Mark Fell

I already mention him before in a previous post about generative practice, but after seeing an interview of him with the Art Science Connect platform I thought he deserved another post. Mark Fell is a multidisciplinary artist that is widley recognised for his unique and influential electronic music. He’s is also an academic writer in sound studies and music with various books and text’s publish. Fell is a great influence in my work because of his use of generative practice and algorithmic sound. Creating rich evolving compositions with a predispose system, that generates complex rhythms and timbres. He is a very proficient Max user and I’ve been constantly inspired by his patches.

I found this interview very interesting as I got a glimpse into his creative practice and methodologies. In the interview Fell argues that a patch or a system (thinking of an algorithm/code) could be considered as an art of itself. Meaning that the sound created by the patch is not necessarily the only artistic thing in focus, as the system in the patch is worth contemplating as much as its output.

As I’ve struggled in finding a concept of this project, hearing that statement from Fell, about the patch being the art itself, brought me some peace to my anxieties of regarding the concept of the device. Even-though I have already decided for a conceptual path, that of Pajaritos De La Suerte, thinking of my work as a patch or a system to be in itself the art form, makes me think that its not as necessarily achieving to convey my concept. If I create a system that creates interesting results and if the process is in itself novel, that should be enough to give value to my device. My concept could become a secondary aesthetic/objective.

I also heard a podcast curated by Fell for Ràdio Web Macba, where he compares Florian Hecker’s Stereo F.A.N.N, with Ryoji Ikeda’s Untitled (for John Cage). Both pieces are different forms of generative compositions. Fell analyses the context behind both in a very interesting way. The link for the podcast is here.