Intermedia Issues: A Discussion of the Current Trends

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
References

Introduction

The rapid technological progress that has swept the entire world and has been spurring the development of business and art alike has introduced new and fascinating options for communicating ideas. However, while the unique properties of each media type are aspirational enough when considered separately, it is their functioning in unison that leads to the most exciting outcomes and inspirational experiences. The phenomenon of intermedia, which represents an intersectional approach toward using different media types for conveying a message, has gained quite popularity in art, allowing for new, inspirational methods of artistic expressivity.

Main body

However, technological innovations are not the only drivers behind intermedia development. A more in-depth exploration of the contemporary issues in intermedia will reveal the necessity to search for new ways of making music by finding new ideas in the ordinary. For instance, eliciting melody from the items that do not fall under the umbrella of musical instruments has been a trend in intermedia for a while. A recent experiment made by David Byrne, a famous American musician and one of the pioneers in using analog sampling as the means of discovering new means of expression in music, is an accurate representation of intermedia (Byrne 00:00:14). As the artist explains in his video “Playing the Building,” “I realized that you could turn the space into a musical instrument” (“David Byrne: Playing the Building” 00:00:23-00:00:27). While the idea of using space as the means of making music sound differently is far from being new, the representation of space as a musical instrument itself is an astounding concept that deserves to be listed as one of the major contributions to the development of intermedia and its introduction into the realm of music.

The idea of bold and adventurous exploration of the opportunities that different perspectives on music as an art form provide is quite inspirational, as decades of experiments in the specified realm have shown. In his article “Noises of the Avant-Garde,” Kahn posits that the subversion of tropes and the endeavor at challenging the expectations of listeners have always been the starting point of important changes in music and the emergence of new and inspiring genres, artists, and their creations. For instance, the concept of noise as a seemingly disruptive notion that is traditionally juxtaposed to the concept of melody and harmony in music has allowed prompting a change in European music, in general (Kahn, p. 46). Remarkably, the described approach transcends even the notion of intermedia since noise as a concoction of unrelated sounds is typically seen as a chaotic phenomenon that has nothing to do with music (Kahn, p. 45). However, according to Kahn, the decision to work with the material that seemed to be the least appropriate for creating art helped to convey the intended message of the pliability of artistic forms in the most accurate and effective manner possible (Kahn, p. 47). Thus, the notion of intermedia as the constant search for the opportunities of new means of reflecting reality through different tools represents a crucial artistic struggle that artists face currently.

As a part of his reflection on the nature of music, Kahn introduces another interesting idea that can be used as the starting point for reinforcing the influence of intermedia in art. Specifically, the author mentions that music can be compared to the creation of simultaneous poetry, which was particularly important in the development of the Dadaist movement (Kahn, p. 46). Thus, the author creates the platform for the principles of intermedia to be developed since his statement allows concluding that different forms of art and, thus, a new form of art can be built on the intersection of different types of representing reality, such as poetry and music.

The observed trend of locating new methods of producing sound raises the question of whether the described attempts can be seen as valid explorations of opportunities in music or a pointless fad that may disappear within the next few years and will be looked at with a mixture of amusement and confusion. Indeed, some of the experiments that are made for the shock value rather than in an honest attempt at studying the opportunities for music can be seen as passionless and rather artificial. However, when looking deeper into the nature of intermedia as the method of combining different experiences to produce new impressions and elicit new emotions, one will realize that it will ultimately produce a new approach toward understanding music. By focusing on the experiences that music as an art form provides, the artists that use intermedia create universal tools for multidimensional, cross-cultural communication and knowledge sharing. Thus, with the introduction of intermedia, music not only serves an aesthetic purpose but also performs a communicative function by bridging the gap between cultures and generations.

The existence of experimental music can be seen as one of the prime examples of intermedia having established itself in the realm of modern culture. While the notion of experimental music is quite stretchy and may incorporate any attempts at subverting the tropes of the genre, the specific focus on the available options of changing the perception of the sound can be agreed upon as the key definition of the subject matter. Experimental music represents the quintessence of intermedia as the material for creating art since it seeks to combine seemingly incompatible elements to produce a new sound (Kahn, p. 136). Moreover, experimental music embodies the very essence of intermedia since it strives not only to mix different types of media to create a musical piece but also encourages the further exploration of how the idea of combining these elements of intermedia emerged in the first place (Kahn, p. 137). Therefore, while seemingly chaotic, the concept of experimentation with intermedia in music resides on the foundations of harmony and the history of music development. On further inspection, the specified idea seems quite reasonable since it is important to learn the essential rules of composing music or creating any other art piece before subverting these rules to stir the audience’s enthusiasm and shock them into paying closer attention to an art piece. Affecting music drastically and allowing composers to create distinguished artworks that change the very landscape of art, intermedia in music has been an important element for changing the status quo and examining the further directions for the art of music-making to evolve.

