hyperfocus.logicandsound.com

  • Amplification of the new

    I’ve recently made a small invention for myself, a method to improve the originality of melodies. When I create music or melodies I just play notes on the music keyboard to find perfection, it’s not about drawing on paper like in the past. I record them, look for the right combination and then edit.

    So one of the ways today to improve the originality of a piece of art, either music or anything else, as you realized first of all I’m talking about music or art, – is the way of varying the spontaneity of movement during the creation process. It doesn’t have to be the hand, it can be a technical device or whatever.

    You have to try to make a new, original movement, a sudden leap in an unusual place, or a stretch where you wouldn’t expect it. A leap, a discontinuity or stretch, a variation in the temporal. It is, after all, the flow of time.

    Apparently, something similar to randomization of context in creation is also done by nature – for example, mutations in DNA are a spontaneous factor, the factor of randomness, shuffling and over-shuffling is present.

    P.S.

    One asks why seek originality… The fact is that real art is always a search for the new. Otherwise it is not art, but a craft, a sub-service.

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  • Symmetry in aesthetics

    Why are rhymes appealing? It’s their symmetry. Symmetry is profound, similar to number and math, and it’s present in all aspects of the universe, from subatomic to macro cosmic.

    In human existence and creativity, the preference is typically around 80/20 in favor of order and symmetry. However, a small element of chaos exists within us, which is crucial for maintaining a balanced aesthetic.

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  • About my work ethics

    You might know I usually publish an album per month and a post per day. It’s not that hard; I don’t rush myself, I just follow properly established habits for things I like to do.

    In the morning before breakfast, I work as hyperfocus; after breakfast, I work as mittnetworkmusic. After lunch I maintain “office” work like socials or communication, it’s about the store, preparing goods for it (preparing audio tapes, t-shirts, art), about people and connections, money, and various administrative/home/routine tasks. Sport, good quality books and healthy fruits/vegetables allowed any time. At evenings I usually play video games or watching movies. I turn on internet only for “office time” like a couple of course in midday, turn it off other time – too much noise there. I try not to think about work when I’m not around my work space physically.

    From time to time I can miss a day or something, but I do not put much pressure on myself about that. It’s OK to miss the target sometimes. But a general flow must be established. Understanding habits is a must.

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  • Things of good quality that last long

    Things of good quality that last long are much better for emotions and environment and other better saving than buying a new top smartphone each year. Personally, I use some vintage old tech just because it works well; why hurry with upgrades and overconsumption, just why.

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  • Ideas in vacuum

    In a vacuum, any object tends to continue doing what it’s doing. By acquiring mass, a particle… Ideas are the reflection of mass information or?

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  • Basic Dialectics: Answering Yes or No Until the End

    Thesis: In the construction of a judgment, it is important to verify and open its contrary side. False judgments are unnecessary.

    A Thesis: Modern pop era artists, who are massively over-applauded and actively entertain crowds, are akin to digested gruel or prepared baby food. They provide information for the weak, representing the wrong approach to a mature diet.

    An Answer: No, let’s consider the other side. It is not just food, and despite being made in a intentionally simple manner, quality can still be available for free.

    A Thesis: Jumping around for the sake of attention is not a decent way of obtaining value.

    An Answer: No, why not? Jumping can grab attention. What is decent in a decent way of obtaining value? Effectiveness? “Brain cells work like that.” They don’t care about ideas.

    A Thesis: The best rarely lies just on the surface, but any mass-oriented creativity internally is often blurry, simplified, and sometimes almost empty, even if it makes money.

    An Answer: People don’t have much time to discover real art; they get what they need and that’s okay. The issue of money just reflects how we self-reflect and ideals are easily bought. The middle point of perspective is always better and more important to see.

    Whoever makes money from creativity and is guided by the opinion of the masses is almost certainly vulgarized. Decent art worthy of respect comes from areas of reason rather than from fooling others to get rich.

