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Article 5227 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: smoliar@jit.iss.nus.sg (stephen smoliar)
Subject: Re: Intelligence, awareness, and esthetics
Message-ID: <1992Apr23.235522.25154@nuscc.nus.sg>
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Reply-To: smoliar@iss.nus.sg (stephen smoliar)
Organization: Institute of Systems Science, NUS, Singapore
References: <1992Apr23.121553.6713@nuscc.nus.sg> <1992Apr23.153550.2375@javelin.sim.es.com> <VANCE.92Apr23105018@kyoto.speech.sri.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 23:55:22 GMT
Lines: 76

In article <VANCE.92Apr23105018@kyoto.speech.sri.com> vance@speech.sri.com
(Vance Maverick) writes:
>In article <1992Apr23.153550.2375@javelin.sim.es.com>
>biesel@javelin.sim.es.com (Heiner Biesel) writes:
>
>   [...] these kinds of minimalist works raise another question
>   in the context of the Shannon measures. Is there some minimum amount of
>   information transfer required to produce the esthetic response to a work
>   of art?
>
>The determinate article "the" before "esthetic response" is probably
>a bad idea -- I don't think it's a natural kind, so to speak.  But for
>Cage's listeners, 0:00 would certainly do it.
>
Indeed, the whole point of 0'00" is that if the mind is already disposed to
HAVE an "esthetic response" (ANY "esthetic response"), there is no need for
the composer to impose choices in the selection of those events which trigger
that response.  Vance is absolutely right in questioning the definite article,
which is the point I was trying to make about the subjectivity of the
situation.  "Information" has more to do with the received signal than
the transmitted one.  0'00" demonstrates that, if you are in the "right"
mental state, so to speak, you can receive anything.

>   If so, how small can it get? We all know the effect of an in-joke:
>   a single word or phrase can provoke a complex response when it alludes
>   to a known and shared situation. Does the effect occur in art?
>
>Absolutely, and we can find some very short examples without even
>invoking the avant-garde.  Probably if I thought a little harder, I
>could come up with a classical example, but what leaps most
>insistently to mind at the moment is the first chord of the Led
>Zeppelin cover of "I Can't Quit You, Babe" -- I laughed out loud when
>I heard it first.

Vance, it is always easier for you to get down and dirty than it is for me.  In
trying to think of the shortest information-laden moment, the first example I
came up with was the Tristan chord.  This has been used very powerfully by many
other composers with the intention of provoking no end of different (always
context-dependent) responses.  To see how broad the difference can be, we can
compare the tragic passion of the reference in the final movement of Berg's
"Lyric Suite" with the bald satire of ALBERT HERRING.  Both references are
equally effective and cannot be compared on any gross scale of artistic merit
(let alone information content).

Actually, Berg is full of good examples.  When Marie gets stabbed in WOZZECK,
he wanted to convey the impression of having her life pass before her eyes.
What he did was to collapse into a very brief period of time (about 30
seconds?) references to all the music associated with her in the opera.
Then, of course, LULU is a loaded with LEITMOTIVEN as is any Wagner opera.

I want to raise one final example, because I feel it illustrates the idea that
"information transfer" depends as much on the dynamics of the situation as on
the content of the message.  This one was actually intended as a joke:  the
second movement of Peter Schickele's "Quodlibet for Small Orchestra" (from
the very first P. D. Q. Bach album).  This is a hilarious exercise in total
collage, since there is not an original note in the piece;  but the second
movement does something very clever.  It starts with the beginning of the
second movement of Beethoven's first symphony.  This is followed by the second
theme of the second movement of Beethoven's second symphony.  This is followed
by the first theme of the first movement of Beethoven's third symphony.  Now
the point is that most listeners familiar with the Beethoven symphonies tend
to figure out what is going on somewhere between the third and fifth
symphonies;  and that "figuring out" then becomes a source of expectations.
As a result, when we finally get to the ninth, Schickele can get away with
the opening measures of the second movement;  even though they have almost
no melodic content and are almost totally drowned out by the cacophony of
the other eight symphonies (in case I did not mention this, he just piles
one on top of the other), all Beethoven lovers quickly detect its presence
as the final gesture which completes the joke.  I would be very surprised
if all that could be captured in Shannon's theory.  (I still have not seen
any more concrete reference to that book, by the way.)
-- 
Stephen W. Smoliar; Institute of Systems Science
National University of Singapore; Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Kent Ridge, SINGAPORE 0511
Internet:  smoliar@iss.nus.sg


