Wednesday, February 26, 2025

the last book I ever read (Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music, excerpt ten)

from Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music by Henry Threadgill and Brent Hayes Edwards:

Experimentation is at the heart of the creative process. What sets art and science apart from every other domain of human endeavor is that they are formalized realms for radical experimentation. For taking chances. Areas of activity where conjecture and risk taking are privileged and failures and dead ends are accepted as part of the game. This is the reason there’s perpetual tension between musicians and record companies: experimentation doesn’t go well with commodification. The same sorts of tensions can arise in science, with the funding of research that seems too theoretical, too far out, too removed from any practical application or patent potential.

To expel myself from my proclivities, sometimes I have to let my mind slip into another world. Then it’s hard to fall into habit, into the same old ingrained ways of working. Sometimes I have to destroy my own process to get to something new.



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