Meeting Minutes / August 2000

August 27, 2000

Dear All,

Here are minutes from our meeting of August 25-27. All were present except Jose, detained by family obligations.

Here are major decisions of the meeting, subject to correction. Corrections may be circulated to the team by any who spot inaccuracies or unclear points here.

1. Confirmed our creative process: A. Gene does a summary of the episode of seven nodes to be worked on, including contextual matters of tone, background, whatever is considered useful. B. Using Gene's summary, Lynn creates seven screens of imagery. C. Using A and B above, Jose composes music. D. Using A, B, and C, Gene writes the actual text to appear on the screen and to be recited by the voice team. E. The voice team records the text, possibly working with Gene to revise text. F. Ben and Cort integrate images, music, text, and voice. G. The group analyzes and critiques the seven screens and effects revision if necessary. There can be some variation on this scheme if circumstances warrant. In fact, Lynn, hearing Jose's music for the first time, was inspired by it and would like sometimes to have the music BEFORE doing images. She and Jose can work this out.

2. The group helped Gene prepare for his meeting with the voice team. He will distribute to the team captain, Amy, images, text, and a CD of Jose's music prior to the meeting. He will provide a brief at the meeting and answer any questions they have. He will set the tone for the seven screens and ask them for two readings (after some practice): one straight, one with some extra effects, like accent, recitative, witchery, etc. Gene will talk to them about the necessity of each playing three roles during the work. He will alert them to the likelihood of Jose coming up for a future recording session. We agree to share with the voice team 10% of any grants.

3. We agreed, again, on the matter of user options. Users have navigational options, within the constraints of the work. We will probably need to give them an internal volume control and a pause command, maybe some other "convenience" controls, but they will not be given the opportunity to affect major constituents--images, music, text, voices, sequencing within a screen, etc.

4. The group agreed that the next large goal is to produce a fully functional set of seven (Vienna 1) with Ur-map, Middle Map, and all navigational controls, as well as title page and skeletal pages for technical matter and credits. This, burned on a CD, will be used to seek grant support, possible "publication" in The Little Magazine CD, and other appropriate exposures.

5. The group asked Gene to share with Jose some feedback. All agree that the music is first-rate and will add greatly to the work. In fact, we found in the 11 pieces Jose sent us not only powerful music for the Vienna third of the work but also seeds for the music for the Amazon and Tarrytown. In other words we see the possibility of Jose using this set to create variations and transformations that will bind the total work together musically. Even so, as Jose thinks about this, we look forward to certain plot elements that affect musical creation. In the Tarrytown plot the composer, in revulsion to World War II and the Holocaust, is determined to compose music in which all trace of traditional western tonality is obliterated. To do this he wires up the body of a beautiful young naïve woman and takes her body sounds and uses them for the basis of his new music, transforming them, passing them through a synthesizer, the stuff Jose knows how to do. Similarly, the composer in the Amazon wants to help her tribal brothers and sisters get back to the root of their indigenous music, which features "body" music, like chanting, huffing, breast-beating, leg-slapping, etc.-along with their native instruments (wooden tubes, sticks, drums, etc.) Like the Tarrytown composer, she will help them make out of this a music free of western overlay. An irony here, of course, is that neither of them, because of their deep exposure to western music, can fully escape it, no matter how radical their compositional stratagems. The music Jose sent is fully compiled. Voices cannot be separated out by Ben and Cort for special effects. We agree that this is fine. We can exercise some limited control of volume, length, faders--maybe tempo and reverb if Jose permits. This is all the flexibility we need. The music is very rich and we respect its indivisible integrity. Lynn has two tapes of tribal music from the Amazon. She will make two copies, one for herself and one for Jose, and return original to Gene.

6. The group commissioned Gene to create a "grammar" for EROICA. This will be explained and fleshed out in a subsequent email.

7. The group worked hard on interface and navigation. No changes were proposed for the system of navigational freedoms and constraints. Work concentrated on the Ur-map and its relationship to a middle map (zoom) and to individual screens (a second zoom). Because all this is intensely visual and the work still skeletal, I will not try to convey it verbally. Instead, this will be a subject for critique at our next full meeting.

8. We talked about screen duration. Judging from my previous practice recordings of voice and from our viewing of several partially integrated screens, we figure that a good benchmark for typical timing might be somewhere around a minute with any large variation needing special justification. The consensus at the moment is that the whole work ought to have a sort of dependable cadence though nothing mechanical.

9. We projected a sequence of upcoming work and a rough calendar: A. Gene will distribute a minutes (here they are). B. Cort will provide Gene with five copies of Vienna 1 text and image, for use with the voice team. (By September 4) C. Ben will burn two copies of Jose's CD, one for Lynn and one for the voice team. (By September 4) D. Gene will construct a grammar for Eroica and distribute it via email for revisions. (By September 4) E. Gene will schedule a session with the voice team. (week of September 4) Subsequent to the meeting he will distribute copies of recordings of readings to all and solicit comments of approval or disapproval. F. Lynn will copy the Amazonian tapes and distribute them as above. (By mid-September) G. Cort will capture Jose's music on his hard drive for use with integrations. (By early October) H. Lynn will come up to work on integrations (Early October). I. Cort will distribute a CD of I above. (Mid-October) I. The group will meet to work out the final form of Vienna 1, Ur-map, Middle map, navigational controls, and front matter. (Late October) This schedule may or may not prove workable. At this point I would only ask that anybody who can't meet the assignments that relate to my scheduling of the voice team, please let me know quickly. Since Ben was unable to make our Sunday meeting (I hope the firewall keeps the fires out, Ben) to arrange assignments, I have not assigned him much, leaving it up to him and Cort to work out division of labors relating to integrations.