Oh Light - A Conversation Across Disciplines

8/2/2019 Oh Light - A Conversation Across Disciplines

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Oh Light A Conversation Across Disciplines With Musician and Writer Eric Lindley of Careful

A Liminal Analytics Case Study

Presented by The Eyeless Owl

http://theeyelessowl.wordpress.com


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It sounds a little disingenuous and even cliche to say that, I think, but I also really believe that everyone is really working with the same constraints of human perception, cognition, body chemistry, and social/national roles, withminor differences between how the information actually gets there: through the ears, mouth, nose, skin, or eyes.

Of course, theres a big difference between time-based art like a play or a song, where you would have to devote aninhuman amount of attention to each millisecond of information to see it all, and something like painting, whereyou can basically look at every inch of the painting, and back up, and feel like you see itthough, I have toadmit that saying that may just reveal some of my ignorance about static visual art, which though I love and havetried to do, I dont really consider myself an artist in that way.

How do you view the artists position in society? What is the role of the artist for you?

Ive been thinking about this a lot recently. Right now Im up at a residency with a bunch of artists in differentdisciplines, and its amazing to see the diversity, but its also interesting to see that were all more or less scraping by, either living off our art, or getting supplemental teaching jobs.

I think that there are a lot of different artists, and that all of their roles are valuable, from people like Matthew Barney , who do incredibly beautiful things with inconceivable amounts of moneysomething I am completely inawe of, and would never want him to stop, because it reveals things to me about my own ways of thinking andfeeling that are important to me, but also seems horrifying in a world where (I dont know where his studio is), butthere are probably people who are destitute that pass just feet away from its wallsto the little communities of artists I met in grad schoolwho make beautiful things for fairly small communities, even just for themselves, andhave teaching and other types of jobsto commercial artists like Thomas Kinkadewho, if I am really honest, Ithink of as more of a businessman, but assert that his art makes a lot of people very happy, even if I suspect thatits more the happiness of acquisition than of art-appreciation.

So, there are a lot of roles, way more than Ive mentioned, and I think theyre all valid, but personally Im at a pointin my life where I love what I do artwise, and I feel like I am making some amount of difference, but Imextremely conflicted when I think thatand I know this to be the roughly the amountI could send a child tofour years of high school in Malawi, essentially changing the course of their life for the better (though of coursethats debatable) for the price of a single guitar.

Has literature affected the way you look at music? How integrated is your approach across disciplines?

AbsolutelyI mentioned this before, but I think about narrative arc and different kinds of metaphor in moredepth because of literatureand because of some of my linguistics study. I was actually talking about this with my partner, Heather, who is a writer, the other day: we were talking about what is and isnt permissible in writing

versus music (more on this below), and what is and isnt possible, but I think that with music you can really accelerate dramatic moments because of the kind of ineffable shorthand of certain musical conventions, or musicalinnovations that just make sense, and bypass rational judgment in a way that writing cant always do, or takes

longer to do.

That is, you can set up a beat in music really quickly, or strings can swell, or a wall of glitched-out noise can justcome out of the speakers, and youll need a couple seconds to get your bearing, but you can follow it pretty quickly, but it takes a bit more time to understand the voice of the prose or the logic of the poetics that a writer isusing. I think that my approach is very integrated across disciplines, but it takes things like this into account, andlike I said before, also makes me think about how I can take the effect or properties of one discipline and carry itover into another.
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Do you ever use William S, Burroughs cut up techniques? Or the alchemical techniques he outlines inElectronic Revolution?

I actually havent, and I havent read Electronic Revolution , but Im interested in the process. Writing words is anextremely sensitive process for me, because it teeters on a very delicate edge. Whereas I feel you can write a lot of things on the page and not come off as pretentious, and you can try a lot of strange, cut-up or stream-of-consciousness, or other techniques that mirror cognition or experience in writing or in sound-art, when it comes tosongs, the setting for most is not such that those things come off naturally or enjoyably (at least not yet, in my handsIm willing to bet that people out there are doing and have done brilliant, beautiful things that I justhavent seen yet).

