Eric Scott "Obsessions" [Day 040] Day For Night

#40 Another cure. Shots of people laughing. Adrienne, Lori, etc. Smiling motion.

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Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040.

1991 saw release of the first disc in the Day For Night imprint, intro­ duc­ ing com­poser Eric Scott to new music cir­cles with “3 Mains” (Day 001). A col­lec­tion of fif­teen suites and minia­tures arranged for piano and ensem­ble, these record­ ings are con­structed and emu­lated via lo-fi syn­thet­ics and sam­ples in lieu of a proper cham­ber orches­tra. For this mov­ ing col­lec­tion of pieces, Eric adopted the genre “avant-garde-jazz-classical – an edgier and more insis­tent, anti­thet­i­cal cousin to easy listening.”

Blog : Obsessions Foreword. This is the first page. The objective of a blog with this title, “Obsessions,” is to share some of the reasoning that flows through the creative studio environment, and which influences much of our everyday lives. There must be power in the written word. That is not an ambitious plea; it is an imperative. Otherwise, there would be little reason to spend so much time dressing it up with a nice-looking layout and an appropriate font. Day For Night produces design, among other things. But more importantly, Day For Night is a content-creation studio, producing strategic and creative solutions for other brands. Our work is never really over. Ideas never stop flowing, even with a published piece of design or music – and after hours, this blog is one more example of where our ideas go. Now read on…

There are some nights. You know the ones – when your mind simply will not focus, and everything you feel like saying is best sum-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. marized by that 4-bar phrase from the song that passes through your head, just long enough to create an impression and then disappear, before a different one from a different song, takes its place. On those nights, I feel scattered. And tonight is one of those nights. I am sitting on the studio floor; no, make that the sofa, and then, occasionally the stuffed chair in the corner – most comfortable – using a makeshift ottoman (an office chair that swivels uncontrollably under the weight of my legs as I continually reposition them to shift my weight.)  There are over two dozen CDs on the floor next to the sofa and the player. I used to be sitting in the office next door, but after 14 hours in there, I’ve relocated everything to – a different room; because I just won’t stop yet. The stacks around me grow more chaotic, as the surfeit of my wandering musical attention seeks company with Freeform (“Prowl”), Sun Electric (“Kitchen”),

Bisk (“Time”), David Toop (both in the literary and audio realms, as my copy of “Ocean Of Sound” sits as reference beside the CD Screen Ceremonies, which hasn’t left my bedside since 1995. Later, I explain to my girl that it’s the only disc I’ve established an on-demand rest-response to; conditioned during my recovery from a bout of surgery, and under the drowsy influence of Percocet some years ago.)  As my thoughts race, somehow some of them still make their way into the Olympus MP3 dictaphone, which stores individual files of my musical ideas, business meeting notes, and my occasional verbal diarrhea. At one point, I record a monologue of uninterrupted thought, about the frustrations of being one half of a business, and I use up 18 solid minutes without taking a breath. Nearby, my copy of the All-Music Guide To Electronica gets a repeated flicking-through as one name or sound bite conjures

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. up another, and these references become a roadmap to tonight’s musical journey. Today I realize that I have become a glutton for music ephemera, while I cut, copy and paste paragraphs like these, adjusting my thoughts onscreen, and attempt to grasp the symbiotic space of creation – where harmony of word and mind become one. Tonight, this impression never actually does come, but so many new ideas do so along the way, and all of these get noted down in its place.  My reference piles up higher; quickly I add my copy of the Designers Republic book 3D->2D and Kim Hiorthoy’s manifesto, Tree Weekend. I am inspired by sheer abstraction, and some of life’s more complex responsibilities evaporate, or at least, fade just slightly while I’m in this space. ***** I am repeatedly distracted by the silence coming from my studio; if I could clone myself now, I’d also be in there finishing up Mousse, the track which was borne in the wee hours of last night when I attempted to record a mere 2-bar riff – within minutes, what I had begun had descended into musical chaos, an amalgam of nine unmixed layers of Rhythm Factory. This logistical nightmare, employing a range of three keyboard sounds and several happy accidents — I found I’d left the track’s record-mode in overdub instead of replace) so I know

that I have a lot of cleaning up to do. This absorbs into my conflict, over which I exercise restraint of judgment, because I know that all will come to fruition, but only when the time is right.  There are some nights, when I am scattered like this. Many of them. And when I get up in the morning, everything gets put right again, before another day begins.

Day For Night.

  Well, the main reason I do any of this is that I want to leave the world a better place than the way I found it. But what is Day For Night? That’s some question. Nobody knows for sure. But my bet is that it’s something to do with my fascination with music. Every time I sit down at a computer, I start typing, hoping that I will figure out something more than I knew the day before – about what Day For Night truly means. But it’s more of a today kind of thing; like what does Day For Night mean today?  I’ll come up with descriptors and definitions. Positioning statements.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. Amusingly grandiose stuff, like: “DayForNight.com! An Ordering System – and a System of Order.” Sooo clever …Get it? The Day For Night obsession with cataloguing and numbering, meets the demand to satisfying B2B and B2C commercial ends. Or “Day For Night. Design From The Inside Out.” I must admit to quite liking that one, which was given to us in J.J. Abrams’ description of what he feels I do. Obsession, good word. But doing that kind of positioning thing gets me going for about twenty minutes, until I realize that it’s a mistake – while invariably all are true statements, or variations, they’re still getting a little off the point. Originally, the purpose of publishing some of my theses – under the collective title Obsession – is to document the process of Day For Night and its workings, from creation through output; even to clarify relationships between some of my post-Situationist influences: Jamie Reid, Malcolm McLaren. Factory Records, Design by Peter Saville. Rob Gretton, The Durutti Column…and who can forget Tony Wilson. It seems only natural to raise questions about these figures, in light of my lofty ideals.  Consistently these individuals and their works have inspired and triggered my output stages. Filtered through me, everything – music, values, inspiration, comedy, art, noise, nature, animals, people, tribalism, like-minded-

ness, archival strategies, typography, order systems, chaos, the spectacle…and ultimately, even Situationism – eventually becomes Day For Night.  These figures have inspired me during my drive to inspire others – to put their lives into action and find consistency of purpose; to seek out and pursue worthy ideals. In my case, all objectives relate to my continuing fascination with musical and artistic expression, and especially, the contrasts between a human lightness and a reclusive darkness. It also seems appropriate to mention, here, that I often work alone to achieve these ends. But then something happens – I show and share around these things with others – my VIP list – and much appears to be connected. Over time, these creations have attracted the kinds of people and businesses who want to give me money to develop these kinds of things for them too, so Day For Night has effectively become a modest business, after pleasure.

I am alone, but…

  Some of my work is predominantly about loneliness. We write about what we know. I was born alone, have lived alone, and assume that even when we die, we die,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. probably, alone. Grim, to some, maybe. To me, this is simply fact, and it lacks any particular charge – it is as potentially helpful, as it is hindering, as beliefs go. The other viewpoint that guides my work is that principally, we are all good beings, and that we are all simply capable of great things. So, my creative goal is the make sure that neither viewpoint overshadows the other.

I am never bored.

  Personal expression sells. I derive my client work from pre-existing personal work. Ideas are neither good nor bad, but are merely awaiting to be positioned, and to find their ideal home. Personal tastes have always been a starting point for any work worth creating; therefore I have (essentially) close personal relationships with my clients and with the work itself. I only seek out commissions I would consider pursuing over a longer term – endorsements of what we can make happen together. That’s because usually, personal selling is 95 % of the work. There is nothing I loathe more than boredom. For this reason, I rarely find myself bored. I keep a library of ideas on my computer hard drive. Over time, this has proven to become a really useful

system. Largely, this permits reappropriation – borrowing from oneself – and believe me, thievery is the sincerest form of flattery. Thus, I keep an archive going at all times: an image gallery of screens, sounds, designs, interactive toys, movies. These are a continual reminder of where I want to go. The library serves continually as a visual reference in client meetings: • For inspiration in motion design • For deployment in writing • For deployment in music Everything that is anything, must also be a system unto itself, in the interests of making it teachable. That way, we can leave things better than the way we found them. I have always been fascinated with the concept of a perfect system: • Everything I do emanates from reusable ideas, • Reusable bites of code • Reusable words • Everything must be permitted to lead to something else • Everything must be permitted to evolve, and to lead to something better Forward movement is the only movement worth pursuing in the long run, and therefore, also in the short run. So maybe it’s better to sacrifice the short run for the long run, and to make wiser decisions in the pres-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. ent. Personally, this requires a continual assessment of where I want to go. Everything we do is poetry in motion. I have no-one to teach but myself at the moment. Life is a continuous workshop.

What else is Day For Night? 

Day For Night has evolved primarily by means of accretion of music-based projects, articulated via an ongoing artistic monologue, and interpreted through audiovisual design; As inspiration enters this process, ideas are formed and recorded early in any media for an immediate response; This tension created by this intuitive-intellectual response informs the Day For Night catalogue, and gives us the freedom to discover and experiment with various styles and artforms. This is a monologue germane to Day For Night, slowly tracing its way outwards to those in our immediate circles of influence; Certain projects, including the NIGHTlink Internet Journey- by-Rail, which originates in the Day For Night audiovisual imprint – are primary expressions between specific Day For Night artists and the clients and friends that are closely connected to us; Sometimes Day For Night forms an imaginary or virtu-

al space where this expression exists (such as NIGHTlink, H O SPITAL, and the Re:fresh Intermedia Centre and Gallery), reinforced by the self-published works on cd and cd-rom from the catalogue; Over the past 10 years, Day For Night’s projects have included the following; Television and motion graphics design, music and sound design, web-based art and site design, photography, print, publications and typography, branding and strategy documents, and the publishing of narrative fiction and poetry; Our most visible contribution is through the Day For Night audio-visual imprint – a serialized catalogue of 100 independent artist projects formatted for audio cd and cd-rom. These merge diverse musical explorations – triphop, drum’n’bass, post-rock, indie, techno, and minimalist and contemporary classical. The projects are an outlet for a more personalized, non-judgmental style of narrative and self-expression, and are designed to illustrate both a taxonomy, which categorises freeform poetry and music, using urban information systems and even railway signage; A critical approach to presenting text and imagery begins with a deconstruction of the narrative format of the more traditional cd booklet, in favor of a modular series of cover panels which emphasize use of negative space and contemporary sans-serif typography; At this time of writing, summer of 2002, Day For Night

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. continues to seek out strategic relationships and partnerships with other fine artists and design agents who share these values and ideals.

What was Day For Night? 

Well, things do change over time, and it appears that each year, I had the impetus to sit down and try to define Day For Night in a new way that got me excited, and would trigger an opportunity to share something unique. Here’s one of the more pointless, and pompous attempts: What is Day For Night? A movement for a personal music, art, literature, film and design—though not necessarily in that order—for both the jaded as well as the discerning. An aesthetic. About music, made-to-measure for a roomful of listeners who have made it their obligation to listen; a soundtrack to the life of everyman; a sonic tapestry for talkers & thinkers alike. Numbers and time, both prime and even. A film-makers’ term, referring to the process of shooting a nighttime scene during daylight hours, employing the use of special filters–alternately, a “special effect.”

The difference between the taste of salt and sugar. The title of a film by Francois Truffaut, which netted him Oscar for Best Foreign Language film in 1973 (and which, on a broader, possibly more holistic, level, continued his now legendary autobiography on film; this time placing him in the character role of Director-as-Actoras-Director, in a Film about the Making-of-a-Film). A complete musical universe; one that is both self-referential and self-contained. An index of textures; a lexicon of possibilities. One’s refusal to participate within the normal confines of the Industry; and living the dream of achieving those ends justified by the means. The color of night, as seen by the cold light of day. Day For Night is my life.

Laundry. 

For me, Day For Night has never been about any political or social issues, because these really don’t, on the whole, interest me. Want a list of things that interest me? Here: inspiration people loneliness

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. noise order chaos values (like-mindedness) And the list goes on, but none of these are hot issues. So the only things that makes them matter is how they’re treated, and whether or not these treatments add value, and inspire others to do more of the same.

Day For Night vs. Eric Scott 

I was at a multimedia conference in San Francisco, and became momentarily obsessed with typing this when I should have been listening to the speakers. Truth is, I was listening — it was to Hillman Curtis, who inspired me so much that I went into “processing” mode — which is where I free-associate, and instead of taking notes that are a copy of what the speaker says, I let everything the speaker says guide the direction of a newly created piece, which I generate live. What is Day For Night about? • love • creating a better world than the one we live in • inspiring others • being inspired • acknowledging difference

• exploration • a sense of place • the contemporary • the temporary What is its structure or format? • Taxonomies, • Systems • Structure • Poetry • Negative space (“club-style”) • Dream imagery • Music and mood What is its Process? • “i am never bored” • consistency • “everything is useful” • serendipity • reappropriation • non-judgmental • narrative • parody

Easy. 

