Perception of the art student's work - postscript week 2 (T&P)

It's an interesting observation, but I feel I have to comment on it. I felt like everyone in class who played their music yesterday only seemed to talk about the production side of their work, or indeed we only seemed interested in knowing that about each others work - software and plugins, studio techniques and such. I tried to talk more broadly about the practice and themes behind my pieces, and less about the tools, but even I didn't really go into the why as much as i had planned. It got me wondering about how some of us perceive the course, and how it might be different. I chose this course to develop my work in both conceptual and technological ways, and to deepen it's roots into the art world. Also to meet awesome new people and work along side them. I have definitely done that. The people I am studying with know their shit and make awesome and diverse stuff. I feel like we should push the discussion in terms of ideas and the "why" of our craft, as it's obvious that we're all pretty well versed on our respective "hows".

This brings me to a little post script on the week's reading. The Viola article, which I must admit blocked me with all it's video tape talk, had a nice little theme running through the start of it, and I feel it's relevant to my observation of the class. Viola is talking about the causal and reduced thinking of our total perception. That our very senses are reduced to view the world and make sense of it. Westerners experience the world by reducing it to nothingness, causing a building back up of the universe in components we better understand, and perhaps as we would prefer it. In many Eastern cultures, there is a sense of the universe in all it's magnitude, and then there is a subtraction from it, to highlight a particular feature and to view it as it is in that fleeting time and place. Viola represents this by relating it to the Indian raga.
We do it like good little westerners in art school. We want to know "What is it that made that sound?" We define ourselves in genres. I like to see myself as part of something greater than a list of potential genres, and find a way to be connected to it all at once.
I guess it's just important for us to remain mindful of the connections between all the concepts that are thrown at us all week long. Pretty soon the technological side of our work is going to matter much less than the substance of what our art is saying.