Techno Primitives is a yearning for an old way of being. Simultaneously,
it is a recognition that we can not, do not want to, erase history or mechanical
progress. It is a bridge, a way out, way back, a memory flickering
in the eyes of Whale.
We speak the many human, animal, and machine languages that bind us, moving
to honor all relations to Stars, Earth, Her Creatures, and Their Creations.
We believe that, as we become One, We are
Life Creators,
Life's Creators.
Tentacles of the Mind's Love, spread across Infinity.
We believe that it is through our lack of gratitude that we have disempowered and bound ourselves. We do not recognize the living spirit that is all our creations.
The Techno Primitives understand that 'Techno' implies great responsibility.
The living elements that have been mined and manufactured into today's
machines are very old, powerful beings. We can not treat them like
disposable plastic. We must touch them with the utmost respect and
employ their gifts judiciously. Only when we stop trying to rule
machines, will we stop being ruled by them.
But we are also toolmakers. We believe that toolmaking is a sacred
process. It is not the tool, but the intentions one puts into it,
that create its aliveness. For every Thing is made of our Intention,
and returns to our Attention. We are rooted in this Dreaming.
But we are also artists. If we want to change our culture, don't we
have to change our art? We view art not as a product, but as a process.
The Mayans say, Time is art. We are interested in returning to the
old way art is made-- as part of daily life. We operate in a circle
of community, where every voice is equal. We operate in the body, which
is the Human Instrument of expression. We operate in the Now, which is
the cyclic memory of time. We use the cyclic Now to enter the dreaming,
which is the source of Music, Culture, and Life. We recognize that
whatever comes forth is not ours. We become the door, open and unattached.
This is different from a tribal aesthetic expressed in music. It is
a tribal way of getting together.
But we are also time travellers. ''In his book "Time Wars," Jeremy Rifkin suggests that many of the conflicts between groups may have been over competing notions of time. Rifkin sees the conflict of our era as being between 'industrial' time, which is individualistic, atomistic, quantitative, utilitarian, artificial (clock-based), centralized, and mechanistic; and what might be called 'postindustrial' time, which is communitarian, participatory, qualitative, empathetic, rhythmic, cyclical, decentralized, and organic. From the 'industrial' viewpoint, time is a resource for the progressive creation of wealth, which is not to be squandered. Perhaps from the 'postindustrial' viewpoint, time is a resource for human lives and experiences... recognizing entropy, the person living in 'postindustrial' time knows that material 'progress' is not indefinite or without external cost.
I would suggest that the way Modern Primitives can perhaps best be understood are as people living in a different time-order or time-value-system. This ideological shift is partly due to the transition of people toward a post-industrial economy, where the previous system of linear industrial time no longer makes sense. For them, there is no contradiction between past and future. If time is a circle, then of course past and future are heading toward their point of uniting. In the postmodern world of the ModPrims, the "moderns" have much to learn from the ecological sense of interconnectedness of the "primitives," and vice versa, the "prims" can learn from the experimental sensibility of the "mods." Together, they can perhaps turn the spiral of time back to its point of origin, at a higher level of existence.''
- Seeker1-- on modern primitives
History is an angel
Being blown backwards
Into the future
History is a pile of debris
And the angel wants to go back
And fix things
To repair things that have been broken
But there's a storm blowing from paradise
And the storm keeps blowing the angel backwards
Into the future
And this storm
This storm is called Progress
• Laurie Anderson, 'The Dream Before'
The Techno Primitives are interested in creating sacred space within
the modern world. It is not an absolute reverence of the technological,
but a balanced respect for all creation. We are interested in creating
music that reflects and transmits an understanding of natural rhythms, rather
than being about aesthetic style or what tools are used. We believe
that sound has the capacity to permeate and alter awareness. By making
music through an organic, circular process, we hope to inspire people to
exist in that way.
The Dogon Listening Device is our diabolical plan to rule the world.
We would like for it to be a humble experiment that draws from the
wisdom of Techno Primitives. It is an evolving computer code that
allows us to capture and improvise with phrases of music, building larger
phrases from improvisations with smaller phrases. It is a way of hearing
music, where time is composed of overlapping cycles, wheels within wheels.
It is a digital interface to enter into that way of hearing, by using our
bodies to play vibrations in circular time.
The Dogon, Dagara, and Maya tribes may have experienced time in this way.