Years ago, I remember a friend pointing out that a piece of music I played her off a CD sounded so simple – too

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. simple. She said she could have done it. Using spoons. OK. So what’s wrong with that statement? Easy, it was a negative; it was a dismissal of the first artist’s work, and it didn’t inspire the response which was to get her to create a piece of music of her own. But to me, that’s the only appropriate response there is. If something is too easy, it makes you want to emulate it, only to improve upon it. Nothing, nothing at all wrong with that. Which leads back to the list. So many things we do are, ultimately, made to appear more complicated than they need to be. It’s like a drummer who shows off when he plays. Remember those t-shirts that bass players used to wear in the 80s — it was a sixteenth note with a red circle and a line through it. Perhaps, the message there is the same. Colin Newman (a dear friend) used the following quote in his cd liner for Bastard, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” Einstein. What may seem weirder, is what I do with Dayfornight. com, and maybe just the role I see for websites, with artists, and with music. Originally, I had all these theories about how DFN.com was going to remain an artistdriven website (which it still is) but I was intent upon making it a parallel experience for how we perceive things on the surface, about reality. And so the site was going to offer music, within a metaphor for modern-day railway travel, and it was going to have points of inter-

est — stations, and the depth of content for that project, or point, would determine whether the user could get off at the station and just walk along the platform, or maybe just leave the station altogether and wander outside in the park. Then there’s the “junctions” aspect, which is my carefully-considered, but largely-unrealized goal of defining further impact, through junctions, which are a way of explaining what happens when two or more artists collaborate on a one-off project and mix energies. I say largely unrealized, because I can’t seem to allow Dayfornight to blend beyond my own personal boundaries.

Light, blind. 

There is much additional creative that takes the form of lightness in dark — licht und blindheit — light and blindness? We expose the means and methods perhaps, but in so doing, we are to remain simple and unaffected. Perhaps it was Greenaway’s intention to do the same, using the text of the script as a backdrop behind the action during 8 1/2 Women.

Idea 5.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040.  It pays to be reliable. It also really pays to be flexible. It is the promise of joint partnership, such as an invitation to participate in an affair, even in an observational capacity. Like the look of a young woman, whose parents are driving her mad. It is a massive hormonal buildup. Everything about her eyes. If pressed, everybody should answer the same: “Don’t you know I have my own agenda…?”

So what is Day For Night? 

Day For Night originated in 1991 as a recording imprint and independent-projects label, based out of Santa Monica, California. Promoting multimedia while emphasizing a lightly-branded, personalized design style, Day For Night CD releases to date include works in contemporary music and new media released on CD, CD-R and the web. In nearly-equal parts, the Day For Night Catalogue continues to offer an esoteric mix of creations — combining music, art, typography, design and literature. This imprint is not a traditional “record label,” – its commercial releases will be limited, over a course of time, to 100 total – while its push for to recruit new artists from

the outside world is often shadowed by inner development goals – first, to release the full schedule of projects back-logged at this time, many of them still in the works. For this, Eric Scott occasionally reaches critical mass as Creative Director; every day, he shifts gears in his capacities as composer, producer, recording artist, designer, typographer, and author. These endeavors also include software releases from sub-brand digital type foundry NIGHTfonts, which is currently designing experimental typefaces – as seen in some of Day For Night’s business communications – and for distribution via commercial outlets, for application in desktop publishing. Day for night takes its name from a filmmaking term – creating the illusion of night-time in broad daylight by employing special lens filters. Within this term creative or technical misdirection is implicit – like any special effect that conceals or subverts reality. Eric refers to this, throughout his discussions of “Internet Theater,” one Day For Night’s “critical services” – as well as a personal design focus. One primary example of this is the self-initiated NIGHTlink Rail internet project, which first launched in 1997, and continues to evolve, slowly, as the Day For Night catalogue grows. From its fictitious marketing campaign (“Take An Internet Journey By Rail – It Still Beats Walking.” and the mock train stations, NIGHTlink Rail becomes an emblematic parody of the label’s catalogue: CD proj-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. ect titles are also often referred to by name and, interchangeably, by catalogue number (“Day 001” through “Day 100”). This cryptic emphasis upon cataloguing and order also informs the schematic design of the NIGHTlink Rail Travel Planner – one that might easily be mistaken for a real subway map. The Station stops along this network also share and cross-brand Day For Night catalogue projects, amidst playful marketing “hype” banner ads that cover railway station walls like fly-bill ads. Another similarity shadows the 1973 film of the same name, furthering a personal authoring style, as did the œuvre of director Francois Truffaut. Where Day for Night the film represented the filmmaker as the bemused subject of the same director’s own fiction, Eric compares this to his own continually “being at the heart of Day For Night’s big picture, and living inside many of the details as well.” Real-world clients have approached and boarded Day For Night, demanding the finest in this brand of creative misdirection…from Imagine Television, Disney Online, Touchstone Television, to its inner Artist Projects network, Day For Night has consulted and delivered when even the most daunting levels of creative misdirection is in the design brief. The sum of the label and its multimedia endeavors represent this artist’s vision – one that is largely selfcontained, and occasionally self-referential – and one

which Eric describes as part of his “personal search for an absolute truth about New Media.” Presenting a lexicon of sounds, textures and graphic possibilities, Day For Night consciously expresses its own subjective experience, as well as its human fallibility.

Catalogue de rigueur.

  The imprint catalogue for Day For Night, much in the tradition the Factory Records cataloguing system, is more of a curator’s definition of an artists’ catalogue… Rather, it is not of objects to buy, but rather of events and situations, (Day 001, Day 002, etc. all the way to Day 100) all placed within a single context – order from chaos with a contextual framework of systems and numbering. This context is how we then choose to define it, when we judge whether or not it feels like art. The rigorous nature and structure have manifold purposes of illustration. The numbering system is about the predictability of all numbering systems. It’s about managing expectations. If you do something only once, the subjects of precision and consistency never come up, until the second time. By the third time, something structural can become apparent.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040.  Why is structure and rigor important? We don’t know really, some days it just becomes clear that it’s what’s missing, especially when we fully appreciate chaos. Our eyes always look for pattern and order. One might hypothesize that the only way we can actually memorize and learn is by recognizing patterns from chaos.

Independent artist projects.

  …Because nobody likes having anyone telling them what to do.

Meaning. 

I don’t know exactly what it all means, or what might happen next, but… I definitely like it.  That has generally been the assessment, or ethic, of all Day For Night work produced, usually at the moment of completion. Occasionally, I make attempts to re-contextualise my finished results. So, too often, the work is finished, then it’s unfinished, and finally, it’s finished

again. Until it’s not. Over time, I locate new relationships between the things I am currently making, and other things I have previously made. This, for example, was the basis for drawing the underground map that became NIGHTlinkRail.  Presently, that map is now as much an illustration of past work, as it is a navigational tool, which I use to move forth, into areas of future work within the Day For Night catalogue.

Overstimulus is not a plume.

  Could it really be important enough to discuss what makes music important? Yes and no. Other people who are genuinely interested in music will definitely join me on this one. “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.” Thanks to debatably, either Elvis Costello, or Frank Zappa for that gem. Or both. We aren’t really interested in reading about something we can hear. So, in general, our ocular and auditory senses get a good dose through the industries of entertainment and sponsorship. It seems likely enough, too. As the invariable product of a metaculture, obsessed

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. with technology since the industrial revolution. Make something, find a use for it later is the motto of many inventors and designers. (And I hang my head, as I am definitely guilty of that one, at least on a drawing-board level.)  Perhaps Salvador Dalí correctly intuited that his lack of clarity, into the motivations for his own painting justified his theory of surreal, subconscious thought processes. Then again, nobody forces anyone else to release useless shit onto the market…So why does this continue to bother us? Overstimulus is but one way to get the world to submit to this spectacle.

Oversimplification.

  This one is justified visually, by the signage in big record shops, as a purported improvement over listening with your ears. This is the one that says listen with your beliefs. And, this is a form of compartmentalizing personal experience. Of course, most artists reject categorisation of their work. It’s insulting. It demeans and diminishes what the individual is capable of. Some artists will create a successful brand for them-

selves, support that primary goal with enough consistent work to begin to develop an artistic thesis – but then find that after a few years, shifting and evolution is something that typecasting resists. And naturally, without categories, so many people argue they couldn’t discuss music otherwise, like it needs to be converted into a verbal abstraction, or architecture for the masses.

The Percocet rush.

  It’s funny how we choose to listen to music. Music people somehow fall into two vague categories, people who are genuinely interested in music and fans of the medium itself – and casual listeners, whose conscious efforts are often left out of the matter, but who enjoy their role as consumers. Fans of the medium will sometimes form even form clans – audiophiles take on the D.I.Y.-ers on the issues of sound a purist medium, even touching on form over function topics. Generally speaking, our conscious attention has an interesting relationship with new sounds, and their effects upon mood. Sometimes we listen as closely as we can. Headphone listening. Headmuzik, that’s the best kind…like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon, or Scan-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. ner 1 – on an overcast day.  I have a personal recollection – it’s about the David Toop disc Screen Ceremonies – it changed some of my beliefs about the potential of musical conditioning. I ended up using it to condition myself to fall asleep at will, with the help of some Percocet I had been prescribed. I was recovering from surgery, some years ago. It turns out that I am no longer an insomniac. I learned that studying and listening to interesting sound has the same effect as counting sheep. Screen Ceremonies is a good example of an induction or auditory spell. I absorbed its potential at very low listening levels, while reading into the musical editorial from his book, Ocean Of Sound, all from a reclining position.  The immenseness of calm and overwhelm at once were truly inspirational – and the potential hugeness of it all still inspires me to this day.

I’m not listening.

  OK, now that’s funny. I’m remembering now – perhaps due in part to recently taking in 24 Hour Party People – the very first time I

remember hearing New Order and liking them. It was, of course, hearing Blue Monday on KROQ, which my father would let me play in his car – on the way back from Odyssey Video, in 1983, and thinking, back then, that it sounded plastic for my tastes. This was also the first time that I liked it – and that it for once didn’t irritate me, but rather, intrigued me, because something was undoubtedly right about it, as well – despite the absolute certainty I’d held until that point, that technology was possibly destructive and evil.  I was also still putting together what it felt like, relative to Joy Division, whose moodier airs on Closer had so definitely seduced me. That music, I felt I had a more classical grasp on; this music, on the other hand, stood up to repeated listening, but also revealed little about its source.

With an open mind and heart.

  You open your mind, and this is where you experience the new. This is a fundamental element of wanting to enjoy myself as much as possible. If I judge while I listen, I tend not to find much to enjoy. Maybe, because I begin by as-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. suming that I’m right first, and that if I don’t get it, then that’s the artist’s fault. When I cast a veil of suspicion over an influence, my options become less interesting… and it’s actually not that much fun being right about that after all. But life’s too short not to experience other viewpoints without prejudice – and that music, film, and art all make the same assumption, when they’re exploring the new. Namely, that you’re going to be open to their message, and so here it is, unexpurgated.

Experimental music and the 60s.

  Brian Eno, in his introduction for the latest edition of Michael Nyman’s “Experimental Music: Cage & Beyond”, makes some excellent points about the trajectory of 20th century experimental music and our intellectual fetishes.. The best books about art movements become more than just descriptions: they become part of what they set out to describe. I particularly like what this sentence illustrates; about how any cultural movement might see a divergence between academics and non-academics. I like especially what it says about all art – that we should deliberately

feel and experience the differences between the intellectual options that replace the experiential ones. Eno mentions that music colleges, in his time, were not interested in minimalism and experimentalists of the late 60’s but the art colleges “ate it up.” There were the composers like Cornelius Cardew and Gavin Bryars who earned their living teaching art students, and who saw their contribution in a more pure, intellectual, spiritual experience. These became known as part of the English School, and Eno describes that as “a place where we could entertain and test philosophical propositions or encapsulate intriguing game-like procedures.” This may be what makes music interesting. Whereas the avant-garde could be seen as a proper site for real musical skills, and was therefore being slowly co-opted into the academy, the stuff we were interested in was so explicitly anti-academic that it claimed to have been often written for non-musicians.This, versus the ones who were interested in the pure sonic experience – the sensual, tonal pieces, which were full of repetition. Both aspects were always present in experimental music of the 60s, often to the exclusion of everything that lay in between. I admit to being concerned more with processes, than end products myself. So if this was experimental music, what was the experiment? Perhaps it was the continual re-asking of the

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. question, “what also could music be?” What makes music interesting, is our desire and ability to experience something as music. A process of apprehending, that we, as listeners, choose to conduct…This has moved the site of music from out there to in here. Music – it’s something your mind does.

