What a conference! Creation as a result of change in perspective! Self-referential science! All after a reintroduction (led by Larry Richards, Professor Emeritus of Management and Informatics at Indiana University) to basic cybernetic concepts. These are just some of the things dealt with in presentations and discussions at the American Society for Cybernetics 2018 Conference: “Framing Reality and How It Matters in a Shared World.” And it all took place August 15-19 at University Center in Chicago, Illinois. Holy Ashby Box, the hidden internal assumptions and contradictions of the techno-utopian idea of cybernation and the subversion of its apparent significance! As Italian kinetic artist Alberto Biasi said, "Everyone has seen that the consequence of increased mechanisation is increased exploitation of man by man." In spite of this, Mark Enslin, one of the founders of the The School for Designing a Society (SDaS), using “I” in the third person, dauntlessly formulated, “I imagines the end of commodity,” and founder of Recursionist Publishing Scott M. Harris, implying the inevitable, predetermined fate of humanity, stated, “The largest possible frame is the problem that contains all other problems.” Most cyberneticians’ research seeks to explicate personal autonomy in a fashion that highlights the role of human cultural and human social relationships and interpersonal ties, but the attendees of this conference sometimes seemed to be paying a visit to the post-humanist point of view. For example, everyone subscribes to Herbert Brün’s systems approach to composition (i.e., in the broader sense of putting things together) although it comes very close to artistic Modernism’s deeply anti-social, even inhuman tendency toward art for art’s sake. Some challenge mankind‘s privileged position among animals and machines. Others are trying to affirm and stabilize this privilege. Counterbalancing these considerations, most share the conviction that mere continuation (or what documentary filmmaker Jude Lombardi calls “insistent repetition” or “circularity”) of an already established concept will decidedly NOT bring about new continuity. With my lecture/recital (featuring my set of 11 pieces for piano and digital delay entitled The Human and Non-Human; to view, click here), my non-anthropocentric or anti-anthropocentric ruminations were directly addressed. In much the same way that Jack Rees, heir to Kansas City, Missouri's oldest interior design firm in continuous operation, said that parametric design strategies are fluff, I strongly suggested that human exceptionalism is both trivial and superficial. What do you think? Should humanity be placed at the center of all concern?
American Society for Cybernetics 2018 Conference
ZANE GILLESPIE
After six years as Minister of Music at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church (UMC) in Holly Springs, MS, I was recently called to continue to work to address public engagement in music participation as Director of Music Ministries at First UMC in Water Valley, MS. I am a Composer, Theorist, and member of both The College Music Society as well as The Poe Studies Association (PSA). I am also an active pianist and vocalist, specializing primarily in church music. My paper entitled ““Mesmeric Revelation”: Art as Hypnosis” has been published by the international, peer-reviewed journal Humanities. In addition, another paper of mine entitled “A Model of Triadic Post-Tonality for a Neoconservative Postmodern String Quartet by Sky Macklay” has been submitted to the peer-reviewed Music Theory journal Perspectives of New Music. At the end of February 2015, I served as Chair for the session entitled “Aesthetics and Philosophy” at The Fourth International PSA Conference in New York City. On June 21, 2014, my Quartet for Alto Saxophone and Strings, a commission from concert saxophonist Walter Hoehn, was performed as part of Concert V of the Eighth Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival held at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN. Characteristically neo-romantic (in the original sense of the word), my music earned me the Nancy Van de Vate Award for Composition three times from the University of Mississippi Department of Music. A native of Pontotoc, MS, I hold degrees from the University of Mississippi (BM; MM), and the University of Memphis (DMA) where I was the 2011 recipient of the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music's Smit Composition Award. I live in Memphis, TN.