[microsound] Golden Ratio discovery [may be of interest to someone]

[David Powers]

There's a big difference between using these events to make a cheap
shot and seriously reflecting on the implications they have for being
human. To ignore them is to say that history doesn't matter; and I
think history really DOES matter. I am also very influenced by
philosophers related to the Jewish tradition (Benjamin, Adorno, Marx,
Fromm, Freud, Scholem, Spinoza) and even, although I'm an atheist,
aspects of the Judaic religion, such as the concept of "tikkun olem"
("repairing the world"). So there's a reason for my choice of example
that you couldn't have known.

Anyway, to me the idea of suffering, remembrance, and redemption is at
the core of my artistic practice. I strongly believe that art should
reflect the pain of human existence, and that we shouldn't try to
gloss over how cruel the universe is and naively pretend we can live
in harmony with the world as it exists now. Maybe you have a knee jerk
reaction to the mention of Auschwitz, but it sounds like that's your
problem; I fail to see how that would invalidate my statements... I
could just as easily have mentioned a million other horrific
historical events, I just picked the one that is most universally
recognized as a catastrophe.

~David

On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 2:01 PM, babilano <babilano at chello.nl> wrote:
> I hereby swear to never refer to the holocaust or the nazi's to make a point
> ever again.
> serge
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 1:45 PM, David Powers <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> As per these claims that "the universe is a complete whole," I can
>> only say that if this is so, then in a world that produced Auschwitz,
>> "the universe is a complete HELL."
>>
>> I prefer to imagine that reality is ontologically open, creation is
>> incomplete, and freedom is a real though extremely fragile
>> possibility.
>>
>> This profoundly influences my idea of music, in that I do not believe
>> great music establishes some perfect mythical harmony between the
>> smallest details and the whole. In my view, music should struggle
>> against such ideological harmony, without necessarily abandoning all
>> structure or denying the relationships between micro and macro
>> structures. Late Beethoven piano pieces and string quartets are
>> excellent examples of such an approach.
>>
>> I agree with you to an extent on "school maths", although I personally
>> think that in the digital age, it's impossible to escape the reign of
>> mathematics, and so perhaps we shouldn't ignore math but instead try
>> to subvert it.
>>
>> PS. The idea of "Golden Ratio Disco" quite amuses me in some way,
>> though I'm somewhat frightened to hear what such a thing sounds like!
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 11:46 AM, Chris Bullen
>> <auralbeesty at btinternet.com> wrote:
>> > When I first saw this appear in my mailbox, I thought it said "Golden
>> > Ratio
>> > Disco".
>> > Was not sure what it was going to be about but it looked as if this
>> > might be
>> > a kind of humorous approach or some mental piece of free/shareware. But
>> > no,
>> > it was back to the old classical attempt to find mathematical
>> > perfection.
>> > Over 30 years ago, when I was at art school, plenty of dull work was
>> > produce
>> > by colleagues claiming they were using a "Golden Section", certainly in
>> > straight painting it never made any great impression on me (one way or
>> > another), all I thought was "fuck it, school maths! I left home to get
>> > away
>> > from this".
>> > Cheers Chrisb
>> > ________________________________
>> > From: Robert Lewis <ionizing at gmail.com>
>> > To: microsound at microsound.org
>> > Sent: Sunday, 10 January, 2010 16:18:37
>> > Subject: Re: [microsound] Golden Ratio discovery [may be of interest to
>> > someone]
>> >
>> > 1) What do you mean by coherence?
>> >
>> > systematic consistency across all time and space scales
>> >
>> > 2) And how does this relate to the
>> > practice of music?
>> >
>> > the universe is a complete whole
>> >
>> > On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 1:03 AM, David Powers <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> What do you mean by coherence? And how does this relate to the
>> >> practice of music?
>> >>
>> >> ***
>> >>
>> >> Hypothesis:
>> >> Music is not only numbers, mathematics, and structure, but also what
>> >> is irreducible to those things. The musician struggles with numbers,
>> >> until they cry out in pain. Then music becomes messianic
>> >> mathematics--the language of utopia.
>> >>
>> >> ~David
>> >>
>> >> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 9:16 PM, Robert Lewis <ionizing at gmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > there are few strange coincidences in the universe, and no paradoxes
>> >> > but
>> >> > in
>> >> > perception.  it is meaningful as another example of the golden ratio
>> >> > in
>> >> > the
>> >> > natural world, for those of us looking for coherence in all scales of
>> >> > nature
>> >> >
>> >> > On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 9:29 PM, David Powers <cyborgk at gmail.com>
>> >> > wrote:
>> >> >>
>> >> >> My first thought on reading this, is to ask whether such a discovery
>> >> >> is in any way meaningful, or whether it should be viewed as merely a
>> >> >> strange coincidence?
>> >> >>
>> >> >> ~David
>> >> >>
>> >> >> On Sat, Jan 9, 2010 at 7:56 PM, d4l3d <d4l3d at inbox.com> wrote:
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > Found this interesting.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > For those of us who have a thing for Fibonnaci/Golden Ratio, this
>> >> >> > was
>> >> >> > recently posted through Slashdot:
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > http://esciencenews.com/articles/2010/01/07/golden.ratio.discovered.a.quantum.world
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > May be useful to someone.
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> >    s    4   n  s [moi]
>> >> >> >
>> >> >> > ________________________________
>> >> >> > Free 3D Earth Screensaver
>> >> >> > Watch the Earth right on your desktop! Check it out at
>> >> >> > www.inbox.com/earth
>> >> >> > _______________________________________________
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>> >> >> > microsound at microsound.org
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>> >> >> >
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