[Yasmin] Oral Traditions and the Digital Arts
“… As a musician/ composer I am studying new digital forms of notation and especially the replacement of oral instructions and oral transmissions by what I call “encapsulated traditions” which can be likened to software manuals.
Notations are interesting entities, because they usually are not artworks themselves but invite actions that produce artworks.
Usually, throughout different musical cultures, notations constitute that part of a performative action that someone (author, cultural environment etc.) considers non-contingent on the performance context i.e. the essence of the work. E.g. western music notation has struggled over centuries to define pitch (vulgo: melody) and durations (vulgo: rhythm) in notationally unambiguous ways, where chinese music notation was more concentrated on pitch and timbre (e.g. how to play a note). Continue reading