During the Peace Walk on Sunday, June 7, 2020, all who gathered took a knee in front of the Berrien Springs High School while the walk’s student organizers read out a list of names of black lives taken through brutality and murder by police and vigilantes . After each name was read, the crowd of over 1,000 people responded with cries of "I can't breathe!" When the students reached George Floyd's name on the list and read it out, again the gathered people cried out "I can't breathe" and then fell silent for eight minutes and forty-six seconds—the length of time that Derek Chauvin kept his knee pressed to the neck of George Floyd while murdering him. During this silence, the sound of an arial drone could be heard buzzing overhead, along with the distant hum of vehicles on the village’s streets. 

Two days ago, PLATO & the Western Tradition (who have been creating as a Postmodern Improvisation Ensemble for more than 30 years), raised their creative voices in search of justice and equality by posting this original track:

https://soundcloud.com/plato-3/plato-no-7336-against-brutality

In this contribution to “Weaving Indra’s Net” I have explored a new node through the addition of a field recording I gathered during the Peace Walk. In listening to this new strand you can hear the calling out of each name, but miss the real-time immediate response of “I can’t breathe”. The first time you hear the full call and response of a name and “I can’t breathe” comes after the reading of George Floyd’s name. This is immediately followed by the 8:46 section of amplified ambient silence, where in the first moments you can just make out a voice commenting that “someone has a drone.” Gradually PLATO’s meditation rejoins this amplified silence. After the 8:46 portion, an electronically re-coded version of the crowd’s responses are heard one after another in trio form to conclude the piece. The left channel is sped up by 13 percent and the right channel is slowed by 13 percent, while the middle channel plays out in real time at exactly the pace of the unified crowd responding.

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Please seek out organizations committed to demanding justice for All and support them with your action and donations. There are many possibilities for this including:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory

https://www.naacpldf.org
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This recording includes material from PLATO & The Western Tradition, No. 7336, ‘Against Brutality.’

If you would like to participate in the “Weaving Indra’s Net” project, please see below:

PLATO & The Western Tradition invites others in the Electronic Music Community to participate in the creation of an on-line compilation called “Weaving Indra’s Net.” Here are the “rules”:

1. Download from @plato-3 any of the improvisations by PLATO & The Western Tradition that capture your attention.
2. Use some or all of what you download as a part of your own music making.
3. Post your piece to SoundCloud, and post the SoundCloud link on Plato’s FaceBook page: www.facebook.com/PLATOandTheWesternTradition
4. Please comply with our Creative Commons attribution requirement (see creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) by including in your description of your piece this language: “Includes material from PLATO & The Western Tradition, No. 2811, ‘Limitless Geometries’”. (You should substitute the number and title of the piece that you are using.)
5. PLATO will organize and maintain the compilation as a playlist titled “Weaving Indra’s Net” on the PLATO SoundCloud site.

Please post any questions or comments on the FaceBook page listed above.

PLATO No. 7336 Against Brutality (I Can't Breathe Version)

heart-open & earth-honoring 
synthesist & field-recordist 
journalist & dreamtime walker
visualist & connector
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The seemingly limitless manifestations that are observed during improvisational performance of electronic audiovisual materials drive me to seek collaborative interactions between compositional systems, machines, and myself. In holding space to facilitate an emergence of indeterminate phenomenon through analog synthesis, feedback systems, and field recordings, I share elements from multiple sources to celebrate shapes, patterns, and spaces.
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I hold BAs in Art and English from Andrews University, and am currently enrolled in the Electronic Integrated Arts MFA at Alfred University. I was an artist in residency in 2017 at Signal Culture in Owego New York and in 2015 at Sachaqa Centro De ARTE, San Roque Peru. My visual works, and live electronic improvisational performances, have been featured across Peru, at The MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, and throughout the Midwest of America.
 
Note: Much of the work here is subtle in nature and I encourage you to listen via headphones or using a decent system whenever possible. Most computer speakers will not reveal the tracks fully.  Unless otherwise noted in the track description, everything is recorded direct to stereo track live and on the fly with no overdubs. Thanks for stopping by and listening!

PLATO No. 7336 Against Brutality (I Can't Breathe Version)

337is (three three seven is)