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Re: Describing looping to others
Since a lot of otherwise very nice people seem to sometimes think of
technology as, somehow, "cheating" when applied to the arts in general
(and
music in particular) I use the following analogy when talking about
looping.
Think about juggling. A juggler throws an object into the air and it
returns.
He throws it again and it returns. He throws many objects into the space
above him and they all return. This "circle of motion" keeps going as long
as
(and as well as) the skill of the juggler holds out.
Then imagine that the juggler adds some newfangled "antigravity"
technology
to his routine that allows him to put one of these "circles of motion" in
place up in the air above his head and then remove his hands and still
have
it hanging their circling as long as he wishes.
Further, imagine that he is able to hang ANY number of these moving
"circles"
of objects in midair--all sorts of objects, large, small, living or
inanimate, whatever--and have the circles all chain in and out of one
another
and dance in the air above his head. What a show that would be!
Certainly, there might still be a few who would scoff and say that this
marvel was not "real" juggling in the traditional sense. But one would be
hard pressed, I think, to make that judgment stick for long. Because at
it's
base is still involved all of the original skills of juggling. The
"antigravity" technology is just an "amplification" of these. And, with
artistry and skill, technology just becomes another one of the things the
artist juggles.
That is what looping is "like."