May 23, 2012
Inspirational Activities...
by Chris Randall
When I do a post like this, half the readership goes "sigh. Another process post." And the other half goes "Yay! Another process post!!!" When I started blogging lo these many years ago (Jesus fuck, has it been 18 years?) I quickly learned that, even though my first blog was about my band and not music tech, and it wasn't called a blog because there was no name for them then, there was a certain segment of the audience that loved process, and another segment that hated it.
I happen to number myself in the "love it" camp, as declarative statements about gear can get really tedious, in my opinion. So suck it, naysayers.
Anyhow, the one aspect of my life's work that I really love is the "R" half of the R&D equation, and that's where we are now with Audio Damage. And the main tool in my mental toolbox for doing Research is, surprisingly, YouTube. For a right-brained person such as myself, the non-linear information firehose that is the YouTube recommended videos sidebar is an amazingly handy thing. I can type "Generative music" in to the search bar, and in three short steps be watching a video from the Nature Channel about how water has memory. From there, it's only a couple clicks to what I call Costello Land (Schumann Resonance videos and the like, from people that really enjoy fractals). I can't click away from that hippy shit fast enough, and a few random pokes later I'm watching a video from someone that has made a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to use the L System equations to make music.
In the space of maybe 10 minutes, then, from typing in a relatively random seed, I've set all the gates on the right side of my brain to the proper mode for having ideas, and to be clear, I'm not looking for wholesale ideas in these videos; rather, I'm trying to set my brain in a state where it can have its own ideas. My theory (which practice has more or less proved out over the years) is that a given idea is really the result of the ingredients you feed it. My habits to create that idea are sort of like following a recipe that I know works, and while I don't know how the result is going to taste, or if it will be any good at all, I do know that if I follow these steps, I'll end up with something edible.
I have a couple other things I do (usually a trip to the public library will get me a whole stack of fodder that costs only time; it's a great way to taste things outside your areas of interest) to get myself in the right frame of mind, but on the whole, the best thing I've found is YouTube.
What do you use to get yourself in a creative mindset? Do you find my method works for you? Would it work for an extremely left-brained person? Or do they need something more linear to engage the gears? (With any luck, we'll avoid a lengthy Sean Costello treatise on Schumann Frequencies, but I think I've tempted fate just mentioning them; I'll take whatever punishing 3,000 word essay Sean sees fit. Also, water doesn't have memory. It has impurities. That was a stupid video. But it's all part of the process.)
I happen to number myself in the "love it" camp, as declarative statements about gear can get really tedious, in my opinion. So suck it, naysayers.
Anyhow, the one aspect of my life's work that I really love is the "R" half of the R&D equation, and that's where we are now with Audio Damage. And the main tool in my mental toolbox for doing Research is, surprisingly, YouTube. For a right-brained person such as myself, the non-linear information firehose that is the YouTube recommended videos sidebar is an amazingly handy thing. I can type "Generative music" in to the search bar, and in three short steps be watching a video from the Nature Channel about how water has memory. From there, it's only a couple clicks to what I call Costello Land (Schumann Resonance videos and the like, from people that really enjoy fractals). I can't click away from that hippy shit fast enough, and a few random pokes later I'm watching a video from someone that has made a valiant but ultimately futile attempt to use the L System equations to make music.
In the space of maybe 10 minutes, then, from typing in a relatively random seed, I've set all the gates on the right side of my brain to the proper mode for having ideas, and to be clear, I'm not looking for wholesale ideas in these videos; rather, I'm trying to set my brain in a state where it can have its own ideas. My theory (which practice has more or less proved out over the years) is that a given idea is really the result of the ingredients you feed it. My habits to create that idea are sort of like following a recipe that I know works, and while I don't know how the result is going to taste, or if it will be any good at all, I do know that if I follow these steps, I'll end up with something edible.
I have a couple other things I do (usually a trip to the public library will get me a whole stack of fodder that costs only time; it's a great way to taste things outside your areas of interest) to get myself in the right frame of mind, but on the whole, the best thing I've found is YouTube.
