[microsound] New York in the 80's (was Rhys Chatham)

[John Hopkins]

>I second that.
>I live in Austria and there is a very interesting music scene here. But Italy is crazy. Don't ask my why! I don't know if they make much (or any) money (and I doubt it) but there is so much great music coming from Italy.
>I'd also include Scandinavia into the mix.

yeah, after 20 years of Euro media art work and teaching in DE, NL, BE, FI, NO, IS, UK, CZ, FR, AT, and the Baltic States -- compared to the US, things have been much better on the east side of the Atlantic than on the west...  The relatively abundant flow of subsidies to culture and education has kept me pretty busy (though not rich).  And many European friends do quite well as working artists between occasional teaching, residencies, commissions, stipends, and awards.

That said, the evolution in Europe is towards US models of capitalism which don't give a damn about education and culture (another words, the Eurozone is under a lot of pressure to drop cultural and social subsidies in order to remain competitive in a global market).  The most recent economic collapse may slow this evolution, but I think it will also put an enormous pressure on the culture sector to cut back what have been pretty lavish funding (esp. compared to the US)...

One of the biggest problems in the US is that the almost total lack of cultural funding has driven artists into academia with IMHO disasterous results -- the isolation of what could be a great cultural sector in 'ivory towers' which are more or less disconnected from a vibrant mixed local communities..

And, having just spent most of last year living, working, and teaching in Berlin, things are pretty darn active there still -- there is a tremendous number of artists from around the globe who are landing there, and any night of the week you can find interesting sonic things happening (among many other art expressions...)...

I lived in NYC in Chelsea in the mid-80's working in the photo biz and one thing to be said about NYC then was it was fuckin' dangerous -- crack was really hitting the place and gun were rampant -- Chelsea was downright bad, absolutely nothing of what it is now.  As for the art scene, there were cool things happening, but IMHO, not exceeding Berlin these days.

And the thing about Europe that I really appreciate is that in most places you can walk around without a fear of getting gunned down!

I have always believed that there are times and places that come and go for energized intersections of people, funding, housing, politics, and talent...  the US hasn't had that in a long time, except on some more localized convocations of folks, one can only hope (and work towards situations) that arise in the future...  It's mostly about people coming together...

On amazing example of Euro-abundance was a situation that functioned in Denmark for a time -- where any group of 5 or more people could come together chosing a subject that they wanted to study (say, performance, or film or something more obscure), and the state would pay for a teacher, a place for study, and the materials necessary!

WOW, imagine that!  Having microsound clusters in towns across the US, each with small production studios! 

dream on...

jh