While intermedia might seem as a relatively new and, therefore, completely uninhibited method of creating art, the specified notion incorporates inherent issues that could use extensive research and profound analysis. Being a highly diverse notion, the concept of intermedia can be approached from a wide array of perspectives, the cultural one being the main source of concern. Specifically, with the introduction of intermedia into the realm of art, premises for the development of the trend of cultural appropriation may emerge (Byrne 00:00:28). In order to ensure that the culture of the people belonging to the minority should not suffer and be appropriated by the dominant one, it will be necessary to draw clear lines in the use of intermedia as the tool of reinforcing the cultural status quo and the method of subverting the existing stereotypes.

However, while seemingly being on the surface with its message concerning art being used not to harm those that are already too vulnerable, the idea of abstaining from the cultural appropriation in intermedia is not only been barely impossible to attain but also quite pointless. Since cultural appropriation as accepted is neutral in its nature, with the appropriation of dominant cultures not representing any threats to any demographics, the line between a harmful misuse of the markers of a particular culture and the clever integration thereof in an intermedia piece becomes quite difficult to recognize. The observed problem can be discussed from the perspective of the idea of audiences being given the freedom to interpret art pieces in a way that is deemed as reasonable to them having become an important trend in a current artistic environment (DeLaure and Fink, p. 14). Indeed, with the death of the author having become an integral part of modern popular culture, experiencing an art piece without any cultural baggage and taking it at its face value seems innocent and justified enough to be acknowledged as a viable point of view on the use of the elements of different cultures in intermedia (DeLaure and Fink, p. 17). Nonetheless, the lack of background knowledge about the types of media represented in the target intermedia piece may lead to the failure to recognize the instance of an aspect of a particular culture being appropriated to create an intermedia piece.

The lack of control over the cultural elements being borrowed and appropriated from specific cultures to create an intermedia piece may lead to significant confrontations based on cross-cultural misunderstandings. The described situation is directly opposite to the desirable idea of change launched across the globe to bring representatives of different cultures, ethnicities, and races together to create and consume art in the way that would allow for uninhibited sharing of knowledge and experience, thus enriching cultures and creating an artistic lingua franca. Therefore, the introduction of ethical standards into the context of intermedia should be seen as a possible way of addressing the issue in question and avoiding explosive conflicts that may ultimately lead to long-time grudges held by one culture against another.

At the same time, the introduction of the cultural perspective into the notion of intermedia opens a plethora of opportunities for communicating crucial ideas through music. With the integration of different cultural notions and ideas into the process of creating music, one will be able to build the lingua franca in the art that will elicit emotions and encourage contemplations in every listener. It would be a mistake to claim that certain intermedia art pieces will appeal to every audience and be unanimously understood and interpreted equally accurately by everyone. On the contrary, due to the differences in cultural perspectives, the same art piece can contain entirely contradictory meanings for the representatives of different cultures. However, with the use of intermedia as the means of creating visual shorthand for specific ideas and a combination of several cultures into a single entity, intermedia can become the tool for spurring the cross-cultural dialogue. The creation of intermedia may encourage one to explore how elements of different cultures can coexist in the context of a single artwork. In addition, the collision of different cultural standpoints regarding the interpretation of a specific intermedia piece is expected to galvanize the process of cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the issue of cultural intersectionality is one of the major themes that deserve to be explored further. Therefore, from the cultural standpoint, intermedia remains a neutral force that can be exploited with both good and bad intentions.

The creation of intersectional art that will incorporate different types of media, in turn, can be seen as an attempt to locate the.limits to the current state of artistic imagination. However, the boundaries to how creative people can be seen to stretch far too wide to be explored in the nearest future. Among some of the most impressive examples of how art can be reinterpreted and reintroduced into the present-day environment, where audiences have become far too sophisticated to be satisfied with the reiteration of the old tropes, is the study of the power of silence. Remarkably, the idea of using silence as the extension of opportunities in creating music is not as new as one might think. In his research, Cage speculated on the concept of using music as a means of conveying an emotional message to his audience, thus introducing it to the notion of intermedia at its barest and simplest. However, in his interpretation of the role that silence played in music, Cage noticed that there was the direct necessity to subvert the stereotypes of silence being one of the elements of music and had to be viewed as inseparable from the rest of the performance. In his musical experiments, Cage stated that the delusion concerning silence being merely juxtaposition to sound entails the following:

One enters an anechoic chamber, as silent as technologically possible in 1951, to discover that one hears two sounds of one’s own unintentional making the situation one is clearly in is not objective (sound-silence), but rather subjective (sounds only), those intended and those others (so-called silence) not intended. (Cage, pp. 13-14)

Thus, the author emphasizes that the dichotomy of sound and silence as the means of measuring musical pieces appears to be more valid than the juxtaposition of silence as the actual absence of any artistic elements to the concept of sound. Instead, Cage convinces his audience that a sound should not be seen as a thing in itself but, rather, as a tool that can be used along with silence to purport a particular idea ad create a meaningful art piece. Thus, the author prompts his audience to see silence as another tool that can be interwoven into the fabric of a musical piece to represent a structure, a rhythm, and the music that tells a story.

The opportunity to use intermedia as an intersectional tool is also preserved in the traditional approaches toward constructing a narrative, namely, in literature. According to Pinder, the incorporation of the spatial perspective into the art of writing is another form of intermedia that allows delivering outstanding results and helps to create the art pieces that will speak to everyone due to the universality of the symbols used in them. Remarkably, the consideration of architecture and infrastructure as the representations of a specific form of art allows for the introduction of a unique social perspective into the realm of artistic thinking. The process of urbanization and the toll that it has on smaller communities is rarely represented in art, which means that the incorporation of the perspective that Pinder suggests is an important change in the artistic trends. Specifically, the focus on the gentrification of rural environments and the focus on the urbanization of cities as the process that erases a range of unique cultures and identities needs to be explored as an important social concern (Pinder, p. 7). Intermedia, in turn, can be utilized to draw the attention of bystanders to the problem at hand and encourage an action aimed at improving the current status quo.

Moreover, the significance of technological progress and the weight that IT and ICT tools have added to the development of intermedia as an artistic tool should not be forgotten. In an interview with Garth Paine, the latter postulates that the integration of digital media into people’s lives helps to revolutionize the way in which people see the world around them. The observed change is especially true for the recent groundbreaking concerns of virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR). According to Paine, the specified tools will allow managing the spatial perception of reality, thus helping the audience to experience music and sound, in general, in an entirely different way than they would in a traditional setting: “It allows me to spatialize the sound across the whole audience” (“Garth Paine »Future Perfect« | inSonic 2018: Algorithmic Spaces” 00:03:03-00:03:04).

Conclusion

Providing new opportunities for expression and helping viewers to engage with artists on multiple levels, the creation of intermedia opens an array of new areas of further exploration. However, the application of intermedia as an artistic tool and the method of constructing new meanings, conveying new ideas, and representing reality in a new way implies facing multiple challenges. Intermedia has offered a plethora of options for artists to connect to audiences on multiple levels and introduce a multicultural perspective into their art pieces. Therefore, the furthering of the cross-cultural dialogue needs to be seen as one of the crucial positive outcomes of intermedia being introduced into the realm of art. Cultural issues and especially the threat of cultural appropriation have always been present in the context of art due to the lack of dialogue that could help to address the specified concerns and focus on knowledge and experience sharing. The use of intermedia may assist in connecting cultures and encouraging the global cross-cultural dialogue by representing the art pieces that will contain the elements that will be universally understood by the representatives of multiple cultures. In addition, the focus on intermedia as a tool for artistic expression will prompt the dialogue about the way in which people perceive reality and the methods that can be used to change the perspective and introduce innovative concepts to general audiences. Despite the presence of several questionable issues in intermedia, especially the ones concerning cultural appropriation and misrepresentation of other cultures, the general change that the medium in question is expected to entail generally positive outcomes.

References

Cage, John. Silence: Lectures and Writings. Wesleyan University Press, 2011.
“David Byrne: Playing the Building.” YouTube, uploaded by WIRED, 2008. Web.
DeLaure, Marilyn, Moritz Fink, and Mark Dery, eds. Culture Jamming: Activism and the Art of Cultural Resistance. NYU Press, 2017.
“Garth Paine »Future Perfect« | inSonic 2018: Algorithmic Spaces.” YouTube, uploaded by ZKM | Karlsuhe, 2019. Wb.
Pinder, David. “Ghostly Footsteps: Voices, Memories and Walks in the City.” Ecumene, vol. 8, no. 1, 2001, pp. 1-19.

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Intermedia Issues: A Discussion of the Current Trends

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