So it is not a new way, but an old way. So, whether the repetitions are
carried out by tribespeople singing together or digital voices is not as
important. If anything, we hope that the Dogon Listening Device inspires
people to get out and sing together, to listen to one another, to play off
one another and incorporate repeating cycles in their music. Then,
they can choose to incorporate the technology if it is appropriate. We must
remember, technology is only one of our many allies.
The Dogon Listening Device provides a common language for improvisers
playing together. We improvise not only the tones that make up phrases, but
also improvise the way phrases make up the structure of the piece. In this
way, phrases themselves become primitives for improvising larger phrases.
For example, one person's vocalizations-- 'DEE DAA DOH RAY SAH' can
spontaneously become drum sounds for another person's improvisations. Any
phrase that is played by an improviser becomes a tone in all the
improviser's palettes. All my relations!
The Dogon Listening Device is an interface between human, machine, and circular time. This serves as a convenient bridge to another way of being, spoken in a language that our TechnoCulture understands.
A'ight! Let's see it!
Above is the software engine for the Listening Device, being played from
a PC keyboard. Different loops are mapped across the keyboard. We begin with
a clean slate. We begin to improvise. When we catch a groove that we like,
we can hold a key down. When a new key is held down, whatever is on the input
is recorded to that key. Its a soul sampler, says my friend Avatar.
The key then lights up and begins to rise. The longer the key is held, the
longer the loop, the farther the key rises. When you let go, the loop is
done recording. You can then trigger the loop by hitting the key. When triggering
loops, the keys spin.
For example, if I hold the D key while singing 'DEE', I'll be able to make
the computer sing 'DEE' whenever I press the D key again. I am mirroring myself.
My voice moves to my hand, where I can play it. Above, all of the keys on
the bottom row, as well as the A, S, D, F, G, and 7, 8, 9, 0, and - keys,
have loops recorded. F, 9, and . are currently playing. It's possible to
record and play many loops at the same time. That's the point. The idea is
to make the process of playing off time as fluid as possible, so that new
phrases and sounds are being captured during improvisation. People who have
played with live looping seem to describe a sort of Zen which happens when
you are simultaneously directing the musical structure abstractly, and improvising
in the moment musically. NYC shaman and loop improviser, Steve Sandberg,
embodies this dual fusion by painting half of his face red when he plays.
One of the next steps is to create a more tactile user interface. One which
responds to touch, and one which allows for collaboration with more than one
improviser. The Listening Device engine allows for many improvisers to generate
and play loops at the same time, but we only have one keyboard and one audio
input. This leads to...
As I was developing the Listening Device, it became clear that it was oozing
fun. It needed to be embedded in playground structures. Imagine-- kids sampling
and triggering each other's sounds, by running around, speaking and hitting
drums and pads! Kids of all ages would love this. It would teach us to
play together. Then I thought of street festivals. I'm very interested in
what happens when a bunch of people start jamming together in public space.
And when you play music that is based in a different way of experiencing
time-- that can really knock people out of their routine, shake them up.
That is what we will do.
But we would need some kind of kid friendly interface. We wanted to draw people in. It needed to be intuitive. It needed to be lightweight, portable. The core Listening Device is actually Linux code, so it can be embedded in a portable system with sensors and pads for people to hit.
As an physical instrument, we began to envisage a portable, playable structure
that rolls down the street. An instrument on wheels, a musical tree with appendages.
The Dogon Listening Device is the core engine. Sounds will be recorded from
contact surfaces along the instrument, as well as from microphones. Improvisations
at each of the incoming sound sources can be recorded and triggered through
sets of pad sensors mounted along the instrument. The idea is to have a centrally
resounding totem that acts as a magnet during street festivals by being totally
loud. It is the 'banging on pots and pans street carnival' thing taken to
the next level, because it allows people to use each other's sounds and phrases
in their own improvisations. It makes you listen, and opens the doorway to
new
dimensions of musical togetherness.
We are currently seeking funding for the Dogon Mothership. The Listening
Device was developed on my desktop PC, and I would like to see it set up on
a laptop. A bicycle needs to be found and modified. A portable sound system
needs to be bought, as well as a multichannel audio board and cheap multichannel
A/D/A converters. Since we are on the street, we can sacrifice fidelity for
ruggedness and low cost. I estimate that something can be rigged for $2000.
