phenomenon is the new noumenon

for those of you out there without the luxury of a graphical user interface, i present to you all the joy of endlessly concatenated stream-of-consciousness consumerist injunction beatz, now accessible via the command line!

Free Market Montgomery .py01

inspired by a recent experiment using this source material, it occurred to me that the indefinite recombination of this fine anthem might translate well to text.  thus was born my first python program.

the archive linked above contains the script (‘fmm.py’), and three source text files (‘two.txt’, ‘four.txt’, and ‘eight.txt’) containing phrases the script will use.  (assuming you’re comfortable desecrating the inspired words of Sammy Stephens, these phrases can be modified, though possibly at the cost of metrical consistency.)  also included is a crusty old poem by Robert Frost (‘frost.txt’) in need of some fresh air, which i’ve included to serve as an example of how a generative flea market jingle can be used to enhance other texts.

to operate, navigate the terminal to the directory in which the script and the source texts reside, and type python fmm.py.  you can also try piping a text into it (e.g. python fmm.py < frost.txt) and adding a single numeric argument (e.g. python fmm.py < frost.txt 40).  if you are piping a text into the script, the argument defines the chance of a script’s line being replaced by a flea market-related line.  if you’re running the script on its own, this argument determines how many lines are generated.

still more to come.

HELLO I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE>

i have moved into a building. let me give you the tour.

followed with appropriate precision, these instructions enable an accurate topographic spatiotemporal overlay of my first week in the crow’s nest with what i must assume must also be yours.

download this onto your licenced iProduct-like device.

enter the building on the northwest corner of varet and white, at the varet st entrance.

ascend four flights of stairs, to the roof exit.

ignore the foreboding sign, as you have no lease to forfeit.

cross the length of the roof, veering toward your right.

step over the ventilation duct. you will notice two discolored points on the roof, which are comparatively crispy when stepped upon.

position yourself on the left-hand crispy pad, facing 160◦ S.  you are standing directly above my kitchen.

HERE IS WHERE YOU PRESS PLAY>

you will rotate 360◦ clockwise over the course of 240 seconds.  maintain a constant angular velocity of 1.5◦/s.  our electronic tour guide will provide the necessary details as you progress.  adherence to instructions yields a comprehensive and highly efficient tour of all noteworthy features.

THANK YOU FOR JOINING US IN THIS JOURNEY>

not Free as in Speech,

nor Free as in Beer;

more like Free as in Jazz.

haunted by the spectre of an internet meme that would not die, and determined to find release through deconstruction (as has worked in the past with pop music), it occurred to me that the legendary Flea Market Montgomery theme song lends itself naturally to generative resequencing.  here, to begin with, is a quick and dirty proof of concept, with a little choreography thrown in to demonstrate to the highers-up that i know how to count.  (you’ll need to have a copy of Pd-extended installed to run this).

needless to say, this is just the beginning.  updates, stand-alone app, audio samples, and some further remarks soon to come.

Free Market Montgomery .pd01

that it did not occur to me to embark on an exercise of this nature prior to some prompting by this fellow is a little surprising, i think.  or not; and, if not quite unfortnate either, is at any rate something i might hope to remedy.

by around 100127::1600 i made it to the edge of prospect park, at the lower tip of the western north/south vertical.  the goal here was to retrace my steps to a particular spot i’d visited a year+change before, where an illegal artistic gathering was held on one of the coldest nights of that winter.  the aim here was in part to scout for installation spots, and in part to recontextualize the sonic imprint left on me by my last visit.

after wandering in the woods for some time, i found the site: a paved path arching over a stream (fed by a small waterfall which was apparently called the “Lost and Found Waterfall”), extending in two directions with stone stairs branching off up a hill and massive smooth stones lining the sides.  contorted hills and not-extremely-dense foliage filled the immediate vicinity, but shortly beyond this were vast open fields, the perimeter of which slopes up before delimiting the park’s edge, forming the shape of a basin.

the following recording was made over ten minutes spent sitting on a stone at this site, with eyes closed and ears open.  the notes that follow, written immediately after, were an attempt to recollect and describe all that i heard during this time.

further discussion will follow soon.  there is too much more to say.

[DL :: 100127] / / parkbasin

// the accompanying written notes, literatim:

• steady water noise behind & to the left dominating most of the mids & highs with a shape approximating a pattern but too transient or amorphous to put a finger on
• Couldn’t count the planes overhead; huge resounding doppler-moans, scattered and reflected back at me by the sloping terrain on all sides.  Originating behind me & to the right; unclear whether they ever ended up in front of me as they crossed to the left – more like a cloud of plane-references scattered across various different portions of spatial and frequency spectra across time.  Some had notably loud resonant howls, but based on their comparatively quiet low-end, were likely smaller.
• resonance of space?  or the vehicle?  it was never before an instinctual thought to me that the sound of a plane is as much the wind hitting it at high speed as it is a product of the engines.
• Constant hum of traffic behind & to the right – car sounds are muffled by trees and distance, but they shake the entire park with their weight.  color, intensity, distribution all change across time but individual vehicles can’t be discerned.
• Lots of the traffic noise is sub-audible, and, in conjunction with the upper harmonics and amplified by this basin amidst the hills, creates a sense of profound size and weight despite its “quiet” character.
• distant train.  super heavy.  blew its whistle, filtered by distance and doppler shifted across many seconds.
• at least one person walked past me, seemed to be a woman based on gait, walking briskly – exercise?  awkwardness?
• did i hear another person walk down a trail to my left?  with all the spatial resonance and water noise, what might pass for even a fairly nearby scrape or shuffle could just as easily be a phantom of the data-rich waters, airs, and earths of this place.
• the sound of wind is surprisingly absent, if you don’t count the inverse-wind that is the plane’s flight.  this might not be the case were there neither traffic nor babbling of brook.  there are no leaves in the trees, and the ones at my feet are largely shielded by trees and hillsides, so that when that one stray leaf did scrape its way across the path it presented itself more like a stick or piece of metal.  by the sound of it, it was pulled across the pavement on its tip, and stalled for some time before entering a proper tumble.