Dead
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Subject: Dead Media Working Note 07.0
Dead Medium: Scott's Electronium
From: kadrey_AT_well.com (Richard Kadrey)
Source: MUSICAL LEGENDS OF AMERICA, by Justin Green (with
thanks to Irwin Chusid). Tower Pulse! magazine, p. 26,
July 1994
Invented by composer Raymond Scott (a sample of whose
works are collected on Reckless Nights and Turkish
Twilights, and immortalized in countless cartons, most
recently Ren & Stimpy) spent the last years of his life
working with electronic composing systems that he
designed. One of his devices, the Electronium, has been
described as "one of the first applications of artificial
intelligence in music composition." (Justin Green)
Raymond Scott: "A composer (guidance control) asks the
Electronium to suggest an idea, theme or motive. He
listens to these on a monitor speaker. When happy with one
of these ideas, he stops the Electronium and starts
recording.
"Faster, slower, a new rhythm design, a hold, a pause,
a second theme, variation, extension, elongation,
diminution, counterpoint, a change in phrasing, an
ornament...ad infinitum...whatever the composer requests,
the Electronium accepts and acts out his directions."
The only photo I've seen of the device makes it look like
an old analog computer flanked by Bauhausian monitors.
Richard Kadrey kadrey_AT_well.com
Dead
Media | 0.01-02.0 | 02.1-04.0
| 04.1-06.0 | 06.1-08.0 |
08.1-10.0 | 10.1-12.0 |