Shintani's Vlog

A Leningrad Cowgirl's Room 2006

2011-08-08T16:42:00.003+02:00

For Steffi

Autorengruppe 'Band 2' Lesung

2011-07-24T09:02:00.002+02:00

Meine zweite 'Lesung'. Nach dem Asian American Writers Workshop in New York, jetzt Stuttgart. :-)

HfG-KA Sommerloch 2011 -- Seminar 'Hören und Schreiben'

2011-07-14T10:22:00.010+02:00

Class trying to get the exhibit put together:

And hung up properly:

Yeah! Links to the original online articles and videos here.

Steve Reich Eröffnet Sonar Festival 2011

2011-07-08T10:11:00.013+02:00

Für Electronica-Genießer ist es endlich so weit – das Eröffnungskonzert des Sonár-Festivals im großen Saal Pau Casals in Barcelonas Auditori. Electronica im vornehmen Konzertsaal? Auch solche Koproduktionen gehören seit einigen Jahren zum Festival-Konzept. Einige edle Tropfen der Minimal Music, sogar der große Musikpionier Steve Reich selbst, stehen auf dem Programm des Eröffnungskonzerts. Bis er vor zwei Wochen krankheitshalber absagen musste. Trotzdem fängt das Festival mit den beiden Werken Sextet (1984) und Music for 18 Musicians (1974-76) wie geplant am Donnerstagabend mit dem Ensemble bcn216 und den britischen Spitzenstimmen der Synergy Vocals an.

Vorne auf der holzgetäfelten Bühne die typischen Instrumente, die ein Steve-Reich-Konzert erkennen lassen: Vibrafone, Marimbas, Flügel und Synthesizers mit Musikern im alten Neue-Musik-Schwarz-Look. Die Zuschauer sind eine schöne Mischung. Die gepflegte katalanische Dame im feinen Rock und Stöckelschuhen sitzt neben dem jungen Asiaten mit giftgelben Joggingschuhen. Der bebrillte Journalist im grauen Jackett in der gleichen Reihe mit der jungen Bloggerin mit Laptop. Auch Familien sind da. Wenn nicht ausverkauft, trotzdem ein offener, würdiger Rahmen für das Eröffnungskonzert. Nur zu schade, dass der Meister selbst nicht da ist. Vielleicht würde die Musik dann anders klingen.

Mit ein wenig mediterraner Verspätung brechen die ersten Durakkorde vom Sextet die erwartungsvolle Stille im Saal und sofort merkt man, das die Holztäfelung nicht nur für die Augen schön ist, sie ergibt auch eine ausgewogene Akustik. Wir hören hämmernde Klänge, die erste Phase und Phase-Shift – alles vertraute Schlüsselmotive von Reichs Musik. Aber die kleinen Loops scheinen nicht so scharf und gestochen wie sonst. Um in den sechziger Jahren aus den starren Regeln der seriellen Musik und der wenig flexiblen Tape Music auszubrechen brauchte es nicht nur Einfallsreichtum, sondern auch einen starken Willen, um den neuen Stil durchzusetzen. Und eben das hörte man in Steve Reich and Musicians damals. Hier auf dem Sónar spielt die männliche Besetzung des 216bcn mit weichen Anschlägen, unscharfen Übergängen – die Bildung einer neuen sanften mediterranen Interpretationsschule? Im Kontrast dazu bringen die vier Sängerinnen der Synergy Vocals in Music for 18 Musicians eine phänomenale Präzision zur Aufführung. Wie Synchronspringerinnen bewegen sie langsam ihre Mikros zum Mund und wieder zurück, alle vier in genau dem gleichen Augenblick, um das Lauter- und Leiserwerden hervorzuheben. So gewinnt der Klangteppich an räumlich-akustischer Plastizität, freilich immer noch ohne schneidende Kluften. Aber was sollen solche kleinen Nörgeleien. Schließlich spielen die Berliner Philharmoniker Debussy ganz anders als das Orchestre de Paris. Wer spielt dabei ‚richtig’?

