Certainly. There are so many qualitative attributes of sound and musical structure that we can discuss without attachment to theory or ideology.<br><br>However, this isn't to say that theory is without value, or that it cannot directly inform the direct discussion of physical attributes. <br>
<br>But I do appreciate conversation that is grounded in phenomena I can directly experience with my senses. That type of discussion is less prone to ideological distortion. Of course, the input of our senses are interpreted by our minds, so we are never entirely free of ideas and interpretation. <br>
<br>But I'll give an example that isn't related to music, that I encountered in my graphic design work the other day. An art director was reviewing some icons an artist had produced, and he said "the elements feel disconnected". The artist doesn't have very good English, so I encouraged him to frame his critique in terms based on dimension, lighting or hue. He reworded what he was saying to "the globes should be somewhat transparent to allow for the connecting stems to be visible underneath. The gradient used to create the lighting effect should have more variance in values to enhance the feeling of dimension in the globes." etc. <br>
<br>Theory and 'isms, as well as less complex forms of communication, can often be a form of shared shorthand. This can make communication between a small number of people more efficient in some settings, but when you start looking at communicating with a networked world where individual frames of reference can have wide variance, it is often helpful to simplify and de-jargonize our language, and focus on descriptive terms that are easy to relate to because they directly reference the experience of our senses. <br>
<br>Am I making any sense?<br><br>-Jason<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 12:07 PM, CraqueMat <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:craque@craque.net">craque@craque.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Is there a way to talk about music without using ism's?<br>
<br>
I'm not being an ass, this is genuine curiosity.<br>
<br>
Sometimes I'm bothered by the way I can't be a part of a conversation<br>
just because I haven't had time to read a book (and I read a lot).<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d"><br>
Damian Stewart wrote:<br>
> Stephen Hastings-King wrote:<br>
><br>
>> 2. these days, everyone's a situationist.<br>
><br>
> could you explain this a little? i only came across the situationists quite<br>
> recently...<br>
><br>
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