Monday, December 10, 2007

migration, the gomboc and an allegory...
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...:::...i've been recently turned on by ideas from david wilcove's new book, no way home: the decline of the world's greatest animal migrations. i turned up the radio while making dinner the other night to hear an interview with him on npr's fresh air...

i was caught by the question of how animals know when and where to migrate...and beyond the well-tested strata of evolution, how climate change has been both erasing certain environments as well as not giving the proper timing cues to animals to "move". as a result, this has disturbed an equilibrium in the food chain and made it unstable, shifted it's axis and center of gravity...(consider a bird that may get it's migratory cues from light versus an insect that gets it from changing temperatures...the food source that the hardwired bird has always known to be in a certain place at a certain time suddenly is no longer there...). the inevitable outcome of this: extinction...

in many ways i think there is a similar threat to the migration of ideas...that discrete thoughts are at risk of being eclipsed by a global norm. it often seems that creative habitats are shrinking, becoming less and less diverse. i think that the exchange of information today is so rapid and accessible that the environments that were once created by a confluence of different ideas are becoming more and more marginalized...shrinking away. instead, cultural monocultures are being manufactured...a rosy apple on the shelf, but mealy and flavorless to the bite...


maybe slowing down is a good way to counter this. to wait for compulsion, desire, clarity to set in before moving onto the next thing. to know feeling in a place. david wilcove ended the interview on migration by describing it as a genetic program that is based on faith. something so deeply rooted in animals and in us (unless you go herzog and examine whether people are really a part of nature anymore anyway) that despite not knowing what has occurred between where we are and where it is that we need to go, we go anyway. because we have to...because we are compelled to...because we are curious. "it is a marvel and a vulnerability"...vulnerable: we are most certainly and wonderfully...

the discovery of the gomboc this year has taken the place of the weeble in my heart. it is the first known homogenous object with one stable and one unstable equilibrium point, thus two equilibria altogether on a horizontal surface...(in other words, it is made of an uniform material and is self-righting (unlike the weeble which is weighted)). i believe people can be like this: capable of self-righting techniques...emotionally angled and balanced through introspection, awareness, perception, creativity, innovation, intelligence...that culture evolves through idea-migration, gaining strength from challenging or accepting other discrete ideas...enriching habitat...

spreading the meme: i was asked to participate in the blogariddims series that is being hosted on weareie. it will be an allegorical mix. i made the initial track selections and handed it off to slug who resounded and obliterated my pre-conceived notions of what i thought a mix might sound like with the given track selection and order. instead, he has turned it into an unexpected one hour ambiant/techno/avante garde mix (performed live via max/msp (max/msp patch development and interpretation by slug)). the familiar tracks i knew have been distorted and i've enjoyed getting lost in it and guiding myself back when i hear an occasional hint...a familiar loop, an associative moment, hooked. be on the look out for it earlier next week...:::...


download: 071210-modyfier-part01

scratch massive – dance (siskid’s gnashing teeth dance final mix) : may 2007 on chateau rouge

guillaume & the coutu dumonts – they only come out at night : nov 2007 on musique risquee

lopazz – 2 fast 4 u (julian ganzer remix) : nov 2007 on get physical music

black devil disco club – another strange skin (polar pair remix) : nov 2007 on lo recordings

dirt crew – how does it feel (tom
clark remix) : nov 2007 on dirt crew
shackleton – next to nothing (guillaume & the coutu dumonts remix) : oct 2007 on crosstown rebels

tolcha & soom t – what about us (al haca burial) : oct 2007 on meta

heinrichs & hirtenfellner – ear worm : oct 2007 on karateklub

goldfish und der dulz – 13 klange (plasmik remix) : nov 2007 on dessous recordings

marco resmann – candle dipper : nov 2007 on upon.you records

h.o.s.h. – white elephant : nov 2007 on kindisch

jor-el – heart beat : oct 2007 on international deejay gigolo

audiofly x – blink : oct 2007 on get physical music


download: 071210-modyfier-part02


chromeo – bonafied lovin (jori hukkonen remix) : nov 2007 on turbo recordings

fairmont – fade and saturate : nov 2007 on border community

minilogue – orglar b : oct 2007 on minilogue

till von sein – gestern (efdemin remix) : nov 2007 on morris audio citysport edition

zoexenia – can’t sleep : oct 2007 on connaisseur recordings

francois k – road of life (quiet village remix) : nov 2007 on deep space

stewart walker – perfecting theories : nov 2007 on pulsewith

john keys – a caballo por manhattena : oct 2007 on crosstown rebels

onur ozer – synkope (daniel stefanik remix) : dec 2007 on vakant

al haca – baby blue feat. rqm & olive grimball : jul 2007 on meta polyp

monosylabik – push feat. bee : nov 2007 on kitty-yo

parov stellar – lost in
amsterdam : oct 2007 on etage noir recordings
e.stonji – swim suite (part i) : oct 2007 on kitty-yo

scsi-9 – another day acid : oct 2007 on kompakt

2 Comments:

Blogger ForwardEver said...

Looking forward to Modyfier in the mix -- and with Max, should be interesting!

The migration situation is indeed disturbing. I'm an optimist though, and I feel that people, nations, are waking up to the crisis, and will tidy the stage before the curtain closes on this grand act of life.

But one thing's for certain: Wal-Mart's gotta go! (and not just it, but the idea of it).

11:53 PM  
Blogger Philip Sherburne said...

you've read michael pollan's the botany of desire, no? if not you really must. not exactly related to your discussion of migration patterns, but very much related to the question of monocultures, evolution and extinction.

6:24 PM  

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