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creativity
> Something is missing though. I know what it is. I've lost
> that feeling of exploration.
I suggest reading about the creative approaches of Brian Eno, John Zorn,
and
Iannis Xenakis, respectively. These three have been very inspirational for
me. Creativity (maybe paradoxically) is something I read a lot about. In
an effort to get others creative juices flowing, I suggest we each share
some creative techniques that we regularly employ:
1. graphs
-when I feel limited in a particular piece I'll often work from a
graph.
for instance, my ambient project used to play a chart of stock market
returns over the past 50 years. very fun! we would "notate" the graph
with
colors for moods (blue=sad, red=intense, green=layered, etc) and indicate
how long (length of time) each section would roughly take. some great
results with this one.
2. musical personalities
-each person in the group takes on a musical personality. e.g. "It is
2030 and you're playing in the hottest reggae-goth club in New York City.
Your fans view you as a cultural icon but you live a reckless and
overindulgent life. You've been tripping for three years since
biologically
altering your DNA in a dark alley surgery--merely on a dare from a friend.
These past couple weeks, you've begun to regret this decision. Your
childhood hero was Bach and you love playing Perfect 5ths." This one is a
lot of fun. I think Eno uses this as well.
3. game pieces: like John Zorn's "Cobra"
-games give people an excuse to act in a way they normally wouldn't are
perfect for breaking musical habits. Currently, my project is
experimenting
with elaborate signaling according to the rigid rules of Zorn's game
pieces.
I think we've grown enormously since we started this one.
Now your turn!
~dp