Why Improvised Music is so Boring

[lukaz]

more questions (or answers?) here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/1mY7RbtYsp0?fs=1&hl=en_US

[Wombatz]

I have a problem with most performance art, since I’m not willing to accept the artist into my life on a personal level. I will not let down my guard and socially interact, because I want nothing to do with such loudly overbearing characters (even if they just sit around pretending to be harmless). My refusal of course speaks more of my inhibitions than anything else, but if I don’t show that kind of commitment as audience, the performance will probably fall completely flat (except when it works as theater. I am these days spending some thought on the classic Abramovic performance where she and a man slap each other as long as they physically can (in front of an audience). If you manage to emotionally get involved, there’s sort of instant gratification: you can gauge your reactions in real time: does it hurt me more when the woman is slapped, why, etc. My only reaction unfortunately is: she’s a performance artist, she’s doing a good job here, this show has a solid theme.) I get nothing out of it if I put nothing in, it even makes no sense then. So maybe performance art is the only form of potentially fruitful trollery.

If the troll has conscientiously questioned his medium, that is.

[barry]

will Barry book Diego to throw shit at the audience next year?

um, no.

[bryan]

...if you seriously want to open up a reasoned debate within the improv world – and posting here would imply that you do - then it would surely make sense to do it in a form that people don’t feel insulted by.

Yes. But then it seems that part of the schtick is the insult, a contempt for the audience that masks itself in "I'm here to give you what you need". I could be reading it wrong, but that's the way these type of things come across.

The performance would've ended more nicely if the song was "Love King" by The-Dream.

[anonymous999]

I have a rhetorical question: if the clip in the first post was of a shit-throwing monkey, would the rest of the thread be much different? will Barry book Diego to throw shit at the audience next year? stay tuned to this video channel!

aren't we as improvisers throwing constantly our shitty music at the audience?

lets face it
if we are in this messageboard is because most of us, in some way or another, are scatologist

[RFKorp]

I have a rhetorical question: if the clip in the first post was of a shit-throwing monkey, would the rest of the thread be much different? will Barry book Diego to throw shit at the audience next year? stay tuned to this video channel!

aren't we as improvisers throwing constantly our shitty music at the audience?

lets face it
if we are in this messageboard is because most of us, in some way or another, are scatologist

but is your PRIMARY OBJECTIVE to throw shit? or is it a byproduct of trying to make music? I think that's the difference. Diego has already stated his primary objective here was to ask self-admittedly stupid rhetorical questions based on equally pointless generalizations. so what's the point?

[sevenarts]

Something about this thread reminds me of South Park's parody of Glenn Beck: "I'm not saying the president is a penis-hungry hooker with a huge vagina, I'm just asking questions."

[aditi]

Just have some naked people on stage and improvise music to it. Some can be having sex, some can be staring at the ceiling or just wandering in circles. No one has ever done that before! No freshmen in college have ever filmed naked people writhing in various parks, forests, studios, in public, in private. Sex is a completely unexplored topic full of so many nuances! Improvised music is just full of older people who are, like, performing on stage when they should be working on constructing time-machines to become young again and have porn-style sex!

[anonymous999]

why is there so little sex in improvisation?
an answer might be because we prefer to masturbate with our instruments
many people have said to me that this music is so much about masturbation,
can we actually make it into real sex?

[Dan Warburton]

What started off with the potential for a interesting and worthwhile debate has descended - yet again - to the level of farce. And you talk about serious discussion here? Christ.

[jon abbey]

Just have some naked people on stage and improvise music to it. Some can be having sex, some can be staring at the ceiling or just wandering in circles. No one has ever done that before! No freshmen in college have ever filmed naked people writhing in various parks, forests, studios, in public, in private. Sex is a completely unexplored topic full of so many nuances! Improvised music is just full of older people who are, like, performing on stage when they should be working on constructing time-machines to become young again and have porn-style sex!

hehehe, best post of the thread.

[RFKorp]

1. dan and ed hit the nail on the head, this is total south park level farce. but I rather enjoy these extremely stupid lines of debate. so....

