Fwd: The transit is the message

[claudia westermann]

>X-Delivery-Time: 1025443644
>Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2002 15:25:03 +0200
>Subject: The transit is the message
>From: domiziana giordano <domiziana at mail.nexus.it>
>
>
>----Sorry if has been sent twice-----
>
>
>This presentation took place at the University of Naples
>in which Derrick De Kerckhove and the music band Planet Funk also took part.
>
>THE TRANSIT IS THE MESSAGE
>by Domiziana Giordano
>University of Naples - Department of Sociology
>June 19th, 2002
>
>Piet Mondrian's work is a good example of how during the last century
>figurative arts went hand in hand with music. He was a fine connoisseur of
>the music of his time, and inspired by it to such an extent that his work
>represents the closest connection (or "contamination") between visual arts
>and music.
>This "musical language" can be found in those works he painted while living
>in the States in the thirties, works he appropriately called Boogie-Woogie.
>Here, the black lines are interrupted by a fine, transparent layer of white
>paint, almost as to say: «this is not an empty space, this is a pause».
>He thus creates a representation of rythm, that is transformed into a
>language in code by the use of a personalized symbol of sign and color.
>The empty space between the lines is none other than Silence, which in music
>is the pause that sets the rythm.
>The repetition of a pause through time creates Silence. A silence that is
>conventionally known as Music. As a matter of fact, in one of his
>compositions, John Cage only used this "note".
>
>In these last years technology has entered our everyday life, and various
>formal aspects have converged together during the evolution of the different
>expression modes, creating a new language: the Internet. This discovery
>could be compared to the birth of a new color of the rainbow.
>Its origins can be found in the invention of television's remote control -
>which could be considered the hardware of what has followed.
>Zapping from channel to channel has contributed to the birth of a hypertext
>(passive) language that has helped us to adapt to the Web's specific
>modalities and timing.
>This faster mental process makes it easier and quicker for us to digest
>information.
>We're not smarter, just faster, and the consequences from a neurological
>point of view are interesting. (topic that will not be analyzed here any
>further).
>"Hopping from one thing to the other" has trained the mind to jump from one
>assumption to the next, and the brain is now capable of processing
>information faster and using a less elaborated synthesis.
>This behavior has brought on a transformation on how information is
>understood, but it doesn't mean that human intellectual powers have evolved.
>This is an isomorphism at the heart of semiotic research that spills
>directly into a purely sociological subject.
>What's interesting about this linguistic evolution is that the sociological
>phenomenon is much more apparent now than in the past. The result is that
>the general level of culture has dropped, replaced by an ephemeral
>shallowness that does present interesting aspects because of its own formal
>linguistic evolution.
>And which are these substantial changes? A good example representative of
>modern society, could be the language used in Internet's chat rooms and in
>messages sent through mobile phones.
>Here we're faced with a grammatical and psychological synthesis. The word
>itself doesn't loose its purpose because of its misspelling but is often
>transformed in a series of acronysm belonging to a language that is
>recognized and understood by a specific group of people.
>A new concept of Tribe can thus be defined.
>
>Music itself is also personalized. The DJ is he/she who creates a unique yet
>reconstructable moment during which different tribes confront each other: a
>place where a meeting of the minds takes place that is approximate
>intellectually but filled with eloquent sign of belonging to a specific
>tribe. This pertaining to is expressed through clothing and movement that
>establish a new culture as interesting as the more learned one. At least
>from an anthropological point of view.
>There's a direct link between language, art and music.
>I personally think that music is the moving force behind this evolution.
>DJs create live and in discotheques, new personalized compositions that
>render homage to different musicians through the use of samples of
>pre-composed music.
>What' interesting about this way of composing is not the homage, the
>citation, but its lexical structure.
>
>The narrative mode, which can be applied to other forms of narration, can be
>found in the model of the Sonata.
>Refined during the 17th century, it deals directly with the structure of a
>musical idea. The score is divided in three movements: introduction,
>conflict, solution.
>In contemporary music, on the other hand, we have a musical excerpt that
>goes but doesn't return.
>The musical turn doesn't have the possibility of taking off because the
>rythm is blocked in the repetition of its first notes, in what is better
>known as the loop. The loop never evolves, and other rythm are added to it
>but don't contribute to the development of the song because it remains
>suspended, turning almost into a mantra.
>The interest lies in the loop, in the repetition; to dance at the same music
>that offers nothing but innumerable similar versions of itself
>The specificity of the loop is that it's the example the most reliable for
>understanding the Western World. This society is so fragile and distressed
>that, just to avoid thinking the direction in which it's headed, it repeats
>over and over again the same media output. A hypnotic repetition of clones.
>In Psychoanalysis, this search for a sense of security is quite normal
>during the infant stage, but it's clearly considered a regression if it
>takes place during adulthood.
>
>Security lies in seeing and living the same sensation, sign, and sound, in
>their continuous repetition.
>Everything moves fast but stays the same.
>What's missing is the isomorphism of the message. What's more important is
>the passage, the fact of "being there".
>
>Mc Luhan stated that "the Medium is the Message". Now it's time to say; "the
>Transit is the Message". This self-referring process brings us back to the
>terms of Gödel's Theorem of  Incompleteness.
>
>The contents isn't interesting any more, it has ceased to exist, and if it
>is there, it cannot be stopped and analyzed for lack of time. Everything
>flows, everything is in transition. What's important is to transit and be
>part of the flow.
>
>
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>DG / DSI                dsi at DigitalSistersIndeed.org
>
>It was pure bliss
>               when I finally achieved silence.
>
>
>>  http://www.digitalsistersindeed.org/
>
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