phase two

Just watched the Frayn piece Copenhagen again. As with most decent art, going back again presents new understandings and interpretations. Beyond the deeper immersion in the story and text, this bit popped out at me, brought to the fore by some recent conversations. Frayn at one point has Bohr state:

“Einstein…shows that measurement – measurement, on which the whole possibility of science depends – measurement is not an impersonal event that occurs with impartial universality. It’s a human act, carried out from a specific point of view in time and space, from the one particular viewpoint of a possible observer. Then, here in Copenhagen in those three years in the mid-twenties we discover that there is no precisely determinable objective universe. That the universe exists only as a series of approximations. Only within the limits determined by our relationship with it. Only through the understanding lodged inside the human head.”

The last post here, phase shifting, was about, among a couple other things, Steve Reich and comments by and about him. In the linked video Brian Eno is talking about Reich’s piece ‘Its Gonna Rain’ (1965). He uses the metaphor of moiré patterns to describe the effect of ‘Its Gonna Rain’ – two tape loops that eventually shift slightly to create new patterns & harmonies. He goes on to say:

“They take advantage of the fact that your brain is very creative. It was sort of transferring the job of being the composer into the brain of the listener. So it’s saying to the listener, ‘your brain is actually making this piece of music.’ Because you knew what the ingredients were. There’s nothing mysterious about how the piece works.”

(By the way, nice discussion of these ideas here by Mr Eno.)

And, as mentioned previously, this on the heels of Turrell’s discussion about (paraphrasing like crazy here) using our innate faculties to essentially compose light pieces. Our minds putting the pieces (literally and figuratively) together from the relatively simple components provided.

So these bits then, made up of simple parts that produce complex and shaded results, relate to each other and create another shifting pattern, if for no other reason than I just put them all in the same post.