Minimalism and experimentation.

  Experimentation in the realm of audio as music, is certainly no new topic. Being experimental is of value to every artist, in all media. Sometimes it seems to lack relevance; we have seen pioneers championing electronic technology since the first half of the 20th century. As a topic for discussion, it is perhaps less relevant to ask, “In what way is the Day For Night catalogue experimental?” and instead, “Why should it be so, and how can this possibly matter?” The value we assign to experimentation is hard to measure exactly, but it is a consistent marker. It continues to inspire all that we do, from what we choose to create and consume, to what gets us up in the morning, and also what keeps us from going to sleep at night. Sometimes, we must also masquerade experimentation in less obvious packages, which would otherwise too often scare away a new and potentially

timid audience.  Such a belief about audience bears examination, too. In the field of modern classical composition, how can a topic so battered and trite as minimalism be weighed in the current age, when met against the leagues of serialist composers such as Boulez, Cage and Stockhausen, and all of their scholastic disciples? All of these legends have had their run in the academic world – there appears to be material there to study, and this is informed by process as well. Are those other minimalists from the 60s and 70s (they now prefer to be unnamed) forever resigned to a dimmed future, based upon the unfortunate associations between sonic compositions with repeating patterns, and the minimally blank canvases – from two similarly named, but differently fueled media? (I certainly hope not.)  Instead, one might ask, “Does this new work challenge any important preconceptions?” And in the case of musical minimalism, it is evidently a challenge to the patience of a willing audience.

Patience.  

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. We are generally intolerant of things we don’t understand. And as musicians, we love to taunt and tame the limits of modern music consumers. Targeting the unreasonably short fuse is a viable place to start. We pervert sound, we make the unfashionable listenable. We suggest that anything that was formerly listenable is still exercisable as an option. Quick wits challenge slow tempers. I have actually sat in many movie theatres and concert halls, loving to watch people squirm. I find this really interesting. One critic of my release, “Paris: A Musical Overpass,” kept using the word insistent to describe what she heard in common to this and to “3 Mains” – she was trying to be kind, God bless her.  We listen, and even make ourselves aware, as musical phrases emerge and repeat, that we as listeners continue to evolve over that same span of time, regardless of what we think the sound is accomplishing for us. We are, in fact, finishing an unfinished work. We like the breakdown in the singularity of meaning, for the art-object. People are no longer designing finished works, and we are no longer consumers of finished work. Artists are creating unfinished ones – to be remixed and restructured in a dialogue that includes others, and elements of chance.

The “responsible” artist.

  So what is a musician’s responsibility, as an artist, to music before all else? Electronica, in musical terms, is a sort of textless world… The prospect of less politics may be what makes this seem so encouraging. After all, it captures the inspiration of so many solo music-makers, along with the immediacy of the process. It’s emotive technology. We love to relate to the artist as a person. And, we love to visualize artistry, especially when we can experience it fully, and with all of our senses. The humanity of the artist does, after all, elevate people as a whole, when we align ourselves with the arts. We like to believe that the person who created the work, knows fallibility, just like we do. It also reinforces this ideal we have for DIY culture; and that everything is ultimately attainable. We might even consider how an artist’s likeability-index is a greater factor in that artist’s influence across cultural circles today, than it was perhaps in the 1600s, when reputation was based largely upon hearsay, which was very slow-moving, especially by today’s standards.  Visibility is increasing for everybody, and for every thing. And, at once, it never changes at all.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. Musical chairs.

  I have limited attention and like to work on only one project at a time. But often, I’m required to manage many more, and so my attention is continually being divided between what I feel I should be doing and what I prefer to be doing. So, each week at Day For Night, Thursday is played out like a game – the objective is to not treat Thursday with great seriousness, but rather with renewed energy and by tackling fires at an invigorating speed. The game is about freeing up attention – such that Friday becomes a fully available play day of its own right, creating a sort of three day weekend. Begin Thursday with a list of hot items – your big ToDo list. The objective is to confront attention-deficit, by giving each activity exactly 20 minutes, measured using an egg-timer with a bell.  The rules are simple: Each time the timer goes off, I stop where I am, save my work, go to next thing on the list. I found that I would invent new shortcuts by playing this game; for example, I found I was happy to create files with consistent naming trends, and make aliases or shortcuts, on my computer’s desktop so that I could

quickly revisit what I was doing, later. The objective of such a day is to change the dynamic of work by releasing attention that gets fixed upon chores that demand the most attention. By addressing each thing on the hot list for exactly 20 minutes, I found I work smarter at it. It also leaves nothing up to procrastination. Although each project may appear to move forward only slightly, the overall momentum results in a greater excitement, and movement forward, than by tackling only two or three projects for the day in their near (but often not complete) entirety.

Process #1. Developing content, via consistency.

  Begin by putting all the ideas into a kind of bag. This restores a greater degree of equality between each idea. This, in turn, builds awareness of the effects (sometimes adverse) which labels can have upon our beliefs about what we create and do. So de-labeling at the beginning, that is a system that works great for the during any brainstorm. Proceed to grouping ideas using key words and themes, with the aim to identifying patterns and waves; the peaks where any two ideas resonate through things like rhythm and tempo, and can mutually reinforce

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. one another. This works with all forms of music and art. Visually this happens when we overlay tissues over a backdrop and see the cumulative effect of our decisions emerge along the way.  Identifying a likeness of ideals and purpose is key at such an early stage. Ask: Do all the elements in this subset share an objective? Eliminate dead weight often… Travel light.

Without labels or genres.

  Current policy is to remove harmful or limiting adjectives from any stage of the creative, or music-making process. As I began to use language that felt free of terminology, labeling or artistic judgment, I found that I also felt happier about much of it. Instead, I was favoring a system of organizing music by its innate qualities. I find it freedom-inspiring. I proposed this as I organized a database of all my musical tracks – by the time I did this, I had over 1400 of them. Each track would take on a measurement in each of the following categories: 1. Timbre (mood-keywords) 2. Melodic (musical key)

3. Tempo (speed in beats per minute) 4. Rhythm (the artist or identity)  I felt my definition of modern music becoming more important around 1994, although it had always been really significant since 1980, but really the deciding factor in Day For Night’s output. My eyes opened about a lot of things, and I realized that I had already been down a road that had been about new music for the concert hall and modern classical. I liked the openness of a term like avant-garde-jazz-classical (to coin Vini Reilly’s own description of Durutti Column). And postchamber music for keyboards and ensemble players. Really, it’s more that genres exist to give journalists and people who work in record shops an easier life, but they don’t help artists… except to give them something back to react angrily to.  As soon as you inform a new age musician that they’re it, they hate you, and they hate the term even more. Tell any electronic musician that their downtempo grooves are them doing “Trip-Hop” and you’ll get a look back. No matter how convenient the wording, all genres are there to be shattered by the best artists, who are happiest when their work falls in between the cracks. And the more popular the subgenre, the dirtier the hatred, and the greater the need for defying those boundaries. I have also identified categories in my work, some of

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. which do work: “Arty Noisy Abstraction” … “Complex, cerebral, sophisticated” … “Post-Niche, Reinvented inside a Computer”… “Trip Groove Downtempo”… “White, Funky Contradictions.” This works for me to identify trends in my music, though it, too, is a process that is likely to be reinvented often, as it is founded upon my personal code.  It made me remember that, earlier on, I had used personal shorthand or code to label tracks, before they received official titles. Sometimes in fear of committing too early to a name, I would favor language like: “Robert Smith of the Cure battles Julian Cope in the carpark to a 1983 Eindhoven New Order gig.”

Identity: An image of 2 people kissing before a twilit bay.

  Two identical pictures of a girl and boy under tree. The girl is stroking the boy’s hair. He lies with his head in her lap. Caption under 1: The ending to a happy film? Caption under 2: The start of a very sad film? Remember, we always see what serves us best, and

what we really want to see, long before we see what’s really there. Use this well.

Internet Theatre.

  Words, to describe pictures of people who use words and pictures, to describe places and things. The Situationists were a league of French political artists during the latter 20th century, whose slant on social reform took the form of a surreal post-Dadaist manipulation of word and text. Often, their détournements (diversions) involved the supplanting of common meaning with abstract and subversive meanings of their own, as a statement of social upheaval and reform. The détournements of the late 1960s may now take on an added significance as the worldwide web now begins to pervert itself – an internet we begin to take for granted, which now willfully distorts and subverts – disorienting us as it fetishises commerce, leading us into a greater state of net-complacency. One might ask what would have happened if the Situationists had evolved purely into web designers? Internet Theatre, (Day For Night shorthand for web situations) is the art of misdirecting an audience while holding court, and tapping into the web’s awesome theatrical potential, by chaining together a suspension

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. of disbelief similar to that thing which film does, and which theatre and television do, too. It’s the representation of image as fact, made even more surprising by its plausibility, through a series of strategic clues.  Example One. Noel Crane is a second-year graphic arts student at the University of New York in Manhattan. He is also resident advisor on the 7th floor of his dormitory and dispenses homespun wisdom to the freshman students. On the side, Noel designs fonts in his spare time and has a webpage, Noelcrane.com to front his desire to establish a career in the graphics biz someday, possibly soon after graduation. More interestingly, though, he has fallen in love with a girl named Felicity Porter who is one of his advisees. Noel primarily inhabits a television world created by the producers at Imagine Television and Disney Online… This world shared space on Tuesday nights on the Warner Brothers television network as the tv show Felicity. Of course, Noel has no idea how we watch his every move on television, nor does the interactive world he has “created” online indicate any such confidence. In fact, there are no mentions to a television show, or even the girl named Felicity, but only a passing nod here or there. Noel remains blissfully unaware that viewers are writing their pleas to try and wake him from web slumberland. 

The creative premise of Noel Crane.com is that, on the surface, it could be the homepage of any young and technically-gifted college student, noodling with web design like a true hobbyist. The site’s primary objective is to reinforce Noel’s brand by defining the walls unseen around his public life – the web browser is a gap between the bricks, wherein a separate dialogue emerges between the show’s creators and viewers. By presenting a student’s homepage, complete in its virtual idiosyncrasies – as opposed to a sponsored website, self-consciously boasting cross-promotional and merchandising offers – the fans have retained a seemingly personal, private window onto Noel’s world. They will learn more through his tastes and insights. Thereby, omitting any references to the universe created by television, the Felicity listservers and mailgroups also have something interesting to talk about. And in many cases, fans who discovered the site ended up endorsing it with hyperlinks from pages on sites they created themselves to honor the show and its characters. Noel’s fictitious site experienced a sharp rise in visits over the next weeks, capping just over 43,000 visits during the month of November 1998 when it was first announced – during the course of dialogue, during the show – and many visits came from repeat visitors. It was a fairly auspicious start for a web designer whose work was never registered with search engines or linked to from any other part of the show’s integrated

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. brand experience. With Internet Theatre, that fourth, proverbial, mythical wall stands intact. It says as much about a show’s presentation as it can become a presentation of the show – all the while observing newer, unusual boundaries for siteworks. For Day For Night, this offered up, with each new project, a laboratory for new experiments in electronic communications and commercial misdirection. Internet Theatre is guided by a logical process. The characters cannot see the past the edge of the stage. Perhaps this can be likened to the dedication of method actors when they assume character. Day For Night is at its most passionate when it comes to maintaining a hands-on approach within this level of sitework – where each project can executed by adherence to a logistical script, and in a fully-adopted character or guise. We measured the success of a project like Noel Crane. com by the bewildering level of positive confusion we can create with it – when a casual visitor can positively cross-reference a universe created on television, from a separate reality existing only on the web.

Invocation and the integrated Spectacle.

  I’ve always had this passion for fiction intertwining with reality, and blurring those edges – especially

where these either make for a good dialogue about life and art. Perhaps it even fulfills a need I have; for irony to find a home in art. The effect of bringing lightness and humor to every experience now prevails, because, only now, I can see it in all of my work…! In France and Britain, in the mid-to-late 60s, Situationists played with the messages brought forth by the spectacle, when they doctored its language and subverted its imagery.  The most notorious offense, lies in the commercial misappropriations of the human form, face and body – especially the face. At its least obvious, we usually recognize desperation on the part of a seller, to put on a Noxzema-fresh, Photoshopped close-up of a sexy model – as a gesture of unattainability. The place for this in Day For Night’s body of work exists within a desire to uphold the aesthetic appeal of beauty and the beautiful creation, but meanwhile, it assumes some overlap with the integrated spectacle.

