Iain Cameron's Diary
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2002-10-16 - 6:59 a.m.

Technology just doesn�t work the way you want - or at all - from time to time - especially when its new. Sometimes two bits do it to you at the same time you get the sense of an antagonistic cosmos. Maybe its a sign of maturity to believe that the cosmos doesn�t care one way or another.

I wouldnt be surprised if there was a theory about the urge to compose that had something to do with getting some mastery over the degree of randomness or antipathy in the universe - or a universe - a soundworld might be some kind of experimental universe. Some people might go for a highly voluntaristic universe/soundworld - where everything is decided beforehand. Not me of course. Some of this reflection comes from Gilbert�s suggestion that we are making a world with both composed features and jazzy looseness..

Approximately Four Minutes has been taking my attention for a bit. It started as a highly constructivist piece. But I didn�t let the constructivism have an unfettered hand - I intervened on aesthetic grounds. Is this one of the things Cage didn�t approve of - the imposition of personality? In this piece there is a greater degree of personalisation in the tune - even though it uses some of the same construction-set as the core. Then came Gilbert�s guitar lines and chords - I have no idea where he got them from - I think I disclosed some of the construction-set. They sound great and in parts impose their own formal ideas. So now I am listening over and over to see what I make of it - it sounds quite convergent. You could certainly make a story of it.

I am also wondering about the story on the post-fifths piece sitting in Cubasis. I picked it as a found object off the hard disc and started to develop here in Leamington. Some pieces just ask to be taken forward and you can�t refuse them. I play it every morning when I wake up.

This week I am on a course at Stuckley Castle - learning about structured process improvement from Andy and Alan with five other people imcluding Muneer from the same organisation - Industry Forum. There are two people from the Manufacturing Advisory Service and someone from a firm doing automotive textiles. Its an interesting collection of people - we make clocks using various machines

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