Dennoch, je länger man dieser Musik lauscht, desto mehr Assoziationen kommen hoch. (War da nicht die Rede von einer neuen Nostalgie bei Sonar 2011…?) Man denkt an ein New York, bevor Bürgermeister Giuliani seine Straßen für Touristen sicher gemacht hatte, bevor er die Qualität des urban life verbesserte, als selbst für Amerikaner wie mich aus Los Angeles eine Reise nach New York Überfallängste heraufbeschwor. Da musste eine neuartige Musik ihre Existenz nicht nur ästhetisch begründen, sie musste sich mit einem kraftvollen aber nicht verbissenen Überlebensantrieb durchsetzen – drive – was Reich mit seiner Musik gelang.

Eine berauschende Mondfinsternis, laue Brisen, weiche Wellen plätschern am Strand von Barceloneta mit seinen After-Hours Clubs – Reichs abrupte Harmoniewechsel und drängelnde Rhythmen scheinen hier fehl am Platz. Die harten Anschläge und stechenden Rhythmen die anno 1974 den Zuhörer vom Sessel rissen gehören zu einer anderen Zeit. Ein Konzertbesucher meint, das klingt wie langsamer Techno, gespielt auf akustischen Instrumenten. Aber wer nur das hört, verpasst einen wesentlichen Schritt in der Musikgeschichte.

Wiederholung, Abwechselung, Reprise – das sind altbewährte Rezepte fast aller Gattungen der abendländischen Musikgeschichte. Aus dem alten Rezept etwas Neues zu schaffen? Das konnte wahrlich nicht jeder. Und als Steve Reich und die anderen Minimal Komponisten in den siebziger Jahren sich von den Fesseln der sogenannten ‚akademischen’ Musik frei schüttelten, sahen Kinder der Zeit, wie ich, ein Fenster in eine neue Epoche aufgehen. Eine Landschaft mit endlosem Potential für crossover, fusion, Mischung von E- und U-Musik, Spannung und Meditation. Heute gehört die Minimal Music zum musikalischen Kanon und wird an Hochschulen unterrichtet – ob nun mit oder ohne mediterranem Akzent.

Junge Weine sind ruppig und kantig. Mit den Jahren werden sie geschmeidig. Das sind die Guten. Kein schlechter Start für das Sónar Festival 2011.

Sónar 2011 fand vom 16. bis 18. Juni in Barcelona statt. www.sonar.es. Ein kleiner Ausschnitt dieses Artikels erschien in Zeit-Online am 17.6.2011.

Report on Ali Samadi Ahadi's film 'The Green Wave'

2011-02-24T09:14:00.003+01:00

Politically Purposed Music Genres

2010-11-15T12:03:00.003+01:00

Jennifer C. Lena and Richard A. Peterson, "Politically Purposed Music Genres". American Behavioral Scientist May 2011 vol. 55 no. 5 574-588.

Abstract

Building on previous work documenting musical genre forms in the United States, this exploratory study reports the discovery of a new type, which the authors term the politically purposed genre. They find two major types: those sponsored by governments, which benefit from national distribution and legal protection, and an anti-status quo type supported by an opposition party or constituency that shares its critique of the existing sociopolitical and economic order. Four nation-cases have been examined: the People’s Republic of China, Chile, Serbia, and Nigeria. The authors examine each case in turn and close with a discussion of the limitations and possibilities of this discovery.

Anglia Ruskin Cambridge, After-Thoughts

2010-01-03T05:04:00.003+01:00

Thanks to Dr. Jussi Parikka for inviting me, http://machinology.blogspot.com/2009/10/first-arcdigital-talk-of-semester-dr.html and to first-semester student Jimmy Murfitt (Toxic Dwarf) for his enthusiasm http://toxicdwarf.wordpress.com/2009/09/29/dr-joyce-shintani-digital-music-in-media-art-2009-highlights-trends-and-aesthetic-implications/ It was great visiting you!

George Saunders

2009-12-19T16:41:00.003+01:00

Thank you, Georges Saunders, for being a genius. http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2009/10/05/091005fi_fiction_saunders?printable=true http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.2070789/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={30235456-75D5-4E8B-AE3F-52969AAEC89F}&notoc=1

HfG, December 2009

2009-12-17T11:03:00.007+01:00

Spent yesterday at HfG -- faculty appointment lectures, Xmas exhibit and more.