Historically-speaking.

  It is by coincidence that the use of a realist metaphor, that subverting the language of advertising can become a big part of how something like that gets pre-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. sented. For example, we have Simon Patterson’s “The Great Bear”, joining the world’s public persona, engineers, comedians, royalty, planets and major philosophers on a tube map; the environmental graphic design icon of the London Underground. Sarah Lucas, and other representatives of what became termed in the 90s as Young British art, the wave that followed the “Freeze” and “Saatchi” exhibitions, for the talent that spun off of Goldsmith’s college alumni in the 1990s, and covered so thoroughly in Matthew Collings’ books “Blimey” and “This is Modern Art.” Many of these have created theses by way of a thread, to follow the media subversions of Situationism, Surrealism and Fluxus. It also stands to reason that many contemporary subversions in the form of viral marketing are deployed by Post-Situationists, using the medium for social commentary or wise-crack; the most visible example in Los Angeles is Shepard Fairey’s “OBEY” flyers, using Andre The Giant’s saddened, heavy face, almost-perfectly posterized though photocopying.

The modern (public) space may also be subverted to this end. 

Subverting the public space of the web has been Day For Night’s m.o. since 1995, when it began to create NIGHTlinkRail, NoelCrane.com and numerous web presences for the show ALIAS. The objective of such diversion was to distract and amuse, to subvert and shake. Since, this has become absorbed into the “Integrated Spectacle” — it is increasingly commonplace for networks to think they’re being subversive, too, by creating Reality televisions and for a fictitious property to “converge” media. Naturally, there is more than a few media What will happen when all media has been converged? Will reality TV go away? Or will it simply go back into supporting the public’s apparent adoration of this form of Spectacle?  To resolve this, we must educate ourselves. We must condition ourselves, by encouraging and rewarding patience, even tenaciousness. It might even involve retraining ourselves to put ourselves before the clients we work with. If I cannot endorse a product or service, then I must also exercise my right of refusal. I will grow my own food, and provide my own services to others who are like minded. I must recognize what makes this so important.

And naturally, it must all be experienced…

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040.   What I mean by this, is that the only artifacts of early Situationism are the words…This is what a mostly-failed movement could offer, if not for the inclusion of Fluxus style lightness to divert and to subvert. No website that writes about Post-Situationism, without also “detourning” at the same time could be of any real value. No one wants to read about conceptual art theory. Hence, this essay is going to be kept very short.

A title and a process.  Just that, nothing more.

Connections.

  It’s one of many photos; a young man with a slight grin, holding up a sign he’s made with the following words on it, “Everything is connected in life. The point is to know it, and to understand it.” It’s contained in this beautiful quote, located in Gillian Wearing’s project “Signs That Say What You Want Them To Say, and Not Signs That Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say.”

We are all connected to everything else. It’s so important that we not forget this part. If someone were to tell me that there is a meaning to life has been finally discovered, I’d have to tell them, Sorry man, you’re too late, I’ve already read it somewhere else.

The global brain…

  There’s also the global brain theory, which is really interesting. The global brain exists, and according to writer Peter Moraites, the next phase of collective consciousness is inevitable. It’s the next level we move on to, beyond the state that appears to be amassed with chaos and entropy. Today we are meta-particles, bumping into one another; then, at a sort of neo-atomic level, we vibrate en masse when the collision rate increases beyond a certain level, and we change over into a different life form. Or something like that. There is always the possibility that we could extinct ourselves too, before this other thing could happen.

The Swift, integrated Spectacle.

 The integration of the Spectacle represents a point

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. where the marketing messages of the corporate broadcast environment intersects and forms a grey zone with the detourned messages of independent thinkers…One might say that the Revolution will be televised. That’s definitely one way to look at it. The spectacle rejects the value of real experience, by creating empty substitutes for that kind of experience. It’s the empty calories of a visual culture; and now we have developed additional terms to reflect this idea (with dismay). We are becoming a post-literate society. But more about that later. Don’t you think it’s about time you inspired your local community to REJECT life’s passive creations — those which are provided by forces of capitalist consumption, as alternatives for real experience. Examples of these creations are those supplied as marketing messages to consumers like you, your family, and friends. They, who would “buy or die” Young, fresh minds are being exploited for their disposable income. The messages created by “integrators” of the spectacle, are messages populated by waves and sensations of powerlessness The consumer “buys” to avoid rejection by peers. The messages urge buyers to feel less empty by consuming more empty calories. They use the power of seduction to weaken the will, in-

stead of strengthening it or inspiring. They abuse the potential of any new (or current) medium, by forcing a trite message to a non-creative end. They use a misdirected, or displaced “culture of cool” – yet another Mixed Message of a gentrified, yuppified underground culture that is no longer elitist. The messages flatten, condition, and de-stimulate. They are spells. They condition new behaviours in people to not read, but to “skim” instead of reading and contemplating. In such a case, everybody loses. They are enablers for not thinking or forming opinions in favor of a consumable, quantitative hunt for options. They favor the external image: the lure of the politically correct soapbox — but the soapbox is almost six feet underwater, and our eyes are just peering above the waves. It is a last gasp of air. It is a popularity contest. The right to deliberately experience a unique viewpoint — don’t we all still think we have this? How many would question this? That they are so accustomed to the unseen machinery, a metastructure that most can no longer see, is perhaps not a concern for some. But to consume empty calories is also to fatten up, to get slow. There is little to say in favor of blinker the mind to accept the pop culture spectacle as reality. Remember — you don’t want your girlfriend or your wife, you really want Britney Spears and her contradictory messages. You want gangsta shit. You

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. MTV, VH1, E! — what are these channels about? If you asked for a manifesto, you’d probably get directed to a mission statement. It might even sound non-committedly noble, to “offer music fans what they want.” That’s what everybody says they are doing. Answering to market need. On-demand services. So I propose this. Let’s do an experiment. Let’s create 999 more channels of boy bands, girl bands and vanity. Let’s manufacture music, and let’s enforce that all ideas we see are our own. Let’s add about 240 more shopping channels. Let’s create additional infomercials where we position our reverse-engineered products. Let’s “introduce a need” into the market, by showing a consumer struggling with pancakes. Let’s give the people what we say they want. Let’s put asses in the seats. Let’s do reality television, it’s more real than reality — it’s a hyperreal substitute for experience, man, plus it lacks the huge time commitment of having friends. ALSO the hyper-real TV people are innately more beautiful, and what’s so AMAZING — is that they apparently have no idea they’re being filmed, so their problems are DEFINITELY interesting. Let’s overstimulate children. They’re all Baby Mozarts, Baby Einsteins, Baby Da Vincis. Let’s put them in front of endless multimedia triggers — new parts of their brains will stimulate, plus — it even makes them better shoppers than we were.

Let’s not have an opinion. Let’s have a brand, but no attitude. We don’t stand for anything as designers of messages, but our opinions are those of our clients, whoever they might be. Let’s stand up for what the people who pay us stand for. Let’s not stand up to our beliefs, someone’s gotta pay the rent for this $2000/mo office! Let’s continue to create stupidity and offer more options, more choice, so that others can feel outrage and offence at the short-sightedness of home-based entrepreneurs and their e-myth. Let’s trade upon the lives of all young people, and keep them indoors more, it’s safer anyway and that way they won’t have sex or get into gangs. Let’s exploit the spectacle by placing our own messages into the canons of meta-advertising. Let’s place message that say “consume this you dumb-ass fucker! You’re not smart enough to know the difference between Pepsi and RC, so this should fly by over your head.

What are the Days?

  Consider each Catalogue number to be a self-contained thesis in the Post-Situationist-International (SI). Consider each Day to be a looser definition of time; much like the interpretative measurement of days in the biblical sense.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040.

Working digitally.

  Being a digital artist is a term we hear more and more of. Perhaps it really describes more of an attitude – it’s about how we get organize our work to get digital results, rather than merely being a symptom of using a few of the tools; Photoshop and a drawing tablet alone do not make a digital artist. Digital means are those reserved for the storage and organization of all virtual, non-physical assets we choose to create. Of course, neither medium, whether actual or virtual, is meant to replace the other. Yet for some reason, we continuously experience portfolio sites, containing reductions of printed matter – this is where a choice has been made (or non-deliberately, has been allowed) to put a thumbnail in place of an original object. Without going so far as to saying whether I feel this is good or bad, let me just say, you can probably already guess where I’m leaning on the subject.  To become better digital artists, we may think of our output as that whose destination is screen-based. Work we create in this category would therefore include things created for broadcast as well as for on-demand,

or personal, browsing. Perhaps, for this reason alone, it remains truly important that we not think purely in terms of reductionist experiences, any more than we should ever talk down to an audience – both are potentially condescending and result in negatively conditioning, and finally, losing an audience. We already know that the history books have a tendency to edit history severely; we should not edit ourselves out of existence in the process of getting there.  Therefore, a sequence of sound and visual bites does not replace any single element we’ve created in our body of work. The presentation of digital content should be appreciative; it should increase in value, as it is timebased. And our final destination, with all digital work, should be the preservation, as well as the presentation, of original content as both a means, and as an end.

Bloody artists…

  I was faced with the proposal of doing a distillation of my work for a cd-rom, but in the end, I voted against it, because I simply did not want to present a reduction or derivation. So there’s a dual motive; most importantly, there’s the artistic one that says that an object is an object, and cannot be reduced or explained properly,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. much like when you try to help someone achieve a vicarious pleasure by describing an experience to them, that they weren’t party to experiencing firsthand. You know that you’re going to fail if you ultimately want to recreate your enthusiasm. But there’s also the mischievous pleasure found in the possible disinformation aspects of creating a whole body of work — one which lacks obvious lines of support within other, more established sources.  It’s like a “faith” thing. We take faith when we’re devout; but we also take faith when it gives us comfort, or even when we’re lazy; ie, too lazy to read into something by ourselves. We ask to have our hands held, we remember parents reading to us and taking care of us, and suddenly, we’re in an age where the glut of information overwhelms us and faces us with the challenge of reading, which at times we know to be a greater challenge — of our good sense, because we also know that much of what’s written and published no longer has that required stamp of authority. Everything everyone says now seems to emerge from a position of authority. Any semi-literate person can host a web-page; and if the design looks professional enough, we choose to believe in that party’s authority, to say whatever they believe, even if it lacks the research and support to back it. And then there’s the general feeling that no one likes to stand out as a nay-sayer, so few people will bring that

role back upon themselves to bring down false authorities; the rewards often appear too thin for doing so.  I’m definitely intrigued by systems, and by artists who use systems in their work. Peter Greenaway, for example, whose paintings show an entirely “other” side to his filmmaking, and which he has always admitted to be a wholly artificial construct. You always know that what your seeing looks artificial. You just don’t always know why. And sometimes, that bothers the more naturalistic aspects of film-going, because we see reality depicted artificially, as though it were true reality, when in fact it’s not. We know that films aren’t real, but we like to believe that they are. So when they don’t enable us with our belief, we reject them as bad or unfriendly. But if you consider film as 24 paintings a second, you might be in the audience for an entirely different reason, having more to do with entertaining the eye, with light.  Music: it’s pure sound, when it’s at its best. If we decide that imposing a formal construct upon it is the only solution, we get into secondary issues which might often detract from the primary one, which is organized sound, to be post-Cageian about it. We see the storytelling aspects of Opera or Country music as natural, because their folk aspects are centuries old. But in another way, their time has come, if we are truly in a post-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. PostModern age.  We have just come from deconstructing popular art form with Modernism, and post-Modernism is already a relationship we have with the past. We’re always postsomething. Since the early 90s, we’re in a place, where the artist’s awareness, or attitude about hyper-professionalism is what is on display. Ease of creating an illusion and affordibility all adds up to make a good artistic statement.

The visual art of storytelling.

  So much goes into the art of narrative, not the least of which is the work. Like when the teachers said, “show your work” because you needed to prove that you knew what you were doing whenever you got the right answer. This unfolds many, many hours of “proof”. Where to begin? Thus far, I have kept sketchbooks, notebooks, journals, binders, cassettes, videos, CD-roms, bound books, bags, drawers, floppies and hard drives full of the stuff. Which supposedly builds character, or “image.”

Process #2. Gimme more output!

