I was going to post some thoughts on here about this project in particular and my experiences of similar projects and non-projects (ie life experiences) in general. Also about my sympathies with SOME of the view points of ALL posters here. But... since I am neither going to 'rah, 'rah, 'rah nor grump, grump, grump I'll keep them to myself.
eh, ros?
I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Don't do it Ros, you will be hounded off if your comments don't agree with all these others... trust me, I tried.
A
No, I AM going to have a go, partly because I have some respect for both you and Mart, and also because I would like to share my own feelings after thinking hard (and I mean that) about this over the last couple of days.
First of all, a little anecdote. About ten years ago, I accidentally locked myself out of my house. My wife wasn't due back home for about three hours, I had a loan dog with me (ie one we were looking after), it was about 11pm at night, and I didn't fancy wandering the backstreets of Greater Manchester even with a pooch at my heels. It was a warm evening (May, I think), so I sat on the doorstep. I live on a fairly quiet road and the wiring of my brain looked to create some sort of structure out of the three hours I knew I had at my disposal. I counted cars. I think there were about 140 of them passed the house in those three hours. I found it a deeply therapeutic experience, and, in its way, quite profound, to find a space of time being carved up by the chance event of a car passing by. In a way, a car emphasised the silence on either side of it, it made me look deeper into what was going on in that silence (and time) and in a mysterious way the "vertical" silence and the "horizontal" passage of time became one and the same, the passing cars acts of violent proportions. That experience has stayed with me. It is unique to me. I found depth in the mundane, the quotidian. What I cannot do is to share that depth with anyone else. (Even though I am describing it to you now.) Therefore, what I did was not art. Therefore? I hear some of you ask... That 'therefore' is my own particular 'line in the sand'. What I experienced may or may not have approached the profundity I sometimes (rarely) experience listening to music; I saw it then and see it now as a clarification of some perceptions about art and music rather than either art or music itself.
I would like to offer a thought to MLK - that what he is doing, and some of the techniques he is using, is more akin to psychotherapy than artistic endeavour. (Provocation without explanation is a common therapeutic tool.) Encouraging one to think more deeply about the everyday - a hugely valuable exercise. But the state reached by the participants (if I understand correctly and my little anecdote has any resonance) is surely only of the sort of PERSONAL value I have described above. (And CD's water drinking comes into that category too, IMO). If, later, a composition (with sounds) results from the collected data, then of course that needs to be judged on its own merits.
I read through the whole of this thread last night and have to say I was as bemused by the cheers as the less positive comments. Even on M&S there were those who were outraged by the idea until they realised that MLK was for real - context is all, it seems. (Which reminds me of a line or three that came unbidden to my mind when I started reading this thread - "Hey diddle diddle will rank as an idyll if I pronounce it chaste"...)
'A', I think stands for the views of many, many music lovers everywhere, and I don't think one can ignore that fact - or if one does one is guilty of the worst sort of artistic arrogance. Baz has been asking some probing questions and as far as I can see not really getting anything other than obfuscation in return. Ron's point about MLK coming from a different age is extremely pertinent - and, for me, at less than twice his (MLK's) age, it is deeply depressing. Am I so far removed from artistic reality in 2007 that MY reality is no longer relevant?
I haven't time to continue this now. It is I hope clear that I am being genuinely questioning and not dismissive - as I said, I have been thinking hard about this - but I would also caution that those who are dismissing A and Baz are giving MLK's idea the status (dare I say it) of a cult... ie being exclusive rather than inclusive, of implying that initiation is necessary before being welcome... you see where I'm going. Please don't let that happen.
