Intelligent lighting

[Ash]

I was down in Miami for my annual winter music conference excursion and was blown away at the main stage of ULTRA this year. It's amazing how quickly the intelligent lighting and sound technology increases from year to year.



The video isn't mine, but the sound/picture quality of this one blows all mine out of the water. Full screen it!!

[DarkBuddha]

It is impressive, but it's also sad from an artistic perspective. They have this technology and money and choose to do that with it instead of creating an experience that is truly effective and insightful... i.e. Art with a capital "A" instead of entertainment. It is essentially a glorified version of Microsoft's or Apple's Visualizer. Of course, if they made real Art, they probably wouldn't have access to the same technology or money. Sigh...

[Ash]

Sad? I don't quite share that sentiment. Is music not an art? "What Art is", a very subjective topic. Andy Warhol shot incredibly long minimalist films of things like a man getting a haircut, someone staring at a screen squirming not to blink, people meditating...you get the point. The visual aspect is just a major part of this genre. ULTRA is the official closing event for Winter Music Conference. For most that go, it's not just a concert. It's one of the premier annual events of the electronic music culture...on a global scale. Over 100,000 people over two days to this festival alone, and tens of thousands that flood Miami for the whole week preceding it just attending events and workshops. People came in from over 57 countries and all U.S. states and Territories for this one event. Not trying to flont the numbers, but this many people just don't fly in because it's entertainment, it goes a bit deeper for a good number of us. The visual aspect adds to the experience, and for me looking at it as a whole, is quite insightful. And a 57" LED TV is a glorified Zenith black and white...not trying to be an ass, just giving my perspective.

[dadto2jays]

my son was there too it was spectacular he told us....

[DarkBuddha]

Sad? I don't quite share that sentiment. Is music not an art? "What Art is", a very subjective topic. Andy Warhol shot incredibly long minimalist films of things like a man getting a haircut, someone staring at a screen squirming not to blink, people meditating...you get the point. The visual aspect is just a major part of this genre. ULTRA is the official closing event for Winter Music Conference. For most that go, it's not just a concert. It's one of the premier annual events of the electronic music culture...on a global scale. Over 100,000 people over two days to this festival alone, and tens of thousands that flood Miami for the whole week preceding it just attending events and workshops. People came in from over 57 countries and all U.S. states and Territories for this one event. Not trying to flont the numbers, but this many people just don't fly in because it's entertainment, it goes a bit deeper for a good number of us. The visual aspect adds to the experience, and for me looking at it as a whole, is quite insightful. And a 57" LED TV is a glorified Zenith black and white...not trying to be an ass, just giving my perspective.

I totally understand where you're coming from, but I don't totally agree with your perspective. I've spent nearly 20 years involved in electronic music and am currently in dissertation for my doctoral degree in music composition, specifically in computer music, so I have to admit that my view of art and music is elitist, but I mean elitist in the best sense of the word... in the sense that it is important and necessary to distinguish between art and entertainment, between good and bad, between experience and spectacle, and between the best pursuits of humanity and those that serve to commodify.

And I totally agree with ULTRA's position as a premier event for electronica and its culture, but I wonder if you've heard of SEAMUS, or the Bourges Festival, or ICMC, or Prix Ars Electronica? These are premier events for electronic and computer based Music and Art. In fact, IMO there are small but very serious festivals all over the world, mostly hosted by universities, that serve as better examples of music as Art than ULTRA can. But I don't say that to discredit ULTRA, because that would be unfair since it is not the function or goal of ULTRA.

All of that said, I'm a fan of lots of the stuff that was at ULTRA, and attended back 1999. I do wish ULTRA would broaden its scope and apply such effort, resources, and financing to bring even more experimental and less commodified art to the festival, and bring it to the same level of Bourges or Prix Ars. I'd go to that in a freaking heartbeat!

[Tony_SS]

From my perceptive technology is poison to most any form of art. But the right application can be beneficial.

My old professor once said, a typographer spends years and years perfecting a font, and within one drag of the mouse a 'designer' ruins it forever.

[DarkBuddha]

From my perceptive technology is poison to most any form of art. But the right application can be beneficial.

My old professor once said, a typographer spends years and years perfecting a font, and within one drag of the mouse a 'designer' ruins it forever.

Any Art made by digital means that did not require those digital means for its production is likely to suffer for it. Art made by artists wielding technology without gaining mastery of that technology will suffer for it. I don't mean to sound postmodern about it, especially since I have some serious issues with postmodernism, but I do think that artists should have respect for technology and it's requirements and processes (and I don't mean that strictly in the technical sense). There are however artists that understand these issues, and have developed art where technology is fundamental to its existence and understanding.

BTW, I think your professor was insightful to distinguish between a designer (one who creates primarily for commodified consumable function) and an artist (one who creates primarily for understanding, insight, discovery, and expression), even though both may require the same quality of craft.