The lecture of candidate Byung-Chul Han (Basel University) "Deconstruction in Chinese" blew us away. http://philsem.unibas.ch/seminar/personen/han/

As did media art student Doro Meyer's new installation:

This year's Xmas exhibit reveals German penchant for orderly Christmas Kitsch:

Open Source for Audio Application

2009-10-02T07:04:00.003+02:00

A tip from Jef Chippewa of the CEC / Canadian Electroacoustic Community: [E] eContact! 11.3 takes a look at open source and its application in the audio and sound world. The issue features an Open Source Travel Guide [wiki] -- an open resource in itself -- and articles discussing the reasons why and the ways in which people and institutions involved in electroacoustics are using and developing open source tools and environments. http://cec.concordia.ca/econtact/11_3/ http://cecpublic.pbworks.com/OpenSource

Noise Taser (LRAD) First US Use at G20, Pittsburg

2009-09-30T10:20:00.008+02:00

Thanks for the tip from Jussi Parikka at ARCDigital, Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge. http://www.anglia.ac.uk/ruskin/en/home/microsites/arc.html

Kudos to Sonar Press Team

2009-06-19T12:09:00.000+02:00

1000 grazie and muchissimas gracias to Giorgia Taglietti and Marco Lombardi !!

Sonar matica Niu Gallery

2009-06-19T11:57:00.009+02:00

Locally engaged multimedia gallery http://www.niubcn.com/. 3 playful and well executed works by http://www.juliolucio.com/ deserve notice.

Sonar matica Niu Gallery

2009-06-19T11:47:00.011+02:00

http://electronicperformers.in

Sonar, Hangar one

2009-06-19T11:32:00.001+02:00

Open workshop and platform for multimedia www.hangar.org, esp. Using inexpensive opensource arduino technology www.arduino.cc

Sonar. Waiting. Gourmet style @ Tapas24

2009-06-19T11:19:00.000+02:00

On the corner of passeig de gracia and carrer disputacio

Jeff Mills 'The Wizard' at Sonar Barcelona

2009-06-19T11:07:00.001+02:00

Total concentration. Filigrane fingers. Sublime mastery.

Arduino workshop at Hangar Sonar matic

2009-06-19T10:59:00.001+02:00

Barcelonas new air terminal

2009-06-17T17:12:00.000+02:00

New Year

2008-01-15T17:05:00.006+01:00

On January 6, I handed in my dissertation (I defend it in April). Life begins anew! Best wishes for a happy new year. thx to http://www.wordle.net/

Ethnomusicologists Against Music As Torture

2007-02-13T09:16:00.000+01:00

Statements can be found at:
The Nation
Society for Ethnomusicology
Susan Cusick's article

Theremin-Stück in Leipzig

2006-12-17T07:59:00.001+01:00

David Weinberger on Knowledge (2004)

2006-12-06T12:44:00.000+01:00

Terre Thaemlitz from YouTube

2006-12-03T13:36:00.000+01:00

Interview live at ICC and at ambient bar bullets:
"Piano version of Stormtrooper In Drag by Terre Thaemlitz from 1999 Album Replicas Rubato - the original was a 1981 7" release by Tubeway Army's bass player Paul Gardiner, mixed here with scenes from 2001 Space Odyssey":

Was Ist Kunst? Hans Haacke

2006-11-21T15:16:00.000+01:00

The San Francisco Filmore and the History of Psychedelic Music

2006-11-21T14:56:00.000+01:00

Water Surface Interface

2006-11-14T14:44:00.000+01:00

Thanks to William Osborne for these links.

Dirty Electronics at HfG 2006

2006-11-11T11:52:00.000+01:00

With David Strack

Donaueschingen Music Festival 2006

2006-11-08T15:13:00.000+01:00

Kira Kaunert's clip of the festival includes the following artists: Younghi Pagh-Paan (speaking), Julio Estrada (inhaling), Arditti Quartet (whipping), Alvin Curran (marching), Schönberg Ensemble Amsterdam (drilling) and SWR2 NOWJazz Session (jamming).

