The Guestbook continues to interest, intrigue & educate me. L. Greg Meredith @microsoft posted (22 May) that "distributed / parallel computing and the associated mathematics is my field of expertise". Mr. Meredith quotes my own growing interest in "concepts coming from quantum computing". Greg "thought it worth my time to make sure i understood (Robert's) intentions in these passages". Generously & graciously, Mr. Hat suggests my comments may be ironic, or that possible subtleties in my commentary had not been effectively transmitted by e-communication. Greg politely tries hard to let me off the hook because his "current readings of these passages suggest a treatment of the domain that is glib and shallow at best".
Those that live their life out loud grow up in public. My commentary on quantum computing is best filed under "glib and shallow", at the very least, and not only by an expert in the field of parallel computing. One of my "intentions in these passages" is to invite, & hopefully generate, informed commentary & discussion in the Guestbook on a field of my interest.
A great deal of my experience as a working musician has not historically been easy to discuss or explain, certainly in a public context, and particularly with journalists (the word "eccentric" is a recurrent feature of my professional life).
Since interviews began in 1969 I have been looking for ways of describing & expressing experiences which are direct, frequent (but not commonplace), and which are not addressed or explained in the many academic tomes on music which line my shelves. Nor in trade publications. "How To Make It In The Music Business" is of value in its field, but does not enrich my understanding of the concerns which drive this working musician.
Like, finding myself looking out through the eyes of a musician I was playing with, seeing from behind their hands, experiencing / seeing / feeling / knowing the event as they experienced it (London, 1983). If we accept the notion that a group is one person in (say) four bodies, we might then accept that any one individual has access to the experiences of the other three guys (or at least the possibility). The experience is instantaneous & outside clock time, although a fraction of a second on a watch.
Like, when music leans over and takes us into its confidence. What to say / write of this? Major download time. Personal & impersonal. In the presence of the Other.
Like, when silence comes to visit (every Guitar Craft course). Difficult to describe, and impossible to convey, the presence of active silence. This presence is at the heart of Guitar Craft. Active silence is rich, full, alive, enveloping, benevolent, generous, hard to bear. This silence shouts! A whoooosh! as if air is being sucked into a vacuum, and then ... our Friend is here once more. The best description I have read (recently, picking a volume as if randomly) is this: silence is the shadow of the Spirit (I believe the author was an Orthodox monk, not a Jungian therapist!).
Like, being in the audience when a presence visits, and filling the space so powerfully it is impossible to look up (The League of Crafty Guitarists, Claymont Octagon, c. 1990).
So, how & why to articulate moments like this?
Through articulation, the moments of our experiencing are digested. Through digestion the events feed us, sustain us, & our understanding deepens. As our understanding deepens, the moment knows itself more fully through our experiencing, and becomes itself more intensely. The moment, at that point, has become more "itself" than it was at the moment of our understanding. Then, we return to the process once more (though we haven't left it either).
From this point of view, it is our responsibility & obligation to find ways of expressing our experiencing. Whatever use or value this may be to others, even to ourselves, this is a necessity - that the moment may know itself more truly. The form of expression is not necessarily, or only, verbal. But in this context, I am hunting for forms of words.
Eno introduced me to Stafford Beer in 1973 ("Platform For Change"). I have continued to follow Stafford's writings since, most recently in "Beyond Dispute: The Invention Of Team Syntegrity". Stafford is a polymath who, inter alia, writes poetry & teaches yoga. He knew J.G. Bennett, a polymath, scientist, mathmatician & linguist whose final projects at Sherborne House & Claymont Court attracted my interest and support. Systematics was part of JGB's framework for articulating the understanding of wholeness acting through complex processes. His insights into the triad alone are breathtaking.
Triadic logic is kinda within my grasp (in an elementary fashion) - yes, no & radically neutral are not apart, but act together in six fundamental ways. This strikes me as more "reasonable", and within my experience, than binary logic. My life as a working player is rarely either/or, yes/no. But what might quadratic logic be like?
After 14 years of trying to get a feel for Systematics, while sensing the juice, I had a Point of Seeing during the first Guitar Craft course in Germany (organised by Bernie Jugel, now DGM's press representative). In my bedroom During an afternoon break, I saw how & why it is that Systematics "works". (Tony Geballe was in the next room. He told me later that he felt the energy coming through the wall). Back in England, I told Mrs. Bennett that I'd "seen" how Systematics works. "I never understood Systematics" was Elizabeth's dry reply.
