Eigenharp Pico - anyone??

[Peter Korsten]

Op 9-3-2010 14:11, Tony Hardie-Bick schreef:

> Peter - I take your point, but I think Java (and other languages) are incredibly
> highly evolved, nearly to the point where the difference between ideal and
> practice is barely visible. Java is an example of accelerated evolution, because
> it's software, and millions of people use it, for hours every day, as programmers.

Well, I might have thought of a different example. Take e-books, then. 
They're making headways, but I doubt that they will actually replace 
good old-fashioned paper books and libraries. I *like* to look at a 
whole lot of books together. I don't like to look at a Fumble or 
whatever they call it.

If not everybody is doing it, wait for a second, and ask yourself: does 
this make sense? Is it perhaps evolution that led to the way we're doing 
things the way we do them?

> In synthesis, there is no limit to innovation, because synthesis is not a tool,
> and instruments are not controllers. Music is not an end result: It is a
> process, and a performance.

But the basic question is: do I need all this innovation to create 
better music? We've been hanging around the same basic principles for a 
few centuries now, despite interfaces of instruments varying drastically 
over time and type of instrument.

As an example, take those things where you put a coloured cube on a flat 
screen, or you wave a Wii controller about, as an alternative way to 
create music. Every single demo I've seen sounds exactly the same! It's 
all bleep, gloop, wop wop wop.

If they'd invented such a radical new way of creating music, they should 
have directed some of that creative energy into making a better demo.

> This is the fundamental difference between engineering and art, although either
> done well enough, is also the other.

Nah, I used to think that, but art is purely for the perceived beauty of 
it, or perhaps even to purposely develop something that has no function, 
other than being.

There is a certain overlap between art and engineering: industrial 
design. But there's little art in a piece of code that I write, however 
intricate, elegant or clever it may be. You can enjoy it, maybe, but I 
also enjoy chocolate. Art and crafts are defined and distinguished by 
their prime purpose and use.

- Peter