Spontaneous Structure
All of my audio pieces are noise fields – white noise. I always use the example of a waterfall. It creates a sound with uniform intensity – it sounds the same overall, yet no two moments are exactly alike. These are attempts at non-linear audio – there is an abandonment of narrative structure though it still asserts itself and I do not resist. I have many pieces that are just pure noise – like TV static. So I spice it up adding cool sounds and whatever – recordings of friends, jam sessions, etc.. There is no space to be found in them – just an endless torrent of noises – each piece is just a slice from an infinite continuum of endlessly variable patterns but with a uniform intensity throughout – a noise field.
White Noise
White Noise is actually the metaphor I use to describe what to me is eternal essence. Before consciousness, there is just noise. Something happens, a rhythm is formed spontaneously in the raw medium, and a definable presence emerges from nothingness. Rhythms – waves, are the essence of being – the regular pulse is the breath of life. It is sound, light, vibration, matter, energy, thought, experience, being. It is a focus – it has a perceivable quality, it is differentiated from other material – in a song you could call it a groove – in the brain you could call it a thought.
The Jam Session
The music drifts in and out of focus – a rhythm, a groove spontaneously emerges out of the mess of noise. It moves along for a while, it’s some fun, and meaning is conveyed. After a while, it becomes tiresome and the whole structure dissolves into chaos again, ripe for another emergence. This goes on forever. The pulse of being, the continuum of experience is the oscillation between order and chaos – focus and aimless wandering – meaning and meaninglessness – stuff and then, well, not so much.
Rhythm is something that can be perceived – it is the formation of meaning. Meaning is definable as a focus – something that has boundaries – it’s about something in particular as opposed to being about everything everywhere all the time all at once (EEAA). It is something separate from other things – it is this separateness that leads us away from the source. This is what leads me to the conclusion that the essence of awareness is uncertainty: because awareness = meaning and meaning = separateness and separateness = incompleteness which means that all things are not known, which means that there is always uncertainty. The baby exits the womb and cries because it is separate now and not knowing has become part of its experience. The person will continue to experience suffering (and an equal amount of joy) through the rest of their lives and go on to lead a happy and fulfilling life as a fully realized individual capable of making decisions in a complex world. Uncertainty causes suffering.
Rhythm/focus/meaning/awareness/narrative (these all mean the same in this context) may lead away from the source, but return is inescapable. Everything that starts will end – there is a flawless symmetry there (“the higher they fly, the harder they fall”). We have all heard “my life flashed before my eyes” when someone has a near death experience. That is the effect of all the narratives in one’s life – the loose ends – the excursions from source, driven by meaning (eg. career, relationships), all coming to an abrupt conclusion as you are making your way back to the source.
White Noise
Raw Medium
Unformed Potential
a perfect noise field, brought to you by my dying scanner
They say that no two snowflakes are the same – but how would you know for sure without surveying every snow flake that has ever fallen, is falling, and will fall.