#1

Perhaps there should be a lines community blog? I’m thinking of a place where community members can write longer pieces around process - stuff that is more complete article rather than chat / discussion. Or perhaps a Sound + Process blog with guest posts (any thoughts on that @dan_derks)?

Just throwing it out there… I know lots of folk have their own blogs, but this could be for more complete things, and could link to sketches in personal blog posts. Might be a nice way to tie things together.

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#2

It might be a good idea to use the resources that already exist, instead of creating new ones.

If anybody is inclined to write articles I think they should contact people who run blogs somehow connected to the community and propose a guest post.
Of course @disquiet comes to mind, and I’d be happy to host guest articles on http://www.horizontalpitch.com/
Though of course a sound + process blog would be neat!

Anybody interested should also check this thread here:

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#3

Thanks, @papernoise. If folks have ideas for posts for Disquiet.com, lemme know. I’m never going to be as deep on my website into process as other blogs are, because my intended reader is more on the listening/curious side, but if there is writing about process you’re doing that would arguably appeal to such readers, and you’d like to see it on Disquiet.com, do check in. I’m at marc@disquiet.com.

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#4

Jekyll is a static site generator that works well with GitHub pages. This free platform is ideal for community editing of structured content, and the result can be chronologically sorted like a blog, or organized in any other way.

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#5

I think personally this comes from sometimes feeling like I’d like to write a bit more to everyone here about some process, but feeling like it would be too much for a forum post. I also see content here that is great but it seems gets lost a bit over time (search is there, I know, but still).

Perhaps this is crossing over chat here a bit:

Could well be. I have an old blog I could start up again, but I’m not sure if I could sustain it…

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#6

Could it be organised in a way that users could post a process specific thread to lines under the process category with regular frequency?

I certainly would read and would consider contributing (but who would read?)

#7

honestly, would be super stoked on opening up soundandprocess.com to contributions that could perhaps follow an intentional template (or series of prompts?) but could be community-managed.

i have some downtime coming up this week, would love to spend some time thinking on this. s+p was always designed to shine light on as many members of lines as would be interested — clearly i have a threshold for how much i can do toward that, lol. it’d be wonderful to put the server space to better use

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#8

I think Horizontal Pitch or Sound+Process would be an excellent natural home for this kind of thing.

Also I think it’s always good to throw weight behind existing projects wherever possible, it strengthens the institutions we need.

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#9

Me, too. This is a great idea.

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#10

I could see something like https://usesthis.com but around sound-art practitioners being quite useful/enjoyable.

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#11

That’s an interesting topic (one that could get a topic by itself I guess). In fact I do not post a lot to horizontalpitch, it’s on a “when I have some time and energy left” basis. But I guess I enjoy writing about things sometimes, so the blog is still there.
I asked myself often if that is really enough to sustain the blog. Will enough people come back to read what I write, when I have months, even a year of inactitivy between one post and the next? People are used to multiple daily updates, actually I guess we’re getting used to being continuosly flooded with updates, so the way I do it is certainly going against the stream.
I guess that’s why I really appreciate those blogs and podcasts that really take the time and care to write/create content. Which of course doesn’t really exclude more frequently posting blogs.

This said, I would totally welcome articles on process, no matter if they be long or short, more in-depth or more supposed to make you curious or inpire you to try something new. I would also not care if they’d just pop up in my RSS feed once in a while.

And btw. I do like @Ethan_Hein’s blog http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/. He does writes a lot about music theory, and composition and process are kind of part of that.

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#12

Thanks for all the thoughts on this. I’d be happy to put some time in to any admin load.

#13

I think I always felt some sort of pressure to do it - as soon as there were a few readers. I sometimes wish there was no way of tracking stats on the internet! Probably in truth nobody should feel the need though, and for most folk blogs are just put in a reader of some kind, so people consider it a bonus if they get an article… as you say.

#14

Similarly, it’s possible to keep GitHub on the backend and have a front-facing CMS:

https://www.netlifycms.org/

It’s also possible to allow open submissions on the CMS frontend with GitHub pull requests on the backend (though it is currently a beta feature, apparently).

Netlify also happens to make most of the features of their main service available for free to opensource projects, which would serve to streamline the site’s deployment:

There are several starter templates using various static site generators (not Jekyll, however).

I do think there’s some benefit to the community establishing this type of blog upon some sort of open architecture. Also, I’m fairly certain I’ve seen Discourse used as a commenting system in blog posts before (with the blog posts mirrored as forum posts), though a cursory search seems to suggest that my memory may be a bit embellished.

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#15

If it would be of interest I was thinking of documenting the changes I’ve just made to my working process and the choices I’ve made regarding gear sales and acquisitions. I funded a wealth of changes by arriving at the decision to start selling off my record collection which was a curious experience in itself and one I’ll probably write something about at some stage. Put briefly, I realised that I didn’t feel as fearful of regretting selling these circles of plastic that had taught me so much but rather a sense of responsibility to them to ensure that they didn’t sit unplayed on my shelves any longer but when on to places they’d be enjoyed. Interestingly enough this whole thought process was jostled along by the fact that, as a result of the communities surrounding the music I make and like, a lot of people whose records I was selling had become friends and therefore they were aware that I, a friend, was selling records by them!

I digress, though - sorry!

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#16

some great convos w/@_mark have happened. let’s do this thing.

proposal

recycle soundandprocess.com to host focused process-oriented monologues + dialogues from lines community members.

structure

four buckets of contributions (ty mark for identifying such great buckets!):

  1. Thoughts on…: a semi-cohesive mind map of working within a particular process. I like the idea of imposing a style (eg. “bullet journal style” or “a PDF mind map” or “haiku only” or “just voice memos from your phone”) so we can still share quality work without requiring long-form exposition.
  2. A deep dive…: long-form writing to capture your experience as an artist in the community. I think it’d be dope if this remained globally focused, like writing about another member’s album you’ve fallen in love with or tool someone released that’s become indispensable to your workflow. I think it’d also be cool if it’s concentrated writing about a deep dive working with a single piece of equipment. or maybe it’s a deep dive into running your tape label. a deep dive into writing your first norns script. a deep dive into food you read about here.
  3. A conversation between…: two lines members have a text-based chat and share the transcript. each writes an introductory statement to lead the reader in. it’d be dope if y’all annotated the convo as you went (link to articles, drop a Bandcamp embed, etc). ideally dual-participative, so each member does their own research on the other – no interviewer/interviewee dynamics allowed :wink:
  4. Expanded notes on…: an accompaniment to something you might post to the Releases category, or perhaps a detailed walkthrough of a patch you’re particularly proud of; ideally multimedia-driven. make a video, share what inspired you, release your rough drafts. teach us how to make art like you. learn from and surprise yourself.

it’ll grow and change over time, but I think these should be good starting points.

engage

  • anything click? want to give it a go? DM me.
  • interested, but feel weird/nervous/scared/imposter-y? DM me. I’ll help you edit + brainstorm. and hopefully lend an ear/shoulder.
  • once we sort out the shape of your contribution, I’ll get you folded into the Wordpress group to post!
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Sound + Process: a lines podcast (episode #20: n-So)
#17

It was fun to discuss! Thanks for your openness and energy for this @dan_derks. I hope there are some seeds of ideas starting to form out there…

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