  For me personally, working digitally means that I have a tendency to organize and database certain types of work-in-progress, as a precursor to a lot of the work that I do. For example, in 2003, I finally worked out a relational system for organizing my output, allowing me to work even faster. The prime objective in my output is to get from the starting point “A” to whatever destination “B” should turn out to be – by taking the most enjoyable, and effective, path I can create. I work with hard-drives, and the file-to-folder hierarchy, to keep content in order. I date all my work consistently, using YEAR_MMDD in all file paths, so that I can sort my work chronologically, at a glance. This ties into a personal Code that is at the root of some personal research; effectively a life-long thesis on what it is that I’m creating.  In the past it used to take me a month to finish a musical composition, working with instruments, on paper, using hardware, and eventually hard drives and software. The end result was on a DAT, which was digital. So the process of working from analog-to-digital would take a lot of energy and would test my patience for the course of a month. Partially, this is because these tools, as an organization,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. have limits, and my grasp of those tools limited me further.  Since realizing that this is a hinderance to the actualization of more output, my goal for growth is twofold – to keep improving the toolset, and to continue to improve my ability to use intuition, and satisfy my drive to create more output.

Time + Energy = Value

  I’m not a fan of doing anything twice. And if I can avoid exhausting personalities and just stay focused all day, then that’s a truly good thing. I guess it all works out.

We can do this the easy way…

  Or the difficult way, but nobody really wants to do that. You adopt this stance Recognizing the commonsense/ emotional component of doing something Being kind, helpful, efficient. It serves a very logical side of the brain as well as a compassionate one, being effi-

cient means being considerate to oneself; a simplification that makes life enjoyable. And it’s logical because the brain recognizes the impact and influence for having chosen to do so. (We can do this the easy way or the hard way.)

Recording (Process #3).

  Between 1993 and 2000, I recorded every musical idea on a cassette tape using a dictaphone. I did my best to put dates on the cassettes when I’d finish them, although by the October of 2000, I had 88 C90s, filled front and back with junk, musical snatches, amusing phone messages, personal journal entries, creative direction for the creative agency I was starting up, KaChing, as well as Day For Night, and ultimately, roughly no idea of where any of it was meant to go, except usually for the month immediately following completion of any one tape, after which all knowledge would fade into the recent past. It was an interesting case of creating overwhelm – the quiet before the storm.

Sourcing. 

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040.  It took 7 years to figure out how I wanted to make music again. What it boiled down to was, I wanted making music to be easy, and free of a lengthy accounting or “clean-up” phase. I also resented how I’d cornered myself using MIDI prior to 1993 — I was afraid of picking up an instrument and creating a work that could never be replicated. I had studio envy — the idea that no matter what I was about to record, someone would later challenge the technical quality of the recording: if I’d used cassette, I should have used DAT. If I’d used DAT, I should have used a better mic and recording environment. Basically, I felt like I could never win. Not enough bass. Not enough high-end.  So MIDI had becoem this sterile, anabolic environment where the information was contained inside of boxes; and music was still an activity outside of my grasp.

Phasing. 

This work was produced using two hand-held recorders. The difference in timing is accounted for by the variations in playback speeds on the individual recorders,

when the two recordings are laid side by side. Additional variations were produced by varying the speaker’s location in relation to the two recorders. Found “Words From The Internet Theatre” I ended up realizing a production goal that year. I digitized and organized my entire back catalogue that year, beginning with those tapes, and including all my 4-tracks, work tapes, DATs, Sound FX, Loops and Samples. Recording became an activity organized from a single hard drive, and with an incremental back up process takign place every night. Musically, it saved my life to see all of my work in a context that was free of judgment. PROCESS: “I am source.” A paragraph about my work process, systems everything mp3’d Loops, sfx all music and source resident.

Mind the gap.  

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. She/He may be limited… in space… in experience… in money… in patience… in food… in sexual knowledge… in out of body experience… in good life experience… in bad times… she or he may be limited in time.

A hierarchy for creating results.

  Why is it important that others align with their higher self, to find this understanding? The goal of all life is, ultimately, to create happiness by meeting all the needs for survival, followed by the needs that lead to self actualization. Maslow identifies this with his hierarchy of needs, which ascends in 5 levels (physiological, safety, love, esteem, and finally, selfactualization.) Perhaps, for one thing, there is nothing more boring at parties than someone who hates their fucking job. Because you always want to know from them, why don’t you really just do a career, and not focus on a job in-

stead? Maybe the world would become a more enlightened (and happier) space, if we all do what it takes to create this for ourselves, with a higher goal in mind. What would a mass form of idealism produce? Would it form a shallow, utopian view? If we don’t assume responsibility for ourselves, whenever we talk about Utopia, then the prospect doesn’t seem so realistic. We imagine a perfect world, but we also still assume that someone else, maybe a creator, is still responsible for our decisions. It is easy to see why we give up on a vision, especiallly when it becomes easier to assign “utopia” with a label… such as “equals, unrealistic.” Synergistic relationships, however, between spouses, partners, clients and vendors …all begin with a principal alignment, which must require few compromises, few second-guesses. There is no world so heinous as one which senselessly endorses “harmful” goods and services — products that its inhabitants don’t really want. If we don’t make the time to research the alternatives we choose, to our own satisfaction, then we contribute to a glut of useless options, without addressing our civil right for better options — a right which requires self-authority; to make a deliberate choice early in the puzzle — and which precedes a glut based upon quantitative measures. When we work against our better instincts, we unwittingly give creating energy to the parties whose prod-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. ucts we do not deliberately endorse; this is especially true, when we undertake business relationships that we feel are separate from our awareness of higher self. Perhaps it is every person’s responsibility: first, to get to know oneself, to understand and to value this importance. Equally, we must learn to be consistent within ourselves, in a manner which produces a satisfactory result, one which appears to be connected to the steps taken to arrive there. How often does someone you know give up, frustrated, saying “I want C, but I do A and B, but I never get C as a result!” And how often do we also know that A or B may not have been the only right steps in the first place, but an abbreviation of merely some of those steps?

My reality.

 (Even more than sex…) I fantasize about a tolerant, patient, open-minded society which can handle revolution and rejects the musical spectacle

Let’s create what we prefer.

  It’s an amazing world, and let’s do that; create what we

prefer. Let us always create what we prefer. Let us create something of our own choosing, and allow ourselves the space around that creation, to become a “breathing zone”, for what we choose for ourselves. To support our higher selves — our truest version of self, it’s the only way we can have impact, ultimately, in our universe.

The train ride.

  16:20 Descent from street, onto platform 16:20 Move past the accordionist. 16:26 The train departs. 16:31 Platform ambience 16:35 Next train arrives, departs. 16:44 Listen to amusing female voice intoning “Mind the gap” 16:45 Board train 16:53 Listen to tube chatter 17:10 Get off train 17:14 Embankment arrival

NIGHTlinkRail : Are you commuter literate?  

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. NIGHTlinkRail, an experimental sitework launched in 1997 by DayForNight.com, is a network composed of 100 individual train stations. It parallels the online catalogue of the Day For Night musical imprint, in the form of a series of Railway Stations along what I’ve been referring to as “An Internet Journey-By-Rail.” After descending via escalator into the gateway station, one will begin to recognize the predictable options from modern railway travel. While browsing the Travel Planner Station map on the wall, a visitor may also preview an entire CD release through streaming RealMedia, while sampling the graphic art on-screen from many of the Day For Night releases…According to its own urban legend, domain planners began operations, building and excavating from the 11th November 1996 onwards, and finally opening its gates to commuters in January 1998. NIGHTlinkRail is a fictitious amalgam of the Metro, the New York City subway and the London Tube all at once. Eric Scott declares NIGHTlinkRail’s primary objective to be an “exploration of possible new models for visual navig-ational systems,” via a detailed recreation of a much older and completely different model for a navigation system used every day by commuters, worldwide. Each Station mirrors a project completed by one or more Day For Night artists – a managed residence along an Artist Line or maybe a musical release, work

of fiction, an internet project or other exploratory sitework. Certain stations even behave as junctions between multiple artists, where collaboration represents a meeting of artistic minds.  Eric Scott declares NIGHTlinkRAIL’s primary objective to be an “exploration of possible new models for visual navigational systems,” via a detailed recreation of a much older and completely different model for a navigation system used every day by commuters, worldwide. Each Station mirrors a project completed by one or more Day For Night artists – a managed residence along an artist Line or maybe a musical release, work of fiction, an internet project or other exploratory sitework.  Certain stations even behave as “junctions” between multiple artists, where collaboration represents a meeting of artistic minds.

NIGHTlinkRail (too).

  The real beef is this – because I keep on asking myself, “How might we view Situationism as most truly relevant today, when we are becoming further immune to

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. Guy Debord’s definition of a society deceived by spectacle? His later admonitions had more to do with a full, but depressed appreciation for how society appears to want spectacle. This is of course, somewhat preposterous and true, and some-what plausible but untrue. When a post-spectacle society consumes Internet Theatre playing to a capacity crowd, then sociologists also begin to use terms like post-literate and the idea of reality television has accelerated a viewpoint of social decay? Then there’s NIGHTlinkRail… ah, yes… now that’s been fun to nail down. NIGHTlinkRail.com Sub-urban Planning NIGHTlinkRail.com At least we get you there.  For the online tours of the NIGHTlinkRail Network, I came up with “Take An Internet Journey-By-Rail. A pleasant wait is guaranteed for all.” Then, in relation to NIGHTlink, I became “Stationmaster” as opposed to something more banal title. The need for détournement is addressed in Punk sloganism, and the jolts created by Situationism as a form of post-Surrealism, post DaDa. Where can I go to support this interest with Situationist films, a documentary?

I would like to experience Situationism and feel it, not just as a purely abstract, or theoretical concept.  If Situationism was big in 1968, was there any relevance to the idea that The Spectacle would not have included the medium as part of its message? Especially once it became clear that Situationism was rejecting that medium…? Antipathy between a medium, as a whole, and the ideology?

NIGHTlinkRail (dot.com).

  The NightLinkRail model is really about the generation and spreading of ideas via the web. It’s a numbers game. The bigger it gets, the more plausible it looks; and the more people who see it, the more people will hopefully talk about it… “Hey, I’ve just seen the craziest thing…It’s just too deep to be fiction. Ya know?” The rigorousness and absurdity of its taxonomy has also brought in more than one trainspotter as a fan and visitor. It is a visual catalogue of musical and interactive experiences, capped definitively with a defined upper limit of 100 stations. The fate of NIGHTlinkRail lies in its attention to literalism and form over function, favoring an abstract

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. browser design of walls, streets, platforms and surfaces.  Artist homepages depict large multi-panel tunnel ads of the type which line subway platforms. “Music Can Fry Your Brain!” warns the message from one homepage quay, with a series of abstract Surgeon’s General Warnings (sic) in the bottom right corner: “Dope can cause birth defects, lice, mini-malism, slurred speech and tooth decay…” Eric suggests that NIGHTlinkRail should not be taken too seriously. It is, after all, a system modeled upon many of the experiences of inner city transit, from its minute intricacies, down to its foibles and inadequacies… (Who ever heard of a website that shuts down between 1:30 and 5:00 AM, boasts of its unpleasant odor or even…its rats?)  While isolated from both the corporate and the corporeal, NIGHTlinkRail’s scenario intentionally parodies all underground subway networks… In this case, the “artists” have taken responsibility away from the urban planners, and NIGHTlinkRail be- comes a journey into the bowels of a virtual metropolis – one inhabited instead by musicians, designers and auteurs – who are notoriously under-prepared when it comes to matters of technical accuracy, for are they not, in fact, just like artists? Elsewhere, server downtime or inability to serve a particular DHTML “destination” is justified by a workers’

strike, inept or late service at a junction, or hapless railway disaster. To jumble things further, the site deliberately imitates life, with its empty promises for timely repairs at imaginary signal boxes and junctions, while complaints directed to the Stationmaster are ultimately met with the same shrugs and delays as the realworld version.  As a sitework, NIGHTlinkRAIL is continu-ally in progress and invites feedback and participation from its visitors…And for some travelers, it is even a final destination.

Joyriding.

  …2 years earlier, I didn’t know much yet about the web. To better understand it, I wrote, conceived and designed this thing, and titled it an “Internet Journey-by-Rail.” I needed some inner clarification, while developing the abstract for the connected relationship between separate Days of the catalogue (for which I am presenting 100 total) and the spatial relationship between stations in a network. A similar abstract could have explained connections between railway stations in a transit network and broadcast stations in a radio/television/web network.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. I visualised the NIGHTlinkRail network as a series of algorithms, based upon typical com-muter behavior on an urban transit system.  Analogous to the existence of different “platforms” in a subway stations to allow travelers at junctions to commute and switch between different transit lines, the NIGHTlink architecture also suggests a similar algorithm where the key variables are 10 Artists (x) and 100 Stations (y). There is a specific and finite number of possible connections using the x-y variables. This fictionalized account intentionally suggests a new (old) model in intuitive graphic communication and information architecture (with sparing use of the term “telecommuting”). Please enjoy the ride.