Ars electronica Linz day 2, A Day in the Country

2006-09-04T17:22:00.000+02:00

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Ars electronica Linz day 1, Gala

2006-09-03T13:47:00.000+02:00

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ars electronica Linz 2006

2006-09-01T17:21:00.000+02:00

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Istanbul

2006-09-01T17:17:00.000+02:00

A Tribute to Brooke "Brookers" Brodack and Video Art

2006-07-14T15:42:00.000+02:00

Can be viewed on Daily Motion

Sonar Day: Red Bull Lounge Ana Flavia

2006-06-23T23:47:00.001+02:00

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Sonar by Night: Dead Beat

2006-06-17T14:56:00.001+02:00

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Sonar by Day: SonarMatica "Blast Theory"

2006-06-17T14:50:00.000+02:00

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www.blasttheory.co.uk

Sonar by Night: "Insen" Concert with Ryuichi Sakamoto + Alva Noto (Carsten Nicolai)

2006-06-16T14:00:00.000+02:00

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Sonar by Day: Nick Collins + SuperCollider

2006-06-16T13:44:00.000+02:00

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Sonar by Day: Santa Monica Art Center

2006-06-16T13:42:00.000+02:00

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Sonar: Arrival + Sakamoto Press Conference

2006-06-14T19:56:00.000+02:00

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Announcing: Sonar Music Festival Barcelona

2006-06-13T23:19:00.000+02:00

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New Computer

2006-05-09T12:16:00.000+02:00

Tech note for non-techies: My old computer is a Sony Vaio. My new computer is a Mac Mini with an Intel dual core processor. It has the new and unusual capability of running both Windows XP and Mac OS X. However, in order to do this Apple's trial software named "Boot Camp" must be installed. All of this is not an easy matter and consumes a great deal of time, so that the user gets really robust training...

Dark News

2006-04-18T19:08:00.000+02:00

Potsdam: German Man Close to Death After Racist Attack

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"A German man of east African origin is fighting for his life after being brutally beaten up. But authorities say that while racial tensions have been rising in Potsdam, the attack is not part of a trend." (Deutsche Welle) Click here for a chronology of German supremacy and music.

Under Construction !!!

2006-04-18T09:54:00.000+02:00

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Vonnegut Without A Country

2006-04-12T08:59:00.000+02:00

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Vonnegut on NPR

Brokeback Mtn. Lie

2006-04-11T22:05:00.000+02:00

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Asian Bug Reporter

2006-04-11T00:00:00.000+02:00

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Vlog Map

2006-04-08T14:25:00.000+02:00

Hello Videobloggers -- We're on the map! Click here to go to the global Vlog Map and find Shintani's Vlog.

Broeckmann war da

2006-04-06T10:54:00.000+02:00

Andreas Broeckmann gave a lecture and an exclusive interview in Stuttgart on 5 April -- review coming soon. As background, you can read my review of the Transmediale 05, which appeared in Computer Music Journal.

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Broeckmann kommt !

2006-04-05T11:29:00.000+02:00

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2006-04-05T08:44:00.000+02:00

New Camera

2006-04-04T17:40:00.000+02:00

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Am. Music -- Chinaman, Laundryman

2006-04-04T04:14:00.000+02:00

Recently on Orchestra List, a Yahoo group, a lister wrote, "The current furor over immigration got me thinking - dangerous, I know. I'd like to put together an educational concert featuring music of America's 'immigrants.'" I suggest Ruth Crawford Seeger's Chinaman, Laundryman for voice and piano, written in 1932. 30 seconds can be heard on emusic.com (look for track nr. 8).

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Ellie Hisama gives a descrip-tion of this work in Chapter 4 of her excellent book, Gendering Musical Modernism (2001; extracts of the book visible at Amazon). For more information on Crawford Seeger see references at the bottom of the Wiki page.

What Is Music? Samite

2006-04-03T15:27:00.000+02:00

Samite and Uganda African children who have been forced to kill as soldiers are not a lost generation, according to Ugandan musician Samite.

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Hear how Samite proposes to help children with music at NPR, or go to NPR podcasts

Tea Lesson 2

2006-04-01T18:12:00.000+02:00

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Sokei Kuno: Fukusa sabaki

On wabi-sabi:
"It is difficult to define the two concepts of sabi and wabi unambiguously, since in their deepest sense they have to be felt rather than cognized.

‘It shows taste to tie up a noble courser in front of a thatched hut’ – this saying of Shuko’s contains both sabi and wabi.

The picture of a simple, thatched hut, preferably standing by itself amid a winter landscape, conveys to us the concept wabi. And a noble stallion tied up to, or in front of, this simple, lonely hut is sabi.

