perception
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On Creative Analogies: Lessons From Coi
“Perfect food is born of perfect order.” – Daniel Patterson, Coi I have written previously on this blog (see culinary arts posts) about connections between cooking and music. To add to that mix, I recently read Daniel Patterson’s excellent Coi cookbook. The book is structured around a series of short narratives that provide context for Continue reading
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On Presence And Perception
“When I look at the world now, my posture is not one of focus but rather of attention.” – Robert Irwin At the heart of Seeing Is Forgetting the Name Of the Thing One Sees (1982/2009), Lawrence Weschler’s biography of the artist Robert Irwin, are two intertwined and reoccurring ideas: presence and perception. Irwin (1928-), Continue reading
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On Ken Dryden’s “The Game”
When my brother and I were kids, we spent a lot of time playing ball hockey in the driveway, taking shots at one another with a fluorescent orange “sting” ball that really did sting when it was frozen from the cold and hitting you in the face. One of our always followed conventions of the Continue reading
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Running Music
(Listening on headphones recommended.) Continue reading
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On How The Shape Of A Sound Shapes Us
I noticed a simple thing the other day while working on some music. The sounds I was working with were long tones with slow attacks and long decays. (Can you guess the instrument?) What I noticed was how instantaneously the shape of the sounds shaped me. The sounds literally slowed me down–making me feel as Continue reading
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On Salvador Dali’s “The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory”
There is something unsettling about Salvador Dali’s The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954). On the face of it, it looks like an outdoor scene composed of water, sky, and mountains. But what about those rectangular blocks and melting clocks? The blocks convey one time sense moving forward in an orderly way. But the blocks Continue reading
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On Rhythmic Instabilities And Brand New Feelings: DJ Rashad’s “Feelin””
“The technology’s so on point now: we can sample almost anything now.” – DJ Spinn One of the talked about music releases of 2012 is DJ Rashad’s Teklife Vol.1: Welcome to the Chi. Rashad is a Chicago musician who makes music to accompany a dance style known as footwork. Footwork is characterized by its hyper Continue reading
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Haruki Murakami On Repetition
Haruki Murakami, master novelist and enthusiast of long distance running, makes this observation about the repetition of writing, and the experience of repetition itself as a perceptual tool for tweaking the senses: “The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.” Continue reading
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On The Universal Sense: How Hearing Shapes The Mind
Seth Horowitz’s The Universal Sense is an exhaustive, lucid, and entertaining neuroscientific foray into the many ways hearing, listening, and sound shape the mind–how sound affects the way we think, feel, and act. Horowitz is a professor of neuroscience at Brown University who specializes in studies of comparative and human hearing. He’s also an enthusiastic Continue reading
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On Flavors, Tastes, Sound And Perception: Thinking Through Ruhlman’s Twenty
“Clear your way. Always be thinking.” – Michael Ruhlman, Ruhlman’s Twenty First, let me say the obvious: if you like to cook and want to know more about the science and craft of cooking, you’ll probably enjoy Michael Ruhlman’s Ruhlman’s Twenty. The book provides much to think about by explaining fundamental techniques and ingredients in a sensible Continue reading
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