Tascam TSR-8 Demonstration

Morning Side / Evening Side: Being and Becoming

Some Rules

SOME RULES 

Well planted is not uprooted,
well kept is not lost.
The offerings of the generations to the ancestors
will not cease.
To follow the way yourself is real power.
To follow it in the family is abundant power.
To follow it in the community is steady power.
To follow it in the whole country is lasting power.
To follow it in the world is universal power.
So in myself I see what self is,
in my household I see what family is,
in my town I see what community is,
in my nation I see what a country is,
in the world I see what is under heaven.
How do I know the world is so?
By this.
~Tao Te Ching, Chapter 54. Ursula Le Guin Translation

Headphones recommended.

See Yourself As Others (Chapter 54)

CG 2.2

2.4.21 CG 2.5

2.5.21 CG 1.5

The inspiration of this piece comes from concepts found in cognitive anthropology. Cognitive anthropology uses Ward Goodenough's definition of culture, which may be paraphrased as what one needs to know in order to function in a society [toward a working theory of culture]. This suggests that an individual's knowledge is shared by others in the community and, therefore, an individual's behavior can be interpreted by others in that society.

 

Although an individual's knowledge is shared with members of the community, it is not equally shared. Some members of the community have more cultural knowledge than others. One way that I think of culture is as an information storage unit, with individuals supplying pieces of information. This suggests that cultural variability supplies fragments of information to the cultural whole, that is, the sum (culture) is more than its parts (the individual). It is this intracultural diversity that fosters innovation and adaptability within a cultural system [Dressler Cult and the Individual,p. 45].

I attempted to experiment with sound by using concepts related to cultural knowledge to sequence notes of a scale pattern. I played the pattern into the sequencer of a Moog synthesizer. I subtracted notes at random, suggesting cultural knowledge, and then recorded the sequence on track 1. Next I changed the voice of the synth to represent individual variation. I then randomly selected notes within the sequence to represent cultural knowledge and recorded this into track 2. I repeated this process 16 times and mixed down the results. Some sequences contain several notes of the scale, while others contain only a single note of the scale. This is to represent the degrees of cultural knowledge that an individual may possess (that is, some individuals possess more cultural knowledge than others, represented here by the amount of information a sequence has of the scale).
 

Once all of the tracks were recorded I mixed them down using an additive process. Only one track was enabled at the beginning of the mixdown. After 15 seconds another track was enabled. This continued until all of the tracks were enabled.


While I don't think this first attempt at recording was completely successful, I found the idea interesting and feel that there are possibilities for future experiments.

frolix8