Not only does this aesthetic ideal embrace a mere simple beauty, but it has to be a beauty containing within itself the wabi feeling – a dark, subdued, yet pregnant beauty, the beauty of maturity.

Sabi is characterized by the absence of obvious beauty, by the beauty of the colorless as opposed to the resplendent, by the beauty of the perishable as against the exuberantly active. The concept sabi, then, carries the meaning of ‘aged’ in the sense of ‘infused with the patina which lends old things their beauty’ – but also tranquility, aloneness, deep solitude.

Taking this together with a pronouncement of the Yamanoe no Soji ki, we can begin to appreciate the ultimate goal of the ideal in question: ‘If a person has become a Grand Master of the Tea Ceremony and still possesses only one kind of tea utensil, this, to a wabi devotee, amounts to total perfection.’ Here, then, once again, the right attitude is seen as proceeding from the heart.

We can here detect the first appearance of the ‘imperfect’ in the Tea Ceremony. And this concept is likewise central to the Tea Way as a whole. But there is even more to the concept wabi than this. It involves the recognition of the limits of human will in the face of the universe, the respecting of one’s fellow-man as one sentient being among an infinite number of sentient beings, together with self-moderation and the will to self-effacement."

Excerpted from Zen in the Art of the Tea Ceremony by Horst Hammitzsch, ©1958, ISBN 090654002X (pp. 45-6).

Inspecting the hishaku Pouring water Warming the Ochawan (tea bowl)

Clash of Civilizations

2006-03-31T08:25:00.000+02:00

Samuel P. Huntington's The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order presaged what was manifest before the eyes of all on 9/11. In Europe, it is one of the main political themes of the day. Yet the role music plays in this conflict is seldom regarded by the disciplines concerned, like composition or musicology. This theme will occupy future blog postings here. Other art forms are more prescient, today's example being Iranian visual and video artist Shirin Neshat (b. 1957). Neshat's distress regarding certain aspects of the new, huge MoMA exhibit on Islamic art is expressed in an online article from the New York Observer that begins, "As an Iranian-American artist who was effectively exiled from her homeland, Shirin Neshat was happy to be included in an exhibition of artists from the Islamic world. But when the opportunity came—Without Boundary: Seventeen Ways of Looking opened at the Museum of Modern Art on Feb. 26—Ms. Neshat was upset." There is a good introduction to the exhibit here To be continued...

Tea Lesson in Stuttgart

2006-03-30T15:45:00.000+02:00

There are some small treasures to be discovered in Stuttgart. One of these is on the second floor of the Linden Museum, a stone's throw from the Liederhalle. There, several types of Japanese tea houses have been constructed. And it is there that Omotosenke Sensei Yaeko Heinisch holds her tea ceremony lessons. One of the reasons I wanted to take tea ceremony lessons once again was that Heinisch Sensei speaks of Wabi and its relationship to tea ceremony (Wabicha). Wabi-sabi, it seems, is a form of Japanese aesthetics that is difficult to transmit in words. It is at the basis of chanoyu, the way of tea, and of ikebana and other Japanese art forms. It also has a close tie to Zen. In her somewhat limited German, Heinisch Sensei said yesterday, "Wabi is beauty, but you can't see it. It is difficult to explain in German, because in German you describe something you can see as being beautiful. But Wabi is something that is missing, and the heart must complete it. That completing is Wabi." At least, that is what it seemed to me she didn't really say... Perhaps an approach that can be aesthetically helpful today

Click on the sweets below to download video clip (2MB).

My Vlog Begins

2006-03-30T10:44:00.000+02:00

In 1990 John Cage (d. 1993) said at Darmstadt, "In the morning after taking care, if I can, of my bodily functions, I water the plants... Some days I don't write music. I do graphic work or literary work. I also shop and cook... My idea is to go on living as long as I can. I want to experience the changes that will take place in humanity's relation to the earth on which it lives, if, that is, humanity on earth is to continue."

Lin-chi (Japanese, Rinzai, d. 867) is reported to have said, "Just be ordinary and nothing special. Relieve your bowels, pass water, put on your clothes, and eat your food. When you're tired, go and lie down. Ignorant people may laugh at me, but the wise will understand... As you go from place to place, if you regard each one as your own home, they will all be genuine" (A. Watts).

This morning I got up, relieved my bowels, ate breakfast, and started this video blog.

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