March 29, 2012

cyrus: Some thought bubbles before they float away…

DIY started as an option to it not getting done at all. You recorded your music yourself because if you didn’t no one else would. You published your own zine because if you didn’t no one else would

For some DIY became a choice. “I choose to release this art myself even though I have offers from commercial interests. I make this choice to retain artistic control, artistic integrity, etc. because it means something to me to do so.”

Now DIY is a brand? And can be bought and displayed like any other brand? “I bought this DIY looking chair” versus “I made this chair from things I didn’t buy so I didn’t have to spend money?” Has it always been branded? It feels silly to think about an honest attempt to reclaim the means of production being turned into its own alienation.

I still think DIT (or the more rocking DIO that was suggested) might be a better model. Individuals are easily controlled. Groups are messy and unpredictable; anticapitalist.

While I think the role of the individual in the creation of art has been hugely over-emphasized (it seems there is always a go-go manager, rich patron, or miracle grant behind “individuals”) in the attempt to make us value their art over our own and buy their work instead of creating our own, I have never thought part of that role included telling the audience what the work means! Because they can’t figure it out on their own. Beacuse they aren’t experts. Because they’re not paid to do artwork. Because their opinion somehow doesn’t matter.

Incredible! Art doesn’t have meaning, it IS meaning! And everyone can understand, because there is no one understanding. There isn’t a right way and a wrong way. What century is this guy living in! Most art isn’t in museums, just like most music isn’t in concert venues. The fear that this guy thinks artists are operating under doesn’t exist. Institutions like the one that this guy runs make programming choices. If he wants more adventurous music all he has to do is program it. IT IS EVERYWHERE.

A reminder that 4GRE blog is open to sumbissions/reactions/images/writings/ideas/etc. send to C@4gre.org or click SUBMIT in tumblr.

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(Notes: 6)
  
Filed under: DIY DIT DIO NO experts art meaning brand music 
March 20, 2012

It is technically prohibited to make music in most parks across the USA. Who knows why this is the case. It is definitely one of the stupider prohibitions I have come across. I have disobeyed this prohibition many times, today being the most recent. I suggest that we all go out into our local parks, which are public spaces, and make some music this spring. Take an instrument to play and/or a song to sing. If you need a song, you could sing this one to the tune of row row row your boat:

music is ours

to write and play and sing

if we make it every day

see what change we’ll bring

4:09pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zo4-jxIINGLD
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(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: parks street music public space spring songs sing now 
February 22, 2012
cyrus: The bottom part of my alto saxophone was dented beyond use when I got it in 2003. None of the pads closed all the way. It was impossible to make a good sound. Nothing below the two right hand pinkie keys worked. I knew this before I bought it ($70 with soft case!) and used the rest of the instrument, which worked just fine, without giving it a second thought until I was packing to come home from Buenos Aires. I had the idea to cut off the part that didn’t work to both reduce the overall weight we were travelling with and also to make available a little more packing space. I didn’t have access to a hacksaw so I just took off all the unfunctional keywork and put chopping it on my to-do list for when I returned to the USA. It has turned out that cutting away the dented, un-working, upturned horn has liberated the instrument’s sound. While before the saxophone was loud, it is now deafening. The sound lasers directly outward instead of being forced to make an upwards u-turn. There are no longer any dented sections or loose-fitting pads to rob the horn of its high-frequency metallic ping. It sounds like when the muffler fell off my car. R.R. Kirk was definitely onto something!  

cyrus: The bottom part of my alto saxophone was dented beyond use when I got it in 2003. None of the pads closed all the way. It was impossible to make a good sound. Nothing below the two right hand pinkie keys worked. I knew this before I bought it ($70 with soft case!) and used the rest of the instrument, which worked just fine, without giving it a second thought until I was packing to come home from Buenos Aires. I had the idea to cut off the part that didn’t work to both reduce the overall weight we were travelling with and also to make available a little more packing space. I didn’t have access to a hacksaw so I just took off all the unfunctional keywork and put chopping it on my to-do list for when I returned to the USA.

It has turned out that cutting away the dented, un-working, upturned horn has liberated the instrument’s sound. While before the saxophone was loud, it is now deafening. The sound lasers directly outward instead of being forced to make an upwards u-turn. There are no longer any dented sections or loose-fitting pads to rob the horn of its high-frequency metallic ping. It sounds like when the muffler fell off my car. R.R. Kirk was definitely onto something!

 

9:47pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zo4-jxGstsB_
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Filed under: saxophone cut rr kirk muffler ussa 
February 14, 2012

cyrus: you can only watch so many documentaries about dead people in a day…

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(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: theremin moog u2 
February 6, 2012

mediageek365: DIY is step one

 I agree that DIY as an end in itself can be unsatisfactory. However, another side to it is that it has to start with one’s self. Yes, that self-motivation might be encouraged or even sparked by others, and might first take form as collaborative action. But in many activities of art, the first practice is by one’s self. As well, solitary practice can be satisfying and rewarding in itself. But, I do agree that it is not necessarily sufficient, and that there are many rewards to doing it together. 

I’m not so sure that doing it yourself, by yourself, is necessarily tied to consumer capitalism, either as a dependent or co-dependent. I might argue, in fact, that consumer capitalism relies upon a certain kind of togetherness that can only be valued in terms of exchange rates (money). It tends to be associated with a certain brand of individualism because it subordinates all other forms of collaborative action to financial exchange, which encourages an illlusion of independence if you only have enough money and stuff. (but what good is money if there’s nobody to buy from?).

So perhaps DIY is step one, and there is a real need for step two (and three, and four).

a reminder that 4GRE blog is open to sumbissions/reactions/images/writings/ideas/etc. send to C@4gre.org or click SUBMIT in tumblr.  

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(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: diy submissions steps dit art practice submission 
February 3, 2012

cyrus: “Do It Yourself” which was such a revelation and has been such a guiding/pushing force suddenly feels something like a missed opportunity. The idea of not having to wait for permission or sanction or acceptance or funds to make art, music, clothes, food, furniture, etc; of self-motivating and following an idea from its germination to its realization is still so huge. But I think that deciding to just “do it yourself” too often means you end up “doing it by yourself.” D.I.T. or “Do It Together” might have been a better choice. Collective mass action is so much more powerful than isolated individualism which relies so heavily on advertising and marketing to make a wide impact. D.I.T. means everyone plays in the same band instead of everyone has their own band. D.I.Y. creates an economy out of individual producers. D.I.T. destroys that economy because everyone creates the same one product and they then already all have it.

 I think we could get something out of D.I.T.— probably not money, but maybe the experience of collective action is better than money. It could bring whatever individual money was going to purchase to everyone now without waiting for permission or sanction or acceptance. .. . 

a reminder that 4GRE blog is open to sumbissions/reactions/images/writings/ideas/etc. send to C@4gre.org or click SUBMIT in tumblr. 

6:13pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zo4-jxFqhs11
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(Notes: 5)
  
Filed under: diy DIT now people 1977 action 
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