Heidegger had this idea, crudely put, that artists and craftspeople have to be receptive and tuned in to the demands of their instruments and their environments--an idea I explore in my film Being in the World--and that this attunement allows for a dialogue with the world which opens up a space for meaning . Technology usually obviates the need for this receptivity by making things that just do what we want them to do (compare and contrast the relationship of a cello player in a quartet to someone hitting play on an iPod track for example--the former individuates the player from other players, the space in which they play from other spaces in the world, the time at which they play from other times, etc., the ipod can be played by anyone, anywhere, at any time, so meaningful differences between people, places and times are leveled.) I always suspected that (some) people have a natural tendency to fight this leveling by appropriating technological devices in a new way. The example I always use is the DJ-a record player may have been made for passive, unskilled listening by anyone, but the dj takes up this same device and individuates herself through her own skill, style and unique relationship with the records she plays, and forces a kind of active relationship with the instrument that it wasnt originally intended for. This type of resistance that doesnt look backwards gives me hope, as new spaces are opened up for memorable, meaningful, unique experiences (a great party where the dj plays for example.) Then theres another idea of Heideggers--that certain individuals disclose new worlds--usually artists, by taking up some marginal practice and transforming the culture, by holding up a new style and way of being that helps humans understand who they are, *at that particular time and place in history*. (a central tenet of existentialism being that what it means to be human changes from era to era or from person to person--as Sartre famously put it existence precedes essence) I think Bob Moog is both someone who uses technology against itself by allowing for a sensitive tuned in relationship to a technological device, and is also a transformational world discloser who allowed a new style to overtake the culture with this instrument--and watching this film you see that he is aware of these deep distinctions: He talks about being sensitive to the transistors in a way much like a violin maker has to be sensitive to the wood he sculpts into the instrument (And its not a coincidence I think, that he loves gardening--one of the great activities of dialogue with the world that doesnt allow one to just impose ones will.) : https://youtube/watch?v=Us-HXqy5GXQ
Posted on: Sat, 27 Dec 2014 00:49:45 +0000
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