Never underestimate trains.

  We understand them: they’re regular, on time (mostly) and we like to ride them. It’s important that we learn to connect every new idea with at least one we already understand. That’s all.

From darkness.

  …I entered NIGHTlinkRail’s gateway and descended into the extranet that Tuesday, via Station 019. I had a handful of quarters and a haversack, filled with my camera, my steno pad, my walkman (listening to Paris: A Musical Overpass all the way here. What a blast to imagine actually being able to go there from here…or wherever here is. I decided I would take one of those mystery trips advertised on one of the walls in the station. Saw a poster reading “Take An Internet JourneyBy-Rail.” Next to that was a large ticket paypoint with a ten-by-ten selector counting all the way up from 001 to 100. I was intrigued by the fact that only about one-half of them were lit up or even appeared to be working. At first glance, it looked like a mostly dormant network.  Chose my lucky number twenty-four. 24? 24. There it was all lit up and waiting: 024. I clicked the button, and waited for the paypoint to issue me a ticket or something. “Validating your connection, please wait”… The next thing I knew, I found myself hurtling along a dark tunnel as one of the NIGHTlink connections carried me and my haversack to my mystery destination. Chose my lucky number twenty-four. 24? 24. There it was all lit up and waiting: 024. I clicked the button, and waited for the paypoint to issue me a ticket or something. “Validating your connection, please wait…” The

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. next thing I knew, I found myself hurtling along a dark tunnel as one of the NIGHTlink connections carried me and my haversack to my mystery destination.  In the dim interior light of the car, I could hear the repetitive cachick-cachack of the trestle rods and the faint hum of a busker strumming his guitar and scratching decks to underground beats and to the bemused stares of other telecommuters. But when I turned my head, I was all alone here. Where was this seemingly deserted subway car taking me? I could see the ambient and repetitive blur of ads flying past on the wall, inches beyond the glass of the door. I could barely make out the words except by the repetitions. Flybills for different artists… “Peter Moraites”…“Rhythm Factory”… “Found”… “Salvador Dalek” (chuckle)… “Day For Night” …“Eric Scott”…odd that it was Tuesday and that it was also raining. When the doors opened a mere few seconds later, I found myself staring down a dark tube with a Travel Planner in my hand.

Take an internet journey-by-rail.

  Back when I worked for a studio, not many people understood me, and it was often hard taking credit – or getting credit – for my ideas, because what I was best

at rarely materialized in the finished work. So I haven’t included much of that work in my portfolio – it just doesn’t seem relevant to show it when it feels like so little of that was made of the same design as the current stuff. Getting into answers? Some people assert that there aren’t really any answers, maybe that’s it. Only some really good questions. And the value they provide, is that they make us think, or they give us an opportunity to find new things of importance to think about.  Take social issues. These get a beating on daytime television, there aren’t any more to think about, because hosts turn them into a media circus. “Entertainment is assault by the media, 24 hours a day.” So instead, we retreat into our own heads and think about the things we’re going to buy, the people we’re going to see, or what our share of this might be to do so that, by the end of the day, it finds new relevance.

Obsession. 

Three years later, I was on a rampage, trying to explain my website to the programmers I would interview, about helping me complete an algorithmic system for generating, on-the-fly, a NIGHTlink station (or “project”,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. like when you go into a derelict part of urban life where a tenement is referred to as “the Projects” because it no longer really is at the top of anyone’s list). Here’s what I came up with. DAYforNIGHT.com is a real network of virtual subway stations located in a fictitious city-like domain on the internet. Each station has its own timetable and an artistic or musical project associated with it. These are numbered from Day 001 to Day 100. Each station takes its name and identity after a number in the Day for Night catalogue: past, present or future. The size of the catalog is finite: 100 stations, or projects. We hope you enjoy this graphical internet experience. ARTIST = LINE PROJECT=STATION COLLABORATION=JUNCTION EXCERPT…(?) …getting type like the dfn.com sign…implication here is that type is but an illusion…that it is not a reflection of shadow onto a printed sign, but rather that we see an image with shadow, with translucent type floating over it…QED, type is therefore an illlusion. Is the site efficient? ie, is taking the tube somehow “faster” or “better” than taking the regular internet with textual hyperlinks? Obviously it is less efficient in a strictly literal sense, especially when one may easily take the abstract nature of the web for granted.

Is the train travel concept backwards? Or is it the necessary analogue for this worK? What I have done, in fact, is created a fictionalized concept called “dayfornight.com” in which I have illustrated on the Net, the concept of junctions as disciplinary collaborations… (see explanations under “Nightlink INFO”

Independent artist’s statement.

  As an independent artist and designer, I have deliberately avoided some of the limitations, both of specialized areas of work and the obligations of commitment required in a design studio environment. I prefer to work alone, allowing myself more room to experiment and change, and to choose commissions of a wider diversity (from web creation to record covers, corporate work to unique commissions). Presently, I am pursuing only the commissions I believe in and can support morally, socially and politically. This approach leads me into essentially close relationships with clients. With two of my experimental projects thus far – NIGHTlinkRail and H O SPITAL – I have indulged the passion for image making which most interest me… Siteworks offering a unique marriage of progressive musics with

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. flexible visuals. Both are joined in a network unified by a starting point and an end point. In the middle lies a finite universe of 100 virtual underground stations, each one representing a completed Day For Night project.  This might be tied in to a long-time fascination with underground travel, allowing me to develop a more effective context to integrate my music and images, making for a journey that is both unique for each visitor, and yet, like a subway system, governed by a rigorous internal logic. What I do is not a ‘job’ but a vocation, something that is fundamental to my life. My approach to doing projects is continually informed by a passion for language and for architecture – a balance of form, space and order.  I admit to a tendency to being something of a trainspotter – creating an ordered universe, where the beauty and serendipity of random order can ultimately be introduced to play a catalytic role in the creative process, Future hopes include continually challenging the accepted notions of applied arts – experimenting with unknown materials and new technologies – to extend work into a wider diversity of projects and to work more with environmentally-aware clients. Eric Scott January 1, 2000

Asserting identities.

  You see, all the stations, all the artists are my identities… They’re always an extension of me. No identities are fixed. All identities are the product of change. They flow, and are not meant to be rigid entities. So in the end, I can weave a good story, but I can also be a bit of a control freak, and what happens there is that the art, the music, the counter-narrative themes, or whatever, they become so me that nobody else knows how to get involved properly. Which can be sad really, as it’s meant to inspire, while at the same time, overwhelming the end user is one way I like to create that particular distinction in art.  Basically, what this suggests, is that “the thicker the book, the more credible the author and their information.” Sound familiar? I wrestled with the idea of the length of this book. And of the breadth of content on my CD-rom.

Schizo. 

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. One might question whether I suffer from schizophrenia to trade under so many different names… Day For Night, Rhythm Factory, Found, Kunstfabriken, King FM, Bluebottles, NIGHTfonts, Salvador Dalek… Eric Scott?  Yes, perhaps in the creative sense I have trouble resisting identities…or too much spare time to think. Perhaps (also) my reasoning originates with a desire to differentiate projects by a discrete manifesto – a subset of artistry defined by an independent projects label, and an image represented in a series of curriculum vitae. Eric Scott projects are mostly linked to my pursuits as an author or composer of instrumental, ambient, (minimalistic) compositions for other ensembles (ie. Sexus)… plus a few songs written while dabbling with popular music since the mid-eighties onwards…  Found, as another example… compiled entirely from sources I’ve collected over the years and not relying too heavily upon melodies so much as the settings and scenarios created; some poignant, funny or even sad… Or Sexus, the funny little six-keyboard ensemble founded for the purpose of performing minimalist ensemble pieces of which I am but one member as well as chief composer… King FM is an ambient/dubstep/remix outfit…and

what better source material to start with than the music of Rhythm Factory, essentially a techno outfit – me again, with an arsenal of keyboards – in which I play the three main roles, composer, program-mer, and producer (assigned three discrete aliases: Jupiter, Pete and Gez – The Sonic Investigators?) …But recent attempts to sculpt the upcoming releases “Push” (Day 022) and “Suck” (Day 024), not as electronica, but with guitars is part of the genre-busting we hear so much about… The Von Trapps is me recording with singer/ lyricist Doug Green. Attempts made in the early 1990’s haven’t always aged the same as others (the presaging of breakbeat loops and no more electronic drums for another 10 years!) – still, the Von Trapps have been hibernating for quite some time now…there are but three recordings to this identity; a one-off perhaps, but as with most projects these things do wake up as they receive interest…  The eponymous Bluebottles album (slated for 2004), is a departure from the world of breakbeat and into a territory of jazz-halls and comedy. It really wouldn’t have that problem of sounding like it was done en-tirely inside a computer. (Even if it was!)  Re:Fresh is the online gallery where Day For Night’s motion media goes on display… A temporary shopfront for NIGHTfonts, the foundry of digital and experimental typefaces, developed under

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. the patronage of Day For Night. Font families are organized in groups by a particular thematic title (Manifesto, Control, Disorder, Mission, Style, Transit)… So where exactly does Day For Night fit as a creative entity? What is there possibly left to say? It might be witnessed simply as a designer label, but Day For Night assumes predominantly a curatorial role in the big picture of internet theatre and the indepen-dent projects label: the proverbial camera operator presiding behind the creative lens, gently nudging the frame to the right or to the left.  The NIGHTlinkRail stations represent something internal to the Day For Night process; a creative embodiment on this specific type of willful misdirection. Which may account for why I tell people that NIGHTlinkRail is a work of fiction.

We like this.

  I’m occasionally reminded of Tracey Emin becoming the subject of the 1999 Turner Prize nomination, and “My Bed” being notoriously at the center of attention at the Tate Britain, but I’ve always really dug her warmth, and when I got there and wandered through the rooms, taking in her video, her writings, quilts and drawings.

Whatever it is that would make this artist choose to create everything she does as a partial display of the self; this is good.

Is underground the sub-culture of cool?

  To stay underground, you have to live what you believe in, at the potential expense of passing on any new temptations or riches. The lure of the underground is that if you could avoid jumping upon a capitalist bandwagon during your entire professional life, and stick to your guns forever (or for as long as you can creatively defend doing so), you might develop a methodology for sustainable happiness, while living an example of singularity for the benefit of your peers and colleagues.

War Brand Strategy.

 OK. So “Operation Iraqi Freedom” starts up full force on our TVs on Tuesday, March 25. Only it’s got other names, on different net-works. CBS calls their spin on the war while NBC uses the president’s lingo, “Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Looks like someone’s sucking up a little. The nightly news on ABC actually features an editorial from a media-studies guy, who dissects the 3 different brands, and assures the viewers that they are being lied

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. to in three different containers. So choose wisely. It was actually the most engaging part of watching the whole spectacle. Could you imagine the creative meetings that took place to get these identities? Can you picture the kind of behaviors that accompanied the agency/designers’ motivation…to keep the war “sexy”…? Designer: “I want to make the coooolest logo… for the war? Because think of the opportunities? If we came up with the official brand for the war, we could charge a lot for that.”…Operation Iraqi Freedom…“Hey, we got to create the style sheet!” Hey, that opens doors. You might get to pick the font for the apocalypse. That’s the integration of the spectacle, in case you didn’t notice. There are moments when I want to choke on my own sick.

The non-image.

  The goal in packaging electronic, minimalistic and ambient music seems less connected to the traditional aspects of advertising and marketing; up-selling a potential client on a new look or a model that is desirable or simply unattainable; but rather, to resonate a sympathetic chord with the listener; to hit them on a more abstract level, where the purchasing decision lies behind instinct.

This is purely an abstraction.

Choice. 

I am continuously reminded that I always have a choice. I can become consumed by greed, attempting to make any thing as big as I can, or,  I can create it deliberately on a scale, such that I can also still fully appreciate it. When I remember to create in relation to scale, and appreciation, then the work assumes a manageable degree of authority, by recognizing its audience, without over-extending its welcome.

Live for today. 

The degree of stress we have in our life is determined by the creations we resist, or identify ourselves with. Some work-throughs: Learn to recognize a need for attention, vs. a want for attention. Also, the ignorant may be charged a stupidity tax, espe-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. cially when there is a surfeit of apathy. Today, be present and real.

