A thought coming from the world of music, without directly contributing
to the exchange of Paik, but maybe indirectly:
The "physical object" of music is - as I like to think - only the
"acoustic waves" which reach our ear. Music exists only in its fleeting,
absolutely time-based ways. Scores and instruments and reproducing
technology are tools (with many layers of complexity) to create the
moment when the music sounds. A score is not music, but most certainly
all "conceptual work" went into it and will be sounding once the
musicians "interpret" it or a recording is played back.
That is why music cannot accumulate "added value" and cannot be
collected and exhibited. No one invests in a piece of music but for the
performance and copy rights. The "sound of music" is not collected by
investors. The "commodity status" of music are the tickets to concerts
and (maybe) paying for downloads and purchasing a recording. The market
value of music is driven by the performers, not by the music as
sounding, ephemeral experience. We can listen to the same piece of music
again and again - many more times than we would look at an object or
consider a concept. Like with films as truly time-based art, a major
economic impact is reached through merchandising objects (!), t-shirts
and toys and books and recordings and magazines gossiping about stars.
There are many who do not share this position and who say that the
"concept" carries the "real" work. Maybe that is a idealistic position
(in the philosophical sense). To me it is always strange how in
performing and performance arts concept, object and that, which we
perceive with our senses as the "work" through which we create "sense"
(meaning or not-meaning) are separated - and are not seen, heard and
interpreted as a highly intertwined complex (or dialectic if you want to
go down that path).
I think looking at music as the most extreme time-based art form may
shed light on other time-based art. And this would mean to engage with
musicians and music theoreticians in a thorough way since they have been
dealing with the issues for a few centuries which in the last few
decades surfaced in the visual arts.
Johannes
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