Signs direct traffic flow (streetsigns::cars / ads::eyeballs / etc.). When the city-system is stable, its signage remains mostly stable, and we grow into the illusion that the signs are all prior to the flow, designed birds-eye by dead urban planners. But flow disruptions, like this hurricane, and their concurrent signage eruptions, reveal their Escher-like interdependent-arising:
Geologic thinking would describe it as a sedimentation process. The liquid flow of traffic organizes itself around the salient features of its solid terrain (which streets are passable, which restaurants have food). But the traffic patterns are themselves salient features of their terrain, so you get a positive feedback loop — ie. it is easier to go down a path that has been gone down before (like the Colorado River, or a mental association, or that cigarette). The liquid flow solidifies on the edges, creating solid features in the landscape: paved roads, signs, habits. This is the mechanaism by which systems seek their own (dynamic) equilibrium.
Compare that to the development of musical styles. There is a liquid flow of experimentation and exploration that spreads over a terrain. That flow reveals that the terrain has certain features, unique to an individual or shared sensibility. Basins attract (attractive sounds, formal solutions…), channels direct (instrumental constraints, habits…), and peaks repel (that which is repulsive…). As those composers explore new space, the signage erupts. Every event in every piece is a street sign saying ‘road open,’ or ‘road closed,’ or ‘feed here.’ Those signs direct future exploration, and so the flow shapes its own terrain. The system tends toward an equilibrium, a common practice/canon.
Some people fight for the flow against the signs that shape it, others fight for the signs against the flow they shape. The progressive-conservative war, in the arts or wherever, is absurd. If we ever transcend the ‘petty partisanship’ of style, we might begin by appreciating that experiments and traditions are interdependently arising, just as street signs and traffic. The two form a single, miraculous gesture, drawing hands leaping from the fertile page.
Signage, style
September 27, 2008I’m fascinated by the eruption of homemade signs all over Houston since Ike:
‘Lines Down’ ’One way’ ’Street closed/debris’ ’Open, food’ ’Free cold beer, Centerpoint Energy Man!’
Signs direct traffic flow (streetsigns::cars / ads::eyeballs / etc.). When the city-system is stable, its signage remains mostly stable, and we grow into the illusion that the signs are all prior to the flow, designed birds-eye by dead urban planners. But flow disruptions, like this hurricane, and their concurrent signage eruptions, reveal their Escher-like interdependent-arising:
Geologic thinking would describe it as a sedimentation process. The liquid flow of traffic organizes itself around the salient features of its solid terrain (which streets are passable, which restaurants have food). But the traffic patterns are themselves salient features of their terrain, so you get a positive feedback loop — ie. it is easier to go down a path that has been gone down before (like the Colorado River, or a mental association, or that cigarette). The liquid flow solidifies on the edges, creating solid features in the landscape: paved roads, signs, habits. This is the mechanaism by which systems seek their own (dynamic) equilibrium.
Compare that to the development of musical styles. There is a liquid flow of experimentation and exploration that spreads over a terrain. That flow reveals that the terrain has certain features, unique to an individual or shared sensibility. Basins attract (attractive sounds, formal solutions…), channels direct (instrumental constraints, habits…), and peaks repel (that which is repulsive…). As those composers explore new space, the signage erupts. Every event in every piece is a street sign saying ‘road open,’ or ‘road closed,’ or ‘feed here.’ Those signs direct future exploration, and so the flow shapes its own terrain. The system tends toward an equilibrium, a common practice/canon.
Some people fight for the flow against the signs that shape it, others fight for the signs against the flow they shape. The progressive-conservative war, in the arts or wherever, is absurd. If we ever transcend the ‘petty partisanship’ of style, we might begin by appreciating that experiments and traditions are interdependently arising, just as street signs and traffic. The two form a single, miraculous gesture, drawing hands leaping from the fertile page.