Two of JGB's Bright Young Men were Henri Bortoft & Anthony Blake. JGB, in response to a question, once described Henri as the only person who understood Systematics. Henri's "Goethe's Scientific Consciousness" was very influential in my thinking, and is included in "The Wholeness Of Nature" (Lindisfarne Press 1996). This book is dedicated "To the memory of David Bohm who introduced me to the problem of wholeness". David Bohm corresponded with JGB, and Anthony blake gave me a copy of their correspondence from his archives.
Anthony Blake studied with David Bohm, and with JGB. Anthony's own writings on the triad - "The Book Of The World" - are exceptional. A novelette - "The Unseen Eyebeam" - has a rare quality of insight into the nature of music. Anthony's own ongoing research & thinking continue to stimulate & prod me along. Hence this offending paragraph from the Diary for Friday 7th. May, 1999: "Also yesterday, a telephone conversation with Anthony Blake. He is one of the few people I know who is an authentic thinker. We discussed the way in which the presently available creative future appears to be presenting itself, & how notions drawn from post-quantum physics & quantum computing are making available a vocabulary for discussing concepts which were, until recently, impossible to discuss (for example, with interviewers from the music press!).
Following this conversation, Anthony e-mailed me two recent pieces of his: "The Integrity Of Fragmentation" & "Super-toponomics". From the first: "To have a meeting, there needs to be distinct agencies coming together, otherwise there is no-one meeting. To have a meeting means to agree to occupy the same space together... This space of meeting really is a higher-dimensional kind of space... When there is a higher dimensional space, the kind of signals it can receive are different from those easily accessible in flat space. In post quantum physics, these are called signals from the `fitness landscape'(a reference to non-Darwinian evolutionary theory. They are signals to do with the `shape' of things, or what Ted Matchett used to call `media signals'. Now, how the group receives these signals is problematic. It's not really the function of individual members."
Anthony goes on: "In a sense my theory of communion proposes that what are called `angels' or `higher powers' are constituted by `Combinations of Individuals'. That is to say, they arise ontologically, in being, as the substance of multidimensional space. Such a space is `made flesh' by the creative work of individuals. At the time of making this space, we might feel that we are sacrificing our separate creativity. In the long run, however, we are amplifying it through mutual participation."
From the second: "The cutting edge of toponomics is surfacing in what is called `post quantum physics'. This physics stems from the work of David Bohm and gives special significance to the idea of `active information'... The concept of creative energy is much the same as active information... The higher the quality of energy, the more structured the information. Classical information, as defined by Shannon, is only linear in order, such as a string of data. This is at the level of heat energy and subject to noise. Higher levels of information are more than linear and are multidimensional... In Bohm's treatment of particle physics, he retains the concept of separate material particles but says they are `guided' from the information field. As they respond, so the information field is altered... The theory of active information allows for what is called `superliminal' or faster-than-light exchange of information. This is pure information with no energy subject to thermodynamics... Someone might ask: where is this mysterious information field located?... a provisional answer, relevant to a group of people engaged in a common task, would be that it is constituted in their shared awareness. It is not the `sum' of their minds but the field of awareness they construct together, in which every person operates autonomously."
Anthony is writing about Guitar Craft, King Crimson, & the action of other groups I've ever been in. I wouldn't use Anthony's words: I don't have the vocabulary. But Anthony is effectively articulating, on my behalf, my experiencing as a working player. His form of words helps me to better know & understand who & what I do.
In response to a similar conversation with my Canadian friend Andrew Moyer, around the same time as talking to Anthony, Andrew sent me the Sixteenth Discourse from Futu al-Ghaib (Revelations of the Unseen) - "On trust and its stages" - by Shaikh `Abd al-Qadir Al-Jilani. This is another form of words, available at appropriate bookstores for the interested.
The work of all of these characters has a power available within them: as if the nature of their intent, & the energy which informs them & took them flying, is present within their work. How could it not be? Although I may not "know" what I'm reading, insights relating to my own endeavours fly out from / during reading & plugging-in. The juice.
Crimson enthusiasts - what draws you to Crimson? What is the energy within the music which powers / draws / interests / drives you? The quality of your listening is part of the process, in a sense part of the music, & sustains the group in ways which have nothing whatsoever to do with economics & market practice (although we'll take your dollars too).
I apologise to Mr. Meredith for exasperating him with witless commentary in the area of his expertise. I feel this almost as keenly as my own exasperation at the dopey commentary on topics within my own informed fields of endeavour. Like, King Crimson, Fripp, DGM. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. mea maxima culpa.
"Like and dislike are cheap."