What do you use to get yourself in a creative mindset? Do you find my method works for you? Would it work for an extremely left-brained person? Or do they need something more linear to engage the gears? (With any luck, we'll avoid a lengthy Sean Costello treatise on Schumann Frequencies, but I think I've tempted fate just mentioning them; I'll take whatever punishing 3,000 word essay Sean sees fit. Also, water doesn't have memory. It has impurities. That was a stupid video. But it's all part of the process.)
55 comments:
A graphic diagram of Schumann Frequencies:
link [twitter.com]
Anyway, creative mindset: Walking. If I suck down a few cups of green tea, and then walk about 3 miles, the mind starts working. If I can walk through Ravenna Park (an amazing wooded ravine in the middle of Seattle, and the setting of much of Charles Burns' Black Hole comic series), so much the better. If I can end up at the University of Washington libraries, and have time to look at cool books on music or art or anything non-engineering, even better.
link [twitter.com]
Anyway, creative mindset: Walking. If I suck down a few cups of green tea, and then walk about 3 miles, the mind starts working. If I can walk through Ravenna Park (an amazing wooded ravine in the middle of Seattle, and the setting of much of Charles Burns' Black Hole comic series), so much the better. If I can end up at the University of Washington libraries, and have time to look at cool books on music or art or anything non-engineering, even better.
Holy shit, that water memory video just blew me away.
Regarding creativity I find I move from the opposite direction, I have a constant flow of creative impulses, and I have to cage them to make anything concrete from them. I find brainstorming has worked, try to get out as many ideas I can in short order and work them down to something cohesive/singular.
Regarding creativity I find I move from the opposite direction, I have a constant flow of creative impulses, and I have to cage them to make anything concrete from them. I find brainstorming has worked, try to get out as many ideas I can in short order and work them down to something cohesive/singular.
reading fiction, science docs and the head exploding physics shows hosted by morgan freeman etc..
riding my bike..
often, listening to something someone else has written that is new and good will often get me in gear sometimes after the first listen..
patching the modular, staying up late and forgetting what time it is and feeling like i'm all alone. that works a lot..
generally though.. i have to just decide that i need to go work on music and quit dicking around. once i do that and spend time in the studio it becomes its own inspiration.
i dable in writing for my own benefit.. i like to create characters.. that kind of thing requires something different for me to be in the mood. it just has to kind of happen after being fed up or too busy or too annoyed with daily life etc. basically rubbed the wrong way to some degree... that works for music sometimes too. being generally tired of "all the bullshit" leads to plowing through any road blocks.
riding my bike..
often, listening to something someone else has written that is new and good will often get me in gear sometimes after the first listen..
patching the modular, staying up late and forgetting what time it is and feeling like i'm all alone. that works a lot..
generally though.. i have to just decide that i need to go work on music and quit dicking around. once i do that and spend time in the studio it becomes its own inspiration.
i dable in writing for my own benefit.. i like to create characters.. that kind of thing requires something different for me to be in the mood. it just has to kind of happen after being fed up or too busy or too annoyed with daily life etc. basically rubbed the wrong way to some degree... that works for music sometimes too. being generally tired of "all the bullshit" leads to plowing through any road blocks.
1. Walking to the top of our local 'mound', which affords stunning views of the entire, crazy patch called Los Angeles usually triggers me good. The more vigorous the walk the more pronounced the effect it has on me. I think the elevation is a big part of this effect.
2. Getting a new toy or, more often, rediscovering an old one.
3. Just chipping away at it until 'it' happens. Nothing fancy, just forcing yourself to stick with it while it sucks, until it hopefully doesn't.
2. Getting a new toy or, more often, rediscovering an old one.
3. Just chipping away at it until 'it' happens. Nothing fancy, just forcing yourself to stick with it while it sucks, until it hopefully doesn't.
Back to water having memory, doesn't putting a flower in water add oils or something to the water? The syringes might also have traces of something in them to make the drops different, or maybe the angle/velocity of the drop does something.
I'm sure there was some interesting information in that interview, but whoever edited it and wrote the voice-over just dumbed it down to 2nd grade level until there's no information imparted.
I know from having a swimming pool that vegetable matter adds all kinds of jank to water.
-CR
I know from having a swimming pool that vegetable matter adds all kinds of jank to water.
-CR
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