An extension of thought and body: music, programming, and art in general

 

     Once upon a time, after I had been working on developing a project for Bell Labs for about a year and a half, I woke up with a line of code staring me in the eye (not literally -- this was before laptops -- it was all in my mind) and showing me how to fix a bug I had been told about the day before. I went to work, fixed the bug, tested it, and submitted it to the code base. Then I started looking around for a new project to work on. It might have been useful to the company but getting that merged with the software (tens of thousands of lines of code which I had written) was not a healthy sign.

     As a child, I took various music lessons. The first -- and still my favorite -- instrument was the violin. I started off really horrible (but almost everyone does). But I got better and by the end of elementary school, I was part of a string quartet. No danger of a record label but no one stood up and ran out screaming. I was getting decent but then, as part of a perpetual budget cut, the school district said goodbye to the string instructor and my family couldn't afford private lessons. Later, because brass was still possible, I tried cornet but just didn't get excited. I then tried organ which I liked but schoolwork was taking more and more time and choices had to be made.

     So, how do these experiences relate? I worked so hard, and long, on the software that I could remember, and visualize, it. I could do a virtual execution of the code, in my mind, to track down possible data paths where there might be bugs. In music, I reached the point where I no longer thought about how to play a note. The connection between written music and playing was starting to disappear as fluency was being established.

     Music, programming, art, language. Once the tools are mastered you can get an idea and then put it down in the appropriate form. For programming, that might be Java, or 'C', or machine language, or whatever. In music, it might come out as sounds from a piano, or guitar, or a sax. But the cool part is that moment when you stop making the transition from thought to action as a conscious act. The piano becomes an extension of your body. You tell it to play notes and chords with timing and rests and it does it. The more you practice, the less the conscious mind is involved. It can be equally true with software or charcoal or driving a race car.

     Of course, not all has to go through the process of conscious to automatic. The brain stem is largely ready for us at birth -- so we (most of us) can breathe and see and hear and have our bodies respond properly to food and such. There are disciplines that appear to allow conscious control over the activities controlled by the brainstem but we are fortunate that most arrive pre-programmed. Although I do not know whether it is true, perhaps fluency in conscious activity may start to intrude into brain stem use.

     Perhaps after another one or two hundred thousand more words of writing, my writing will enter into that state of fluency.

Jazz and Laughter: participation makes the difference

    Have you ever been in a room, talking with someone in a quiet corner, when a sudden noise comes from another section of the room? There is another group of people over there and they are very animated and the noise bursts out again. It is someone laughing -- and others in the group are joining them and obviously having an enjoyable time. Yet that noise, even once it is recognized as someone laughing, may not sound that pleasant. Some laughs are called "lilting" or other pleasant references but others are sometimes compared to sounds of other animals or objects in collision.

    Whether the sound, at a distance, is pleasant or unpleasant, it can still be considered very appropriate within a group who are all participating in the interaction together. It is this participation that lowers the guards, and criteria, and allows everyone to relax into a mutual experience. If you hear it from a distance -- not as part of the group -- it is a noise. If you are part of the experience it melds into the overall situation.

    It is not always necessary to be with the group in order to participate. In the above case, you are unlikely to be able to hear and see what is going on without being among the others. In the case of music, it is often a degree of intensity. In order to immerse in the music, it is necessary to be able to hear it properly. That may mean being in a quiet room, with other quiet people, so that all of the sound can be noticed, listened to, examined, and felt.

    On the other hand, it is just as valid of an experience of music to be in the midst of an explosion of sound and people and participate in the emotions of the fellow concertgoers and the movements of the band -- in spite of the fact that it may be so loud that the notes can no longer be distinguished from each other. In the one case, it is the music that is experienced and, in the other, it is the experience that is set to music.

    Jazz is an interesting juxtaposition of music and experience. A jazz piece, even when played by the same group of musicians, is not expected to sound the same twice in a row. The variation expands further when it is played by a different gathering. Although a spectator may not be directly singing or playing an instrument they have to be an active participant to fully take part. There are factors of anticipation -- what will happen next -- and surprise -- not expecting what did happen. The music will flex according to the weather and the internal needs of the players and the audience.

    There has been much speculation about whether robots could ever "replace" a human. Alan Turing presented what is called the "Turing Test" which says that if you are separated from a computer that can give responses -- so you have no direct knowledge of whether it is a computer or not -- and a human cannot tell whether or not it is a computer giving responses then it "passes". It is truly Artificial Intelligence.

    I would submit that an even better test would require the AI to be able to participate within a set of people and know when to laugh.

    What activities come to mind when you think of a need to be an active participant?