Function before form.

  Like Fluxus, Situationism created a substitute; something alternative to art, but which somehow replaced some need for it. It was based upon its own manifesto, and was meant to take place in, generally speaking, the public space – in the streets, and in people’s homes, instead of in museums and galleries. In this way, it seems fitting to bring up a discussion of function in art; both subjects deal with something that is more relevant than the aesthetics of form; they also precede design with intention; something we’re going to look at a lot.

Ceci n’est pas un web-site.

  Can anyone please tell me – what is a good website supposed to look like…? Is it the Java applet sitting beneath an animated billboard? …A remote electronic marketplace? …A stack of paper that hovers (miraculously) in ether? …A virtual

gallery? …Is a website like a textbook, rich with information but stylistically neutral?…or is it more like a train station? Is it in three (or more) dimensions, or maybe just two? …Perhaps it has a row of hi-tech, chromium-style buttons with bevels, embossed text and drop shadows running down a sidebar? Or maybe it is more of an immersive experience – allowing the user to explore a deserted street, clicking upon travel posters – inspect-ing detritus and debris, scavenging in search of a history?  I do have a point in voicing my concern. Interactive culture is now an agent of that staid icon of multiplechoice: the tired old Chinese-American menu. Imagine any combination of dishes you’d like to sample, and in under three button clicks they can be served, on-demand…We are simply becoming less deliberate in the choices we make as an electronic culture, while the new media developers are presenting us, increasingly with more options. And we have been reinforcing this demand for the delivery of options by our silent approval – after all, this is a trend which resonates best where it serves the egos of designers and content-developers worldwide.  Of course, there’s always the odd voice proposing technology as a means of simplification – often drowned out by the sheer volume of options burying the speak-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. er. For the search we might conduct by employing web technology to better explain our lives – in a pursuit of better choices, even when that means fewer of them – may present a return of more, effectively, for less. What am I suggesting? Only that we have reached critical mass in an age of an on-demand dim sum for the mind. As netizens, we are really still exploring the first page in the big book of potential in new media. So perhaps it isn’t too early to make a break with informationsuperhighway-hypnosis, and begin to live, as Thoreau suggested when he set off into the woods, a little more “deliberately.” The experience this man was seeking, according to Walden, was a greater appreciation of his own humanity.  So, with everyone’s permission, I’d like to offer a suggestion here: We shall proceed in our development of a common language – transcending genres and demographics, where vocabulary can be less constraining than that of preceding generations – but that we make smaller, steady advances in developing a graphic language that exposes more of ourselves and our humanity. • Also, that we should offer richer content, and embrace all of what a web site is and what it should be: a total relationship the consumer has with the product. For a web client, this translates to the best of worlds: a more compelling discussion of Brand – within a fully immer-

sive experience.  If Day For Night has a graphic mission (and it does), it may well be to ring in a new era for increased conscience and reflection – a matter, we feel, begins with a discussion of personal history, an underground architecture and something we like to call Internet Theatre…

A. H. Wilson.

  “I’ll just say one word: ‘Icarus’. If you get it, great. If you don’t, that’s fine too. But you should probably read more,” chides the fictionally-embellished Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan, in Michael Winterbottom’s film 24 Hour Party People). It’s a sort of haughty moment of soliloquy; a response directly to the viewer. The statement feels like it’s directed at some kind of media addict; I often think this is an excellent thing to say, especially in address to the kind of ignorance which passively perpetuates the modern-day spectacle; whereby people question less and accept more of what they see around them. Of course, there’s always the fear that if we throw things out that only make our bodies fat and slow, we will crumble and become physically debilitated as a society, like cavities in a mouth full of once-healthy chop-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. pers.

Notes from sleep (upon awakening). 

I wake up, and now suddenly, this is what’s on my mind. Why? Who knows.  First of all, it feels important that we not get preoccupied with, or confused over, which medium (or even multi-medium) that we create or use. It’s too easy to blame the messenger, and in this case, you can’t blame television or the internet for creating a seductive alternative to reality. Instead, you need to recognize the potential it has, and you need to deliberately create and live an alternative to that, one that supports a higher goal of the self, and best off that it be one that supports a benevolent environmental, or communal view. So why wonder about, or even discuss it? Is it a potential threat to anyone? Somehow, it feels like it might be at the root of something. For example, people are fascinated by technology when it is new. (And then again, when it is old, too.) It is a distraction to think about the medium. The best analogy I can think of is when you’re telling somebody a story that is really iimpotnt to you — it just feels so significant to you that you’re bursting to get it out of you, and the words can’t seem to come

out fast enough, and y ou’re just riding on that energy — and then you discover that the person you’ve been talking to is wandering, they’re no longer exercising that option to give you their full attention. They’ve instead divided their focus between you, and something minute — like the pattern of your speech, or they’ve interrupted you to discuss a technical aspect of what you’ve been saying, instead of staying locked onto the main point with you. They’re replacing the experience of being in the same place with you, with a fear of committing to the listening process.  Why? Are we, culturally speaking, fearful of newness, or new thoughts, ideas, that we must latch onto distraction? Do we really love to obsess over technology, or is it just a distraction that works as a barrier to intimacy the way eye contact (or avoiding it) does for so many people? Sometimes life seems like our attention is there, when in fact, it’s not; and it’s not technology that’s taking that away from us; it’s us, not acting or living deliberately enough to create focus.  We shall discuss this at length. But we shall begin to do so, by expressing very short ideas: namely that we are becoming a culture of overwhelm.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. Whelm.

  OK. Let’s just start with that, let’s not get ahead of ourselves yet. How is whelm – to cover with water or to submerge; an abstract measurement of new-information overload –useful to us? Is whelm practical or effective for anything, or does it just describe an obstruction to learning? I believe it to be a bit of both.

Post-literacy.

  I remember raising this question, in a meeting with new clients – “How will we factor in the natural tendency of visitors to this new website, to not read what we’ve written for them?” Stunned, uncomfortable silence, for about five seconds. Given that there are tendencies for people to treat screen-based reading differently, this was naturally, a question to be asked. I mean, instead of chewing and digesting the pages of books, we know that readers get antsy sitting in front of a monitor, and don’t want the added inconvenience of blurry or small type. So, mine was not a popular move to make, but it had to be said

anyway. Now, in my defense, I should probably also mention that the audience in that room were not the typical corporate audience; they were a organization dedicated to the funding of educational programs in public schools. So there’s always a chance that they misheard the intention behind my comment as either uninformed, or perhaps even, deeply cynical. I can assess that view, now, especially, after I saw they went with a different firm. Still, I have no regrets for having voiced this. I am not cynical. I truly want you to read what I have to share. And I wouldn’t expect you to do the same thing in front of your computer screen that you would do, curled up in bed with a book. You don’t have to like me. You can always click away to something else. It’s my objective, to keep you here, reading. So how do we deal with the objections presented back to us, from the end-users of our creations? Do we cast them aside all but the views which are popular with us? Is it nobody’s fault that a perfectly good essay on visual literacy examination test scores, might get left ignored and unread, when the browser window turned into a very long scroll on that page? We’ve been looking more closely at the likelihood that something will get attention, when there’s something on elsewhere, always a bit shorter, and a bit louder. The question is…

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. Britney.

  Britney, the walking mass of contradiction that she is, would be a fine emblem of unattainable sexuality, placed onto record site posters and bus benches in lieu of musicality or, really experienced sexuality. Teens and 65 year old men lust after her, and scoff at her claims of “image control” and being a role model. The claim that she is a virgin is meant to be clever; it rings hollow since no one believes it, except for a couple people whose chastity-belt pounding evangelism is served by such feeble pleas.  So in the end, everyone wants to get into her jeans, and no one actually believes that she might be telling the truth about her aims to represent sexual ambiguity, and no one can really connect it to music. It’s just a poor execution of The Spectacle, even by pop culture mythology standards.

Please – don’t say that about me.

  What’s the difference between censorship and editing, really?

I guess it starts with intention, like everything else – when it’s someone wanting to control someone else’s behavior, it’s that “c” word. Whereas self-editing is always acceptable; it forms a grey area for some as an element of the artistic process; some artists just can’t handle the idea that any level of editing is necessary when the purity of the creative spirit should be experienced to the fullest.  I’m of the mind that we are looking at everything though a series of interesting filters; we are always in a position to judge that we are also editing; that makes it less of a hot object when talking about intent — when getting through is the point, we surrender that judgment against art-attack, and say it’s ok to edit, that way we can make our point and get the hell out of there.

Spontaneous laughter.

  It’s more important to get people to be light. It works on so many more levels. Forget everything else I’ve said. It’s really all about laughing, and about lightness. And probably, even more so, about deliberately distinguishing actual laughter, from the kind of moment when people say things like “Too funny!!” but also forgets to laugh.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. The importance of lightness in art. Nay, lightness, without being slight. Wegman, Emin, The Chapmans, Gilbert & George… There’s a friendly intelligence in Wegman’s work that precedes any assumptions one might make about his audience…8 or 80 years old, you still like dogs wearing clothes and with human body parts.

Functional art.

  Beyond aesthetics, there’s that ‘correct’ definition for anything that suggests that all other appropriations are kind of missing the point. Like Eno with Ambient music – not just a music that you can do other things in time to, but music that serves only its function, to be ambient. With aesthetics, we also have commerce placing demands. Sometimes we swap the two; and we end up creating something that looks nice. We call it art, because it makes us feel nice about ourselves, it even makes us feel less empty, in light of The Spectacle which has commissioned it.  In the early nineties, post-modernism was still a topic of discussion, especially in light of typography coming out of the design colleges of the American Midwest…

The Revolution has been preempted by tonight’s re-run of “The Bachelorette”

  Let’s never assume we don’t yet know our audience, or that if we demand less from them, you can f*** it up too. Another angle is the influence of “impartial” thought in televised rhetoric. Apparently, most people are confused, lost, and increasingly wary of expressing a solid opinion, especially if it might make them look uninformed or shallow. But hey, who has time to read through and digest all this new media? The spectacle flaunts the unattainable, first and foremost — whatever you want most, it’s always going to be the thing you cannot have – and it results in the hyped up marketing campaigns around any manufactured pop commodity. When was the last time Britney Spears made sense to you? Yes, she’s wearing a pretty hot thong in that video. Does anyone actually believe that she’s still a virgin? The tabloid press obviously sees the contradiction, since they’ve been trying to deflower and expose her personal life since she admitted such a thing publicly.  Everyone has an opinion on that one. Personally, I just

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. think she was lying about her sexual history as part of an early, thinly thought-out response to the press making attacks upon her influencing young girls to go out and have sex. Trapped by the obvious, her “brain trust” began to help her position a lie, building a myth, and offering something more savory to print than the simple yes we all expected.  Hence, the contradictions of her public persona and her words (and private actions) are the subject of the spectacle, working at its most obvious level…offering no answers,only confusion in response to an audience hungry for empty calories.

First things first… Where’s my reward?

  On ALIAS, Jack Bristow is SD-6’s principal Game Theorist. He consults in the hour of need when a strategy is possibly at risk of being undermined by hasty evaluation of the odds, or when a chief decision maker is potentially likely to underestimate the movements of the players. The science of game theory is as much about mathematics as it is strategy, economy and negotiation. It’s a tool for understanding how decisions affect each other. 

When we set up the websites for Felicity, there was an intentional imbalance in the audience’s understanding of reality. Namely they expected there to be a website about the show at https://www.felicity.com. The website would contain all sorts of acknowledgment of the show, its characters, storylines, and creators. Of course, the way to establish that fiction is a pseudo reality, is to first deliver everybody’s expectation of reality so they can get comfortable with it.  For ALIAS, I began by creating a brief that SD-6 was real, and actually based in the underground section of a bank in downtown LA, called Credit Dauphine. Since the bank was allegedly in full cooperation with SD-6, they would have a website, and that would look exactly like a bank’s website. It would be a boring, whitepaper read. The bank would also have a banner ad at the bottom, for a popular new search engine, called www.findwhatever.com. This link would be the beginning of the mouse hunt for information, as it would lead away from the bank’s site, and take people to a website about Rambaldi, run by the official fellowship, “the followers of Rambaldi.org”.  If people were to tamper with the urls, or attempt to hack their way deeper into other parts of the site, it would produce what i called the “hexstatic” effect,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. which was to disorient visitors by leading them to believe that they were being redirected to another web server, where an attendant named Alisha would check in with you, and ask you what you thought you were doing.  If people prompted Alisha long enough, or asked the right questions, she would spill information about next week’s show in a way so that the visitor felt like they were in the know. And that was the reward.

