The caption which accompanied these two images reads "The diagram was used to teach music to the natives"... A statement which, when couched within the original context, (these photos being of Mission San Antonio- in California) passively suggests that the natives had not yet discovered music until the missionaries arrived, laden with culture with which to "educate" the native populations. Music that is unique to individual cultures is unspeakably valuable. So much original, truly unique music that was made by cultures that are now extinct has been lost; traditional songs and rhythms replaced by songs distributed by missionaries, passed down from hymnals, no longer reflective of the unique experience of being particular people with their own mythologies, histories, languages, etc.
Other Findings:
*While I am in disagreement about the arrangement of fruits on this plane, I do think that it is a nice way of organizing comparisons. From:
I wasn't able to watch this with sound at first, which was an interesting limitation. Want to play around with this:
David Byrne at his SECCA Installation in 2003:
His book: Arboretum was at Emily's house on the Victorian Looking Couch.
And finally, a website that deals with "Music Mapping" in a blog post. Mapping, sequencing, organizing things visually is so interesting to me!http://www.cityofsound.com/blog/2002/05/musics_rich_fac.html
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