Do you think artists can affect social change through their creativity? If so, does cross disciplinecollaboration aid in this?

I doand though I did mention that Im a little bit wary or self-critical when trying to measure my impact in the world for the better versus the amount of resources I take up and the amount of enjoyment I get out of the worldby making music and art and doing other things that I enjoy, I really do think art can change hearts and minds in

a very positiveemphatically non-propagandistway.

There are those artists who have a kind of brand that is political, but dont do a lot to actually change thepolitical landscape for the better or help anyone but themselves get more money, and there are also those artists

who revolutionize ideas and in so doing ripple through and cause major paradigm changes in the way people think that change the social world for the better, as well as artists who happen to be political, and do a lot of good inboth areas.

Ultimately, though, I do think there are some tricky aspects, though not a conflict, between art and politics. Iveheard people say that they cant mix, because (and I think this is half-true) art is less direct, more personal, andaddresses things on a level that is simply incompatible with political effort, which must be blunt and mechanistic tobe effective.

However, I feel like a lot of people, including both overtly political artists like U2 or Guy Debord , as well as self-described non-political artists like John Cage have done a lot to integrate their artistic and political lives andgoals.

What are the idea seeds that you enjoy working with? Do the themes that shape your electronic publication [out of nothing] come into your music as well?

I think with songs or short dramatic or written pieces I like working with little ideas, like palindromes, orplayful/meaningful uses of the words some or might, but with larger form work, like a full album, or a novel

(which Im working on right now for the first time), I like using big ideas, like different examples of uneven powerdynamics on small-to-large scales, or the tensions between practical decision-making versus reification of ideas orobjects Really, anything that strikes a chord and makes me excited to work.

[out of nothing] is an interesting project, because I feel like it integrates a lot of my interests, as well as the interestsof the other editors, Janice Lee and Joe Milazzo , but its more of a curation, and so depends largely on the work that is submitted. Of course we get a lot of amazing things, and we pick someone we respect in the field to frameeach issue, but beyond planting the initial seed, which we editors do in really fun, excited conversations beforeeach issue, it is really left up to fate whats going to happen.
http://www.ubu.com/historical/burroughs/electronic_revolution.pdfhttp://www.ubu.com/historical/burroughs/electronic_revolution.pdfhttp://www.ubu.com/historical/burroughs/electronic_revolution.pdfhttp://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/http://www.ubu.com/sound/cage.htmlhttp://www.ubu.com/sound/cage.htmlhttp://www.ubu.com/sound/cage.htmlhttp://www.outofnothing.org/http://www.outofnothing.org/http://www.outofnothing.org/http://janicel.com/http://janicel.com/http://janicel.com/http://www.slowstudies.net/jmilazzo/http://www.slowstudies.net/jmilazzo/http://www.slowstudies.net/jmilazzo/http://www.slowstudies.net/jmilazzo/http://janicel.com/http://www.outofnothing.org/http://www.ubu.com/sound/cage.htmlhttp://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/debord/http://www.ubu.com/historical/burroughs/electronic_revolution.pdf


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But absolutely, especially the conflicted ideas I have about reification, as well as my love for effusive, messy,beautiful things framed in humorous, somewhat abject ways, is a real running theme through [out of nothing]

which informed the title, which was taken from one of my writing piecesas well as my music.

Eric Lindleys Bio:

The mastermind behind New York Citys Careful is sleepy-eyed polymath Eric Lindley.

Though he is a published writer, orchestral composer, visual artist, and part time builder-of-robots, hisfirst and fiercest love is making a blend of intimate songwriting, esoteric theory, and delicate electronics.

Lindley self-produced Oh Light, his second full length effort, recording and mixing the album over thecourse of a month in a closet in Manhattans Washington Heights neighborhood. Oh Light is being released by Sounds Super Recordings, it is also available as a digital release.

Connections:

www.ericlindley.com www.carefulmusic.com

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Oh Light - A Conversation Across Disciplines