I'm High Maintenance Remix

More on this 123rd Disquiet Junto project — “Help Gizmodo.com record the soundscape of the home of the future” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/05/08/disquiet0123-homeofthefuture/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Gizmodo.com Home of the Future at:

http://homeofthefuture.gizmodo.com/

First off, I wanted to say that I love these little project suggestions and general aims of the Junto.

However, I nearly reject the premise of this particular assignment suggestion. There have long been predictions or guesses about the form and function of future technologies. It seems pretty clear to say that most projections into future life have been far off. There is a tendency here in fact to vastly over-project the pace of technological achievement and particularly with regard to its actual dissemination to the public or common citizenry. 

So far it's safe to say that future projections have consistently offered us two things 1. Ideas that actually end up influencing the current and later developmental trends in technology and 2. a relatively coherent projection of ourselves. This is in the sense that what a society says about their concept of the future says more about the society itself that's actually making the projection. Clearly, much of what we make of the future depends on our current outlook in the present.

In the end, it would seem that this particular assignment is not only asking us to produce a specific sound but this task is heavily dependent on the creator's position on the future of 'homes'. Thus in order to produce audio, an opinion and interpretation must be formed rather than preconceived for participants.

Given that we are being asked to form our own opinions, the task does not specify 'home for whom'. It seems to suggest that all homes are exactly the same in the future, rendering inequality non-existent. This subtle omission actually guides participants into the thinking that the future is on the more positive end of the spectrum. So, there is an insistence that we need to have opinions about the future, but then there's also the suggestion that it be a positive one. It's about homes, it's run by gizmodo, a technocratic fanboy publication, etc. The suggestion is subtle but the crafting is very clear. The opinion of the participant is in some way sculpted albeit for the most part implied. Many self-respecting artists would easily have a problem with just that.

The position of the future has shifted greatly over time and throughout, often being shaped by the outlook of our current state. During the 60's Star Trek era, we would perhaps share a hopeful positive view with a desire to thrust ourselves into it. To be perfectly frank of the present, in my opinion, I've seen many projections of the future come and go. I've seen absurd customs of the past resurrected both ironically and actually for real dead seriously. Currently trending now, we seem to be holding out for the impending zombie apocalypse. 

My take on the future is 1. we spend so much time thinking about the future technologically and artistically and 2. it never really seems to take off. We don't have our flying cars that we predicted we'd have fifty years ago. In fact, in ten or twenty years we probably won't and I doubt much about things in general will differ greatly from today. 

Further, given our strange obsession with objects retro, it may very well turn out that the future home may be the exact same one we have now except recycled with all appliances found at a second hand store and re-fetishized by future hipsters. The alarms on our phones will sound exactly the same and they will be fashionable and interesting for being old and rare. The refrigerator will still be the same problematic waste of resources it is today, especially if you have an older model. In the future, like today, I imagine people will forever cling to things of the past out of novelty and out of the impetus to avoid the wasteful act of trashing otherwise perfectly salvageable objects. 

Unfortunately, in the modern commercial world some garbage is more wasteful if it's not thrown out, social attitudes included. In the end, I'll gladly let gizmodo keep all its preemptively obsolete gizmos in exchange for America back. This is about as hopeful as I can get about any vision of the future in all sincerity. Thank you.

Some things about the future seem more or less certain:

1. Catastrophic disasters aside, the human population will continue to increase.

2. First World humans will continue to consume the same levels of energy if not more. There may be different sources of energy in the future, but there is a very flaccid to non-existent effort at seriously committing to consuming less energy. There are a lot more iPhones though. In fact, never before have I seen so many 'essential' products we must plug in and charge or we're screwed because that's our only connection point to that particular information or service. 

3. As the population increases, noise pollution will increasingly become a more contentious issue. We will be forced to produce more and more noise simply to mask more and more noise. Technology at some point will have a noise consciousness war. This is true and already happening to some extent.

4. We will continue to entertain ourselves in the midst of everything we do and conversely we will continue to work while being entertained. In the future, it's possible that these things will become increasingly intertwined for certain classes of labor. 

Production:

In the making of this work, I decided that the only honest way to render this sound was to actually invent a future refrigerator, washer/dryer, home security system, solar generator, food replicator, and 3D printer just so I could sample them for this production on future homes. It was not an easy task but I imagine that many of you are now hearing these products for the first time. Unfortunately, after I finished my track I realized that it was no longer the future anymore but the past. In the end, I acknowledge my failure and apologize for the way that time works. In the future, I may find some use for these future home appliances I'm left with; or now that I've finished this assignment, I may have no use for them anymore. I might as well just scrap them and try to make something more interesting next time. 

Multi-Use, Multi-Zoned, Live and Work Space of the Future (Disquiet0123 Home of the Future)

I Drink Dem

The most notoriously hypnotic of them all gets shredded for added hypnotic effect. Now the original might actually be able to say and do what it really meant in the first place. This updated rendition acknowledges the truly retarded and schizophrenic nature of commercial music video culture, but mostly it expresses the original intention more literally - we as the music industry are deliberately attempting to brainwash you.

Hypnotize You



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