Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Koveras]

[Underwaterbob]

Well then tell us, oh great Koveras, what is the meaning of art? What is the perfect musical system? What is the future of ideas?

[Globutron]

Now now, let's not turn this bitter.

[Underwaterbob]

It's not bitter, it's animated. Good discussion should be.

If we're being a bit snide, at least the argument is well, actually an argument worth having, as opposed to that other thread that's mostly beating decades-dead horses. I'm genuinely interested in what Koveras has to say, whether I agree with him or not.

[Underwaterbob]

[Globutron]

I would say it fits under the category of music, but at the same time its definition would not BE music. In a strange way I feel it fits all the definitions without fitting any.

Amusing that the thread turned into a Cage debate, at least temporarily.

What about that Mark Salona Bird piece, where a bunch of electric guitars are tuned and thrown in a giant bird cage, where they can nestle and fly around and sit on the guitars, thus making random noise. In the same way this is not music but fits in the very definition in some way.

I think I COULD argue that fasting is eating, biologically speaking... but I'm not confident enough in that area to try.

[The Goalie]

I (if I may join this discussion) would not consider 4'33" music but conceptual art. I'm not too concerned with strict definitions but if words are to mean anything they should at least, whenever possible, indicate some kind of shared experience. We all have ideas about what music is. A piece like 4'33" challenges these ideas. This, however, does not make 4'33" music anymore than Duchamp's Fountain becomes sculpture because you can walk around it and look at it from the back. I feel like I'd be a sucker to say that 4'33" is music, there's ambient noise behind my farts but I don't consider them music, but to pass it off as music when it clearly isn't opens a debate on the nature of music and of art. For this reason, and because it was timely and still resonates, we can say it was an important piece of conceptual art and will probably continue to be talked about.

[Globutron]

I'll go with that