Pajaritos De La Suerte
Throughout this project I have been struggling on pinning down my work to a concept or metaphor. This comes from my approach to this project, as I seek to create something quite technical, that tests my programming capabilities and knowledge in digital instruments. As now established in this blog, I’m creating a generative audio tool that uses granular synthesis, to produce quite quickly sound with rich timbre, that could be used for different mediums. As randomness is a key role in generative practice, I’ve been pondering on the role of fate and prediction in regards with randomness in modern society.
The oracle is this character in society that is responsible of coming up with predictions and prophecy’s to satisfy human’s anxiety of the future. Almost all cultures on earth have this character in their mythologies, and modern manifestations of it can been seen across the world and the internet. Astrology, fortune tellers, hand readers and more are just some manifestations of the oracle that we see in the western world, with many more across other cultures. Examples of this is the Oracle of Delphi in Greek mythology and the I Ching, an ancient book of divination. The need of an oracle in the age of the digital revolution astonishes me, it confuses me why we as humans rely so much in mysticism when scientific thinking has come so far. I guess its in the nature of the human to try to predict the future, in order to find solutions of the self to distinguish ourselves from others, and spirituality is a medium where people think this capable to be achieved. But the purpose of this project is not to answer those questions, but explore how the concept of an oracle relates to art and sound production, specifically from the tools we use.
Pajaritos De La Suerte is a Mexican form or fortune telling, that is very relevant in Mexican culture and it is very familiar for me. It consist of a bird master that carries with him a cage with two to three canaries. At a cost of a couple coins, the bird master will open the cage of the bird, putting in front of the entrance a small basket with notes containing predictions. The bird will come out of the cage and select on or two notes from the basket, at exchange of some treats from the bird master. The bird master will then read you out the prediction of the note, applying its fortune to you’re life.
This mystical experience is at the end of the day just a manifestation of randomness. The notes contain extremely general and vague fortunes that could apply to anyone that reads them. As in regards to the bird, the note that it grabs comes solely from randomness instead of a secret mystical knowledge. But its the aesthetic manifestation of this experience that feeds into the human imagination, affecting the person in an unconscious state, believing or giving value to such prediction. I think that the Pajaritos De La Suerte is a beautiful tradition, that keeps alive the magic elements of Mexican culture, and even-though the predictions come from randomness it has the power to reduce a believer from their anxiety of the future.
When one works with sound in a creative manner, there is always a point reached in the process where you know there is some sort of sound missing in the composition, but you don’t quite know what. Generating on the artist/producer a creative block and barrier in their work. Inspired by Pajaritos De La Suerte I thought that my M4L device could become a tool of divination, that helps the artist break away from these creative blockages. Just as the birds, this device will give you a fortune in the form a sonic element, that could help you getting out of the creative barrier. But for you to use the device and get something useful, you have to believe in it and its divine powers, just as you trust the bird in Pajaritos De La Suerte. In reality the device will work with a bunch of complex random algorithms that could create a lot of possible timbral possibilities. By transforming the element of random into fate, it helps the sound artist alleviate its anxiety on the work it’s doing, allowing them to escape the creative blockage.
On conclusion I think I’ll call my M4L device: Pajarito De La Suerte. As I want it to be a divination tool for the user, that helps them see the future in their composition/projects.
