Newsgroups: rec.music.industrial
Subject: Re: othe DVA
Date: 18 Dec 92  15:21:06 EST

  To: ALL                           Recvd: NO
Subj: Re: othe DVA                   Conf: RMI
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AC>I personally find Adi Newton's sleeve notes entertaining but pretentious. I
AC>can live with the mysticism/technology mumbo-jumbo (even if his
AC>juxtaposition of names who have an established scientific background with,
AC>erm, the less scientifically based does rankle a little) but I think you

Perhpas a reference sited by Newton himself will provide some
illumination.  It is called "The Scientist Speculates".  It is a
collection of essays written by respected scientists.  In it, the editor
defines the property "bakedness" of an idea.  The bakedness is the
degree to which we can explore, with hopes of actually making
substabtial progress, the idea.  He then defines the amount one ought to
write on an idea is inversely related to the log of the bakedness of the
idea (or something like that).  The point is, the less baked the idea,
the less one writes about the subject.  I think many of Newton's idea
have bakedness close to zero, do that it is reasonable that he says
little about them. IN OTHER WORDS, it is mumbo-jumbo.

AC>raised the basic problem above - "who else would put a picture of Turing on
AC>the CD insert"? A good question. The fact that the release with the Turing
AC>picture ("Bitstream"?) has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Turing
AC>or any of his work does reinforce my suspicions that a lot of Newton's
AC>presentation and information is really far more art than science -
AC>composing images and text for effect and impact rather than for more
AC>directly connected reasons. Hence we get the gratuitous picture of Turing
AC>on the back of "Bitstream" and so on. OK, so the blurb in "Bitstream" is
AC>connecting computers and sexuality while Turing's field was computers and
AC>it was persecution of his sexuality that eventually lead to his topping
AC>himself, but it's a pretty weak link and not really in tune with the tone
AC>of the blurb.

I do not deny that Turing has nothing to do with the theme of
"Bitstream".  Perhaps he is a source of inspiration for Newton.

AC>As for mentioning Klein - sure, I'll admit to being oddly interested when
AC>names from my discipline crop up in the DVA texts (has any other musician
AC>namechecked Marvin Minsky in his lyrics yet?) but it does seem that
AC>sometimes he's just namedropping frantically.

AC>I rather enjoyed his recent work (treating _Man-Amp_, "Final Program" and
AC>"Bitstream" as one rather than as separate releases) - it's perhaps a
AC>little lacking in imagination musically but the digital clarity and
AC>sterility of the sound suits the subject matter nicely and those dark,
AC>atmospheric pieces work *soooo* well.

Yes.  I think that this may provide some justification for Newton's
name-dropping.  The music puts me in a sort of vagueley "mathematical"
state, and then Newton mentions Kline, and of I go into another world,
where I don't really think about, say, group theory, but I "confront"
various aspects of it.  I find such experiences satisfying and they help
me to appreciate the subject more.

AC>Ahem, I'd hardly describe _Thirst_ as REM with a sax. The band's evolution

Right.  I was in a more fanciful state of mind when I wrote the message
than I am in now.

Mark
wagner@macc.wisc.edu

 * OLX 2.2 * Metaphysics is impossible.

 * Origin: NineJackNine (1:121/99)