every time 
the techno-cultural conditions were right (two pre-internet examples are 
the social history of the electric guitar and the so-called ‘cassette 
culture’). The current discourse is quite often focused on the evolution 
and accessibility of the tools (‘new technologies’, ‘computers’...). 
This perspective is not only deficient in light of its positivist 
character and its teleological fiction, but also because it obliterates 
what is perhaps the most significant process of transformation that has 
taken place over the past few decades: the ethic and aesthetic 
socialization of the right to create.

Unlike some apologists of ‘quality’ (who persist in the fallacy of an 
iffy inverse relationship between ‘quality’ and social ‘quantity’), the 
multifarious, ubiquitous and impossible-to-encompass current creative 
output is for me a blessing, not a problem. With regard to this output, 
two forms of anxiety have become blatantly obsolete: comprehensibility 
and regulation. Not only the ‘academic’ world has been overtaken; this 
is also the case for the (copious) norms and regulations of traditional 
rock/pop culture. None of this denies differences, nuances and levels; 
nor it assumes in the least ‘quality’ by the sheer fact of its existence 
or, even more, for being ferociously promoted in a social-network 
fashion. On the contrary, it forcefully defends the right to create and 
the preeminence of values such as intuition and meritocracy. I perceive, 
therefore, not only an explosion of sound creative output but –more 
importantly– an expansion of the very concept of ‘audio-artist’ (a term 
I prefer, given its current absence of connotations, over those of sound 
artist or experimental / electronic / contemporary musician) in what 
concerns its ethical and aesthetic status. In this latent, 
pre-judgmental, ab-normative sense, we are all creators/artists, no doubt.

This is the spirit and the conviction behind the project audio-DH, in 
which I asked a large number of invited curators (some of whom are also 
artists themselves) to invite in turn several creators/artists from The 
Hague to contribute with a short sound piece (composition, ‘track’, 
fragment, manifestation...), of a maximum of 5 minutes (I directly 
invited some artists myself as well): sound artists, experimental 
musicians, composers, noisists, and any other unclassified 
artists/creators from/based in The Hague with an interest (whether 
general or just in this particular case) in ‘experimental’ audio or any 
other sonic manifestations beyond ‘normal’, commercial, mainstream, 
traditional... music/audio. With the non-negligible challenge of 
starting this task with a reference-goal of 250 creators/artists (an 
intuitive estimate, really), my perspective, willingness and endeavor 
have been –within the scope of the project– to encompass as wide a 
spectrum as possible of genres, groups, ideologies, collectives, 
generations and aesthetics.

audio-DH is not a historical compilation (although it contains a 
multitude of elements of that nature), but probably just a small sample 
of a nonetheless sizeable representation of the sonic creative scene in 
The Hague around the mid-2010s. Small but feisty; and symptomatic (for 
those who can actually listen, I guess). ‘From/based in The Hague’ is
understood in this project in a very wide –and essentially creative– 
sense, therefore also including all those who are no longer in The Hague 
or are only temporarily here, but had or have a significant or 
particularly relevant creative experience/period or connection to this 
city. Covering the vast territory of ‘experimental’ practices –from 
noise to contemporary, from improvised to algorithmic, from 
documentative to highly composed– and presenting the work of 
creators/artists from 45 countries [*], audio-DH aims at unequivocally 
placing The Hague in its rightful place as one of the most sonically 
creative cities in the world.

The other crucial aspect of this project has been to explicitly conceive 
the creators/artists’ contributions not just as finished individual 
pieces but also as potential elements for collective sound 
recombination; that is, as sonic material to be transformed, remixed, 
mutated, meta-composed... together with the ‘recombined’ audio pieces of 
all the other artists/creators. Thus, audio-DH also deals expressly with 
a third obsolete anxiety: that of holding off the massive process of 
creative recombination. This does not deny the integrity, the possible 
completeness or the recognition of the work, but rather introduces a 
generative dualism in its understanding: not only as inspiration or in a 
metaphorical sense, but also as a literal element of recombination for 
the creation of new works. With the dual intention of both introducing 
an element of relative aesthetic neutrality and of emphasizing that 
other large techno-cultural process where the central agents are the 
Kurzweilian spiritual machines (which have already overtaken their own 
previous status as ‘tools’), this recombination was carried out in an 
experimental fashion by means of a specifically developed software. This 
software ‘composes’ in an autonomous manner; ‘listening’, selecting, 
processing and mixing the individual pieces, which are thus understood 
as building blocks of new meta-pieces. After giving it some thought, I 
decided to christen this software entity –aptly, I believe– as 
H.A.R.I.N.G. (Humanless Audio Recombinator for Infinite Novelty 
Generation). Strictly speaking, therefore, this project has 251 
audio-artists, if we also include HARING. Which brings us to the last 
conclusion –for the time being– on our techno-creative current 
situation: not only we can all be audio-artists; machines can be such a 
thing as well.

Finally, a word in praise of audio ‘only’. In an epoch of saturated 
multimedia, transmedia and arbitrary data mapping, an exercise in 
monomedia like this one –resolute even if small– could perhaps have a 
redeeming and re-grounding effect. After all, shouldn't it be that what 
really matters is not the number of media or their relationships but 
rather their capability –particularly when alone or with a modicum of 
resources– to act as 'gates', 'transformers', 'revealers', and so on? 
Drawing on the insights from millennia of art and magic (and the like), 
let us not forget that 'only' audio is never audio only.

My sincere thanks to all the participant creators/artists and invited 
curators for their generosity and enthusiasm. My acknowledgment as well 
for all those who have made this project possible in terms of 
organization, funding and production. It is an enormous satisfaction to 
have reached that ambitious goal of ‘the 250’ and also to have 
personally discovered in this process the work of many audio-artists, 
including some of them who were not aware of being such a thing themselves.

Francisco López - Den Haag, 2016

again, we are always looking for new material, whether raw field 
recordings, field recording based composition, or introduction 
submissions. we are also now accepting proposals for full editions of 
our guest curated framework:afield series. send proposals or material, 
released or not, on any format, to the address at the bottom of this 
mail. if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

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framework intro submissions:

    1)    take yourself and an audio recorder to a location of your choice
    2)    record for AT LEAST 1 minute before you -
    3)    read aloud the following text (in english or translated):

welcome to framework. framework is a show consecrated to 
field-recording, and its use in composition.  field-recording, 
phonography, the art of sound hunting; open your ears and listen!

    4)    continue recording for AT LEAST 2 minutes after the text
    5)    post the recording to us on any format, or send us an 
mp3

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