I receive an artist newsletter from Robert Genn that often raises interesting questions which apply equally to the sonic and visual arts. A recent issue talked about the rise of digital photography and photoshop-type software among photographers. Reading about the relation of computer-enhanced photography to painting, I was struck by the analogous dynamic between rap music and performed musical instruments. For years music purists have called rap and scratch artists non-musicians, or less “creative” artists. But the idea of “second generation” creativity opens up new artistic and philosophical terrain. Samplers, loop machines, digital recorders have become modern musical instruments, which use chunks of sound rather than individual notes. In my jazz history class I argue that the principles of improvisation, commentary and innovation can apply in the manipulation of prerecorded chunks of sound, particularly where these chunks have historical context. Common examples are James Brown’s signature cries, as well as his basslines and horn riffs. Artists remix these chunks not only to create new combinations of sound, but to reinsert identifiable musical motifs from one era into another.

Perhaps what is lacking in digital photographic art is this element of commentary, the art of play. How one plays with computer technology is the defining criterion of our 21st century techno-culture. It is all too easy to become a glorified computer programmer, since we all increasingly need to become computer literate. The question is: Where is the dividing line? When is the machine an extension of our humanity, and when are we an extension of its mechanization? Are we headed toward a symbiotic future, where we perceive art partly as dream and partly as algorithm? Perhaps the human brain was always wired that way…Food for thought.