6 ms·

An Integration Loop

84 points by benbreen 7y ago

cenazoic 7y ago
This is beautiful writing; in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had an emotional response to a piece of tech(ish) writing. Thanks for posting it.
beckingz 7y ago
This is really moving. A fantastic blend of storytelling and technology.
overthemoon 7y ago
Fantastic. I absolutely adore Basinski, this is a very cool project.
tfcat 7y ago
What a strangely gripping piece of text. This project is incredible.
Archit3ch 7y ago
This reminds me of Dopamine Neural Tape by Vult for the VCV Rack software synthesizer.
ipnon 7y ago
Basinski is famous for his Disintegration Loops. The cover art for them features a photo of smoke coming from Lower Manhattan the night of 9/11. Basinski was a struggling avant-garde musician who had been working on the Disintegration Loops and similar projects for some period of time before 9/11. None of the projects were taking off. Basinski alleges to have performed Disintegration Loops (likely untitled at that point) for the first time on his Brooklyn rooftop with some friends the day of 9/11. The idea is that they played this somber tape music an wallowed in their collective grief. The problem with this is that he took his amateur music (he was by no means a celebrated musician at this point) and covered it with the trauma of a national tragedy just to make it seem profound and stirring. This isn't to say that Disintegration Loops isn't a decent tape project. But it is by no means innovative or even exemplary for the time, except for the extraordinary and painful circumstances surrounding its release. Basinski failed here for trying to take credit for the character of these circumstances as his own. This is not my original line of thought. All credit here goes to Chris Ott [0], that evergreen of music criticism. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGE7q0oDlEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGE7q0oDlEI
patrickyeon 7y ago
Ahh, Robin Sloan's blog is such a treasure! I still deeply enjoy Dancing the Flip Flop ([0], but also linked in this essay) every time I think about it, never mind actually read it. Robin's perceptiveness and storytelling reminds me of Bret Victor's work as well, and they are both so great at it [0] https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/flip-flop/ https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/flip-flop/

84 points by benbreen 7y ago

This is beautiful writing; in fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had an emotional response to a piece of tech(ish) writing. Thanks for posting it.

beckingz 7y ago

This is really moving. A fantastic blend of storytelling and technology.

overthemoon 7y ago

Fantastic. I absolutely adore Basinski, this is a very cool project.

tfcat 7y ago

What a strangely gripping piece of text. This project is incredible.

Archit3ch 7y ago

This reminds me of Dopamine Neural Tape by Vult for the VCV Rack software synthesizer.

ipnon 7y ago

Basinski is famous for his Disintegration Loops. The cover art for them features a photo of smoke coming from Lower Manhattan the night of 9/11. Basinski was a struggling avant-garde musician who had been working on the Disintegration Loops and similar projects for some period of time before 9/11. None of the projects were taking off. Basinski alleges to have performed Disintegration Loops (likely untitled at that point) for the first time on his Brooklyn rooftop with some friends the day of 9/11. The idea is that they played this somber tape music an wallowed in their collective grief. The problem with this is that he took his amateur music (he was by no means a celebrated musician at this point) and covered it with the trauma of a national tragedy just to make it seem profound and stirring. This isn't to say that Disintegration Loops isn't a decent tape project. But it is by no means innovative or even exemplary for the time, except for the extraordinary and painful circumstances surrounding its release. Basinski failed here for trying to take credit for the character of these circumstances as his own. This is not my original line of thought. All credit here goes to Chris Ott [0], that evergreen of music criticism. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGE7q0oDlEI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGE7q0oDlEI

patrickyeon 7y ago

Ahh, Robin Sloan's blog is such a treasure! I still deeply enjoy Dancing the Flip Flop ([0], but also linked in this essay) every time I think about it, never mind actually read it. Robin's perceptiveness and storytelling reminds me of Bret Victor's work as well, and they are both so great at it [0] https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/flip-flop/ https://www.robinsloan.com/notes/flip-flop/