Hardware Poetics

[janglesoul]

It just happened that I yesterday got this video in my Facebook feed with Carla Scaletti explaining her view of what makes something an instrument. Pretty interesting.

[junklight]

@Hovercraft

Too often, I see artists using the argument of something “pre-composed” or “too fully developed” as a cudgel, but what they’re really talking about is the absurd notion of “purity”, as related to their own artistic practice. Where do you put the boundary? Presets? Samples? Macro-oscillators? Digital? DAWs? It links to the equally absurd notion that artists are completely independent from their tools, environment, community, and culture.

There is another side to this too - part of my music practice is the construction of instruments. Sometimes these are general (witness Islands for Norns) but other times they are not - I made a grid based instrument for the Patricia Wolf disquiet junto. It was an instrument - I had to learn to play it once I’d made it but it was certainly very specific to what I wanted to do with the track. I guess the reality is that that line is hard to find and almost certainly moves about for different people.

This feels like one of those things that as you look in more detail it becomes more slippery

[Galapagoose]

@dianus

it makes me wonder if Mangrove had some inspiration?

Indeed Bergfotron was one of the initial pieces of that puzzle. The woodwind waveshaper was a big inspiration!