2. mr. anonymous, I can't help but be confused by this apparent ideological contradiction between your posts in this thread and your promotion of the non-concert. In that other context, you seem to be arguing AGAINST active engagement of the audience but here you argue FOR it? Could you help me understand what you are really seeking to achieve?

3. at least when you masturbate you know your needs will probably be met. bad sex is the worst.

[anonymous999]

2. mr. anonymous, I can't help but be confused by this apparent ideological contradiction between your posts in this thread and your promotion of the non-concert. In that other context, you seem to be arguing AGAINST active engagement of the audience but here you argue FOR it? Could you help me understand what you are really seeking to achieve?

you have not understood the non-concert post

3. at least when you masturbate you know your needs will probably be met. bad sex is the worst.

one thing worst than bad sex: bad improv!

[anonymous999]

What started off with the potential for a interesting and worthwhile debate has descended - yet again - to the level of farce. And you talk about serious discussion here? Christ.

Christ doesn't exist

[patois]

more questions (or answers?) here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/1mY7RbtYsp0?fs=1&hl=en_US

This helped fill in the picture for me (answers) somewhat.

There is room for a 'questioner' in the larger constellation of art and practitioners, and I don't think the questioner should be obliged to provide 'the answers', either. I too thought that the essay in regards the improv 'competition' was intelligent and thought-provoking, and discussion of its actual points in here was a missed opportunity. All this focus on lower aspects and the self-loathing contained in statements disparaging improvisation as 'scat' only make more relevant the concepts underlying these performances, separate from our opinions of their relative success. Agreed, also though, is that in being so consistently subversive, is actually quite 'safe' as there is no risk, no chance of failure (subvert the subverted, is subverted, oh what the hell is going on what is art anyway...)

fwiw, I thought "Yo te avise" worked really well as a 'poem' in the above clip; more so than as a 'song' in the Install performance. I also thought Jean Luc Guionnet & Seijiro Murayama's performance was engaging and, well.. dignified... So maybe I ask, why do you repeat yourself? And could it have made better sense to illustrate the fallacy of the assumptions behind the rhetorical questions by approaching 'Yo te avise' with a dignity to match...?

Or... nevermind.

[RFKorp]

2. mr. anonymous, I can't help but be confused by this apparent ideological contradiction between your posts in this thread and your promotion of the non-concert. In that other context, you seem to be arguing AGAINST active engagement of the audience but here you argue FOR it? Could you help me understand what you are really seeking to achieve?

you have not understood the non-concert post

and you're not going to explain it to me any better? not really an answer...

3. at least when you masturbate you know your needs will probably be met. bad sex is the worst.

one thing worst than bad sex: bad improv!

I still don't really understand this fixation on "improv". most music sucks of all genres. why should this one be different? you gotta sort through to find the good shit. comparing Motubachii againt some inconsequential improv release from this year is no different than comparing Flockaveli and one of the generic mixtapes a guy tried to sell me on my walk to work today.

[RFKorp]

more questions (or answers?) here:

http://www.youtube.com/v/1mY7RbtYsp0?fs=1&hl=en_US

finally watching this now. just got past the part where he "falls".

it's quickly getting pretty tiresome, but for a while I was way into it. I just don't understand why nobody in the audience is laughing at the jokes?

[faster]

I still don't really understand this fixation on "improv". most music sucks of all genres. why should this one be different? you gotta sort through to find the good shit. comparing Motubachii againt some inconsequential improv release from this year is no different than comparing Flockaveli and one of the generic mixtapes a guy tried to sell me on my walk to work today.

Well, I agree with this, but in the context of Europe, there may be some good reasons to be especially critical of "highbrow" music, since it is at least sometimes in receipt of funding, government or otherwise. Not sure that mixtape guy is up for a STEIM fellowship...

[RFKorp]

well, then the criticism should be of the institutions offering the funding, not the artistic practice, right?

but I guess I do understand that issue a little better in context.

[leroysghost]

i liked the one time the voice said chammy instead of chamy