The New Analog: Listening And Reconnecting In A Digital World
by Damon Krukowski /
2017 / English / Kindle
5.8 MB Download
What John Berger did to ways of seeing, well-known indie
musician Damon Krukowski does to ways of listening in this lively
guide to the transition from analog to digital
culture
What John Berger did to ways of seeing, well-known indie
musician Damon Krukowski does to ways of listening in this lively
guide to the transition from analog to digital
culture
Having made his name in the late 1980s as a member of the indie
band Galaxie 500, Damon Krukowski has watched cultural life
lurch from analog to digital. And as an artist who has
weathered the transition, he has challenging, urgent questions
for both creators and consumers about what we have thrown away
in the process: Are our devices leaving us lost in our own
headspace even as they pinpoint our location? Does the long
reach of digital communication come at the sacrifice of our
ability to gauge social distance? Do streaming media discourage
us from listening closely? Are we hearing each other fully in
this new environment?
Having made his name in the late 1980s as a member of the indie
band Galaxie 500, Damon Krukowski has watched cultural life
lurch from analog to digital. And as an artist who has
weathered the transition, he has challenging, urgent questions
for both creators and consumers about what we have thrown away
in the process: Are our devices leaving us lost in our own
headspace even as they pinpoint our location? Does the long
reach of digital communication come at the sacrifice of our
ability to gauge social distance? Do streaming media discourage
us from listening closely? Are we hearing each other fully in
this new environment?
Rather than simply rejecting the digital disruption of cultural
life, Krukowski uses the sound engineer’s distinction of signal
and noise to reexamine what we have lost as a technological
culture, looking carefully at what was valuable in the analog
realm so we can hold on to it. Taking a set of experiences from
the production and consumption of music that have changed since
the analog era—the disorientation of headphones, flattening of
the voice, silence of media, loudness of mastering, and
manipulation of time—as a basis for a broader exploration of
contemporary culture, Krukowski gives us a brilliant meditation
and guide to keeping our heads amid the digital flux. Think of
it as plugging in without tuning out.
Rather than simply rejecting the digital disruption of cultural
life, Krukowski uses the sound engineer’s distinction of signal
and noise to reexamine what we have lost as a technological
culture, looking carefully at what was valuable in the analog
realm so we can hold on to it. Taking a set of experiences from
the production and consumption of music that have changed since
the analog era—the disorientation of headphones, flattening of
the voice, silence of media, loudness of mastering, and
manipulation of time—as a basis for a broader exploration of
contemporary culture, Krukowski gives us a brilliant meditation
and guide to keeping our heads amid the digital flux. Think of
it as plugging in without tuning out.