[Dancecult-l] definitions of liveness

[Mark J. Butler]

Hi all,

It has been nice to see this thread develop. Normally I am not a big  
participant in e-discussions (takes away from writing! :) so thanks  
for drawing me in.

I want to comment on a couple of issues in some recent posts. First,  
Eliot writes:

> In both situations, there is a simultaneity between musicians who find
> reward in attaining musical competence in acoustic or electroacoustic
> instruments, and audiences who find some kind of pleasure in
> observing/listening to what can be coarsely considered more  
> "traditional"
> style group musical performances, in contrast with more  
> contemporary DJed
> "mediated" musical performances (or ones where there is a disconnect
> between the visual motions of the performers and the source of sound
> production - where is that drum sound coming from when there are no  
> drums
> to be seen?). Appreciation or valuation of live and non-live, in this
> context, is not mutually exclusive - both the audience and the live
> musicians participate in both milieus.

I agree with this last sentence; it seems like another way of  
expressing what I was trying to say, in my previous post, about the  
dialogical interaction of "live" and "mediated" performance. But I  
think it's worth reiterating that *both* of the situations described  
here -- the "traditional" performance using acoustic instruments, and  
the DJ performance -- are understood in relation to mediation. The  
'traditional' performance emerges as such, as 'live', because it is  
NOT mediated. It is understood as 'im-mediate' (this bit of etymology  
is mentioned by Auslander as well).  Immediate vs. mediate, rather  
than live vs. 'non-live', flips the negative ascription.

I do take the point about how a desire for stylistic eclecticism may  
also be a motivating factor when 'traditional' performance approaches  
appear in EDM contexts.

Continuing to next point below...

> A separate issue is whether or not there is a crisis of performativity
> within IDM performance spheres, including issues of liveness, and  
> whether
> or not a highly agile laptopist creates as much of a riveting visual
> spectacle as Jimi Hendrix on the electric guitar.

Two things:
a. The issue of visual spectacle
b. 'Crisis'

Re: visual spectacle, slightly muddy/pgb (sorry I don't know your  
name) wrote
> there has always been
> this strand of theatre or showmanship in pop/rock. Conversely, DJing,
> laptop performance or the kinds of performance of say orbital,
> underworld etc. are not intrinsically theatrical.
and
> , but DJing
> laptop performance can also be a performance, the key point being that
> it is largely and *aural* as opposed to visual one.

While this may have been more true in the past, and still applicable  
in some contexts, I would disagree with it as a general statement  
about EDM performance today. Throughout the time that I've been  
interviewing laptop musicians and observing their performances, it  
has become immediately apparent (pardon the pun) that the visual is  
extremely important, both to them and to their audiences.

There are many ways in which musicians display performativity through  
visual means. One way is with their bodies: they dance (to their own  
music), and move in all sorts of other ways. They sweat (exertion  
being a traditional marker of authenticity). They manipulate their  
equipment in exaggerated ways, telegraphing their actions to the  
audience.

Another way involves the use of hardware interfaces. To explain this  
point it's necessary first to note that the performances described  
with the rubric 'laptop sets' really vary tremendously, both in terms  
of musical approach as well as technology used. The only device that  
they all share is the laptop (of course); in addition, a very large  
majority of the sets one hears today are created with the program  
Live (!!!).  Out of all the gear that might be used, the computer is  
the only one that has a primarily 'non-musical' purpose. Musicians  
continually express anxiety about performing with a computer, along  
with a related desire to convey liveness and performativity to the  
audience. As a result of these tensions, an ironic reversal occurs.  
Hardware such as drum machines, mixing boards, and MIDI controllers-- 
devices that would be the ne plus ultra of INauthenticity in a  
traditional rock performance, if they were associated with  
performance at all--come to serve as ways of grounding performance:  
of locating something physical, which one can manipulate in a  
visible, visceral manner. I have seen so many moments in performance-- 
I've started to call the 'passion of the knob' moments :) -- in which  
a performer seems to put his or her whole body into the extended  
turning of a knob, and the audience responds in kind.

Does anxiety around these issues constitute a "crisis"? I would say  
not, though Eliot and I may not be looking at the same sources on  
this point. However, I would say that these issues are important,  
both to performers and to audiences. (Subpoint: producers &  
performers are members of EDM communities too, so I would want to  
avoid contrasting 'communities' and 'laptop artists' as separate  
entities.) For audiences the issues may not always be the subject of  
conscious thought or explicit discourse (for many an audience member,  
it's irrelevant whether the performer is on turntables or a laptop),  
but their value is certainly evident in the ways they respond to  
visual displays.

Ok, that's a long enough email for today, I think! :-)

All best,
Mark





>
> The second issue is mainly a concern of laptop artists and music  
> critics
> (particularly in Wire magazine) rather than of EDM communities.  
> It's not
> much different than crises that affected academic music composers  
> since
> the 1950s, who struggled with limited audience turnout and a  
> paucity of
> widespread acceptance of their music. I find that much academic and  
> music
> trade magazine writing on EDM/IDM/contemporary music composition  
> (probably
> including my own articles) tends to exaggerate the actual extent of  
> this
> crisis, though of course for the musicians engaged in entirely
> computer-music this crisis could appear to be of tantamount  
> importance.
>