CD Program Notes.(Brief Article)(Review)

Contents

Part One: Kim Cascone, Curator

Curator's Note

Data-Mining the Noise Floor

 
   The universe is random, at the quantum level. Macroscopically, the pattern 
   seems to be perfect; microscopically, it decays into uncertainty. We've 
   swept the residue of randomness down to the lowest level. 
 
   -- Greg Egan, Permutation City 

This is the first time in modern history that the modes of music production and music distribution have been inextricably intertwined. The digital "copy" now has similar characteristics to that of parasitic replicators: 1) a willingness to replicate information accurately, and 2) a readiness to obey instructions encoded in the information replicated. These replications pose a threat to those who have been profiting from atoms for the past century. There are no longer concepts of "original" and "copy;" there are only multiple instances of objects. While the controversy surrounding the concepts of ownership and control continues to heat up, there are those who have embraced the smooth, decentralized surfaces of the "post-digital." These artists use the viral aspects of information in their work, and embrace the inability to distinguish original from copy. The Internet isn't merely a way to shuttle packets of information around, it has become a medium that collapses time and distance; hence, the invention of an "Internet time" (www.i-time.com/). This allows people to distribute themselves virtually and create multiple presences for different identities outside the constraints of time and borders.

Humans, rather than software, have become the "distributed objects" on the Internet. Each human presence can activate a "node," a point of entry, an I/O to the great ebb and flow of information. When quiet, these nodes contribute nothing and only come alive when a human establishes a presence (virtual or real time). Each node, when active, contributes to sustaining the ether of transmission. Like a bucket brigade or the legs of a centipede, the more points of presence, the less work has to be done to maintain a particular speed of transmission. This effect establishes a potent transmission medium for the spread of ideas. The academic world has known this since the beginning of the Internet, and has been responsible for the creation of "viral communication." As composers have become active nodes on the Internet, the spread of ideas has accelerated to the point where genres appear and mutate on a hourly basis. The current state, of electronic music would probably not have come about if the Internet did not exist. This nodal/rhizomatic structure has changed the music that is created by composers today. Little bits of code are generated from disparate nodes on the net. They assemble themselves in a intelligent manner--they migrate, shift, focus/ defocus, flock, obey local rules, and formulate global behaviors. The data can be MP3, AIFF, or WAV data; the distribution can be via Napster, Hotline, Gnumusic, FTP, Website, or email. Each human node can be viewed as a vast interactive database becoming an attractor or repellent of the flocks of data. This behavior has shaped the way we hear as well as create music. The "post-digital" landscape has become one of multiplicity and behavior, of data-mining the noise floor for musical information.