Rule 1. Observe how people play.

  As we unroll new pieces, we observe how others are playing, and ask: • How did they play last week? • What are they saying? • What do they expect? • How do we best stay out of their way? • What story are we telling? • What’s the bigger, over-arcing picture…a cohesive, or underlying theme defining how we present ourselves?

Rule 2. Create a plausible reality basis. 

 Namely, where there exists fact, there also exists “red herrings”… On television and in film, much of what we take for granted is removed for reasons of engaging the viewer’s focus, and helping to present the director’s vision in a single arc with minimal distraction. With an on-demand, or interactive basis for a web puzzle, the over-arcing principle is that there must be a balance with one’s expectations; namely, that it must blend in with reality in every imaginable way (to the untrained eye) but contain a relevance only to the initiated. • What is entertaining and relevant? • What is merely, entertainment?

Rule 3. Devise the backstory.

  Any creative property has a backstory; namely, the part that is interesting to the audience because it suggests the overarcing theme and humanity of the story. It is the history, and it also suggests that there will be a future after the entertainment is supposedly over. It enriches the story line and invites the audience to investigate other areas of interest as a result. Essentially, it informs real life, and determines the relevance of the

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. story. Anything that appears to contain an entire world of information unto itself is suitable for the creative backdrop. When you consider what a logo or brand is, it is often an object in motion, frozen in time. It is imperative that this idea of motion be represented, not just in the context of fluid media, but in the choice of snapshot. Since backstory is crucial, it must be incorporated into all elements of game playing, design and interactive media.  • Does it resemble fiction? • Does it assimilate cinematic direction? • Can it influences emotions and gives the end player a reason to come back?  paiv-633.mp3

Rule 4. How do players learn the rules?

  Sometimes there is a rule book. And sometimes there isn’t. In the latter case, the creators and the players will still need to agree upon some fundamentals. It is important that everyone first agree that they are playing a game.

Sometimes, int he case of a reality based game, the rule book is part of the hidden content. It is therefore crucial that those leading the game are truly consistent in their actions. For example, if the nature of the rewards is not consistent, players will not appreciate the effect of their actions, nor will they be able to judge if they are playing correctly. With the ALIAS information hunt, we have made a point of adding new content on Fridays.

Rule 5. Revisit the backstory (and do it often).

  If you were to provide an account of what happened later, and try to account for their motives, what would these be? For the overarcing theme of a film to resonate as the end credits roll, the director’s vision should appear to illustrate a principle beyond the simple summary of its parts. If a mystery were truly about the item the players are trying to recover from thieves, the story would fall flat and would appear devoid of humanity. The problems inherent in an interactive game are that the players expectations change over time, as they learn (or influence) new pieces of information in the game,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. and ultimately push the games objectives themselves. In a one-on-one game between the Player and the game’s Maker, the idea of community does not influence the outcome nearly the same way as when the players are all allowed to communicate and share what they are learning from the play… Not to mention that, within communities, there are natural leaders and often, many more followers. It is therefore deeply crucial to check in with the backstory and to revisit often, to ensure that a Game that is leading, and not being led. New sights are set as the momentum of the play moves in directions that are based upon user interaction and shared information.

Rule 6. Create a world around that.

  With a fictitious character, there are so many questions surrounding that character and their world. What did they just do?

Rule 7. Never underestimate the players.

  Visit the links to the content, backwards and forwards.

Is security important? How easily can they find you, and what would this do to the effect of the story you’re trying to tell?

Rule 8. Make it beautiful, but more importantly, make it plausible. Can we make it look as beautiful as possible, without making it too beautiful?

Rule 9. The over-arcing theme.

  Sometimes, the theme of one’s work becomes apparent over the course of experimentation, or improvisation. Balance that, against: Can this somehow represent something which is greater as a whole, than as the sum of its parts?

Textworks.

  How can the word “dynamic” apply to meaning? Perhaps we can create a context where we pre-visual-

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. ize a setting – a site where the “interactive reading is to take place — and basing the rest upon a pre-history — namely, the user’s own back-story – he or she can assimilate new fiction as an ongoing narrative thread, as related to stops on the website terrain. Think about it: we have the ability to create a setting for interactive storytelling, which can be entirely visualised, while preserving the author’s traditional role of imposing organizational flow upon the reader or user.  Interactivity, according to new media author Andrew Bonime, is “the property of any medium to respond dynamically to user control,” or any other form of input. The key word is dynamic, which will be defined here as “producing, or involving change or action.” Therefore, the category of writing known as interactive fiction could be described as a form of “unfinished” writing, where a series of prompts to the user (formerly known as a “reader”) must read and then initiate using a cursor or mouse movement, a change — whereby the written work will react to and produce a change — (whether desirable or not can be assessed at a later date) — in either the medium, the user, or preferably both. There is a reasoning behind this, an effort to collect the writings of Eric Scott and to make them available for both visual and literal “quotation” in the Flash introduction of the Dayfornight.com site. 

First, there is the desire to create as much impact as possible with the short attention span of the user, who might never visit any deeper into the site, and could therefore leave with an otherwise incomplete vision… after all, what exactly is Day For Night? Second, the experiential nature of surfing dayfornight. com — traveling down deserted alleyways, taking the subway alone, entering an abandoned building converted into an upstairs gallery from somehwere along a dockfront — all of these lone events might be reduced, for the sake of simplicity, to a narrative which follows a series of mouse events…  And which might ultimately produce results, similar to the ones described in Chaos theory; known as the Butterfly Effect, where the user surfs, and a series of sideline events are also triggered in a text box above the screen: “Leo is a parasite”…”Emma calls in sick…”The driver loses control of his vehicle and hits a garbage can…” What the user initiates, or triggers, is an interactive storyline — sometimes with amusing, or tragic, consequences — by a series of transparent surfing maneuvers. For anyone else, this list could be seen as a bibliography. In my particular case, it’s the master notebook from which I have regularly pulled texts, words, ideas, and stories before quoting or illustrating. This forms part of the Day For Night catalogue, which is not a legacy,

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. but which is an unfolding process of quotation, where the source is as much a part of the design as the presentation itself.  A collection of works like these might be seen in parallel to the working methods of ToMaTo…ie Karl Hyde’s non-linear writing style, which stems from a series of notebooks accompanying him wherever he goes. In Hyde’s case, the writings invariably take the form of direct quotation, where he claims NOT to transform the writings any further, claiming they are neither streamof-consciousness, nor “automatic.” One further note of importance is that the Tomato writings are set in the form of directives: personal anecdote, samplings from print media, overheard sentence fragments, television… whereas Day For Night texts are about representation and juxtaposition. Ideas, when loosely joined by a narrative, form greater ideas…the objective is to create a generative sitework, where the results from user-touser are not only compelling and consistent, but also renewed and refreshed upon each visit.  The objective is to recognize themes from within the textworks, whether or not they were created as a series or as individual pieces — also, to unify them by a format which can fully exploit the nature of interactive fiction — namely, to demonstrate that all interactive writing is incomplete — and never to be considered wholly in

isolation — rather, as subject to completion only by the experience of the end-user, who will witness the texts in a (partially) interactive context.

Magazine/Magasin.

  A walk-in or walk-thru magazine…a living periodical. Every month, the gallery changes. It is advertised, at newsstands, on television, and in other periodicals, with a repro cover image and masthead, but exists only in person…Readers may subscribe to it, and receive a discount…It is closed two days at month’s ending for set-up and reinstallation. Meanwhile, it changes and evolves throughout that period. Perhaps its focus is artistic or cultural, and you might hear and/or preview music and artwork (curated by the gallery’s editor). There might be a few interactive workstations set up off of the foyer; a place to preview developmental software and new games… There would be a leave-behind for subscribers and patrons each month.  A gallery flyer or brochure (maybe a 24 page booklet, or an odd-size folder with scraps and found elements. Finally, a gallery shop which could simplify the ordering and purchasing process for the magazine’s patrons.

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. The past no longer exists.

  The future of the web relies upon: 1. The quickest route to finding the content that interests you… 2. Finding better ways (and more of them) to use the Internet to make money, either by utilizing content, or by providing it. Remember…you decide; you draw your own conclusions… The only punishable question is the one I dare not ask; and while I think it’s best not to go there It’s okay to drift there.

What is this new road?

 A road to a more enlightened age, pulling away from the downward spiral that cultural illiteracy or postliteracy seems to be indicating. Accelerated technology and planned obsolescence should not be the focus. A decreased emphasis on MULTImedia as a road for channel surfing, net surfing, browsing. Attention spans need to grow longer, not shorter. Technology not for distraction, but for learning.

How can we restore balance in our lives? How can we restore focus on being an intelligent culture? Maybe learning tools come at us from all entertainment venues? Concerts, etc. All broadcasts have an on-screen pop up menu, containing the necessary links to the Internet, WWW, or whichever all-encompassing source of info takes us… LIBRARY of CONGRESS online Sketch out the full business plan… Full subsidization by 2000? Creates jobs for the unemployed, offers research potential to all of us Eventually CD Rom version, upgradeable each month? Slow transition towards all books getting keyed in. All post 1988 works donated to lib. on disk All pre 1988 books to be keyed in All images to be scanned at lo-res for internet download. Fee system. Browsing and reading online is free. Download charges for book texts is fixed. maybe some nominal charge like $5.00. Perhaps this counters lost royalties to publishers. Net charges you for downloading, passes on royalty to publishers. To continually avoid a conventional pop definition The problem with singles is that they have a life of only about 4-1/2 minutes; albums establish longevity. Low interactivity: refers to software that assumes its users are empty vessels to be filled with other people’s

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. wisdom. High interactivity: encourages users to actively ask the kinds of questions and make the kinds of choices that require considerable mental agility. The kinds that the best human dialogues provoke. Where will electronica go? Into a conceptual realm, I believe. People will act out the means to a conceptual end, with every project, every release. There will be an experimental edge to all new artists on Day for Night and each project/recorded release will feel like a little movie. Ref. to SOMA/Wire 136, MAIN/The Wire 137: “Monochromatic Artists: we ought not to become so biased by this genre,” incited by a letter in The Wire 138. To keep looking for a broader definition towards progress and progressivisim To continue indentifying a winning series of musical endeavors from a variety of composers, musical designers and sound innovators. To continue exploring that uncharted musical territory…

Process #5.

  Videotape of the Day 024 rehearsal: An audioVisual record of the Day 024 rehearsal: Elements: Gtr + Pod –> Mixpad |

Room mic –> Mixpad | –> Camera L&R CD (drums)–> Mixpad | Picture is: eric playing the guitar to a prerecorded CD track of drum groove… Music stand with parts… these are “fed” by a “producer” working with charts, organized by section…—> they are to be arranged in complementary keys. Charts are introduced by the producer, 16 bars ahead of start time, to allow the performer as brief a period of disorientation as possible. Producer selects the parts from an available repertory.  PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A1 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B1 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A1 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B1 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A2 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B1 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A2 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B2 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A2 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B2 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A3 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B2 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart A3 PLAYS 16 bars: Chart B3…etc Music track: Guitar parts –> DAT via POD & MixPAD

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. Dump in, Cut into “SHC FULL MIX”

Navigation idea.

  Represented as an object or tool, like a remote control, or a pair of binoculars, that you keep with you throughout the experience; when pulled out, can take you to a new information level.

Beliefs.

  The phone ringing throws me into a brief panic. In a work day, there’s simply too many sales calls incoming to risk the gamble of ending up on the phone talking to a wasteful stranger, and not to have it be a one-sided call you’d otherwise prefer to hang up on. “It’s someone who wants something from me. They already have their spiel worked out. And they’re banking upon having the advantage of preparation, hoping I won’t be quick enough to say no.” “I hate to disappoint people. That’s always discouraging; to know you produced a deliberate “non”-result. It’s two-fold.” “This person probably knows this intuitively, about the

nature of all people, and knows already how hard this will be for me. That is part of their hidden advantage — it’s the guilt.” “If I don’t answer it, and they don’t leave a message, then that is all the confirmation I need, and my theory must have been correct.” Is my panic of answering the telephone, simply a resistance to discouragement?

Creation #4.

  Feel this deliberately: “I am going to feel truly pissed off now. For 10 minutes.” “How does that feel?”

Mark my words.

  The next big thing will be unfriendly, but catchy.

Got happiness?  

Day For Night :: Obsessions. Day 040. If you want what you cannot have (and therefore don’t want what you can have), then create want, by first creating a belief that you cannot have what you already do have.

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