    True creativity often dwells beyond the immediate grasp of mass appeal, requiring a deeper engagement to be fully appreciated, whereas popular art, though accessible and appealing, may lack the depth and substance found in less mainstream expression

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  • ‘Techno-Feudalism’

    Such a view might sound logically correct, addressing why the next stage involves all that discussion about free software. Recently, I wrote about the concepts of free code in contrast to the market. I perceive the situation of techno-feudalism as a dead-end, disproportionately influenced by initial setup of digital world. However, I think it will eventually balance itself out with protests against markets that lack freedom. I have already distanced myself from anything related to big tech, preferring the quality and flexibility of free software and hardware. It has perspective. It’s evident that the overgrown nature of big tech can only lead to imbalance and suffering. A better balanced, open, decentralized approach is needed.

    https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/11/12/2336255/is-capitalism-dead-yanis-varoufakis-argues-capitalists-are-now-vassals-to-techno-feudalists

    Greek economist/politician Yanis Varoufakis “was briefly Greek finance minister in 2015,” remembers the Conversation. Now his new book asks the question, “What killed capitalism,” with the title’s first word providing an answer.

    “Techno-feudalism.”
    Varoufakis argues that we no longer live in a capitalist society… “Today, capitalist relations remain intact, but techno-feudalist relations have begun to overtake them,” writes Varoufakis. Traditional capitalists, he proposes, have become “vassal capitalists”. They are subordinate and dependent on a new breed of “lords” — the Big Tech companies — who generate enormous wealth via new digital platforms. A new form of algorithmic capital has evolved — what Varoufakis calls “cloud capital” — and it has displaced “capitalism’s two pillars: markets and profits”.

    Markets have been “replaced by digital trading platforms which look like, but are not, markets”. The moment you enter amazon.com “you exit capitalism” and enter something that resembles a “feudal fief”: a digital world belonging to one man and his algorithm, which determines what products you will see and what products you won’t see. If you are a seller, the platform will determine how you can sell and which customers you can approach. The terms in which you interact, share information and trade are dictated by an “algo” that “works for [Jeff Bezos’] bottom line”…

    Access to the “digital fief” comes at the cost of exorbitant rents. Varoufakis notes that many third-party developers on the Apple store, for example, pay 30% “on all their revenues”, while Amazon charges its sellers “35% of revenues”. This, he argues, is like a medieval feudal lord sending round the sheriff to collect a large chunk of his serfs’ produce because he owns the estate and everything within it.

    There is “no disinterested invisible hand of the market” here. The Big Tech platforms are exempted from free-market competition.

    And in the meantime, users are unknowingly training their algorithms for them — so “In this interaction, we are all high-tech ‘cloud serfs’… [T]he ‘cloud capital’ we are generating for them all the time increases their capacity to generate yet more wealth, and thus increases their power — something we have only begun to realise.”

    Approximately 80% of the income of traditional capitalist conglomerates go to salaries and wages, according to Varoufakis, while Big Tech’s workers, in contrast, collect “less than 1% of their firms’ revenues”… For Varoufakis, we are not just living through a tech revolution, but a tech-driven economic revolution. He challenges us to come to terms with just what has happened to our economies — and our societies — in the era of Big Tech and Big Finance.

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  • Balance of elements, outer space

    I regret that I did not do proper audio mixing on some of my albums around the 2017-2019 era. Despite having good Yamaha monitors back then, I often lacked the knowledge and practice needed to carefully ensure that all elements in a track sounded balanced on speakers first, especially around the bass drum, middle rim, bass, hats. And the fact that all tracks in an album must have the same volume, like you’re listening and meet no very high or quiet tracks; all must be the same. Balance of volume must be prepared not only between elements of tracks but also between all tracks in an album.

    I started checking mixing and mastering details very carefully on both speakers and headphones around the start of 2020. Despite all those not well-balanced albums always sounding good in headphones, I would advise everyone to check on monitor speakers first.

    What sounds good in speakers sounds good in headphones, but what sounds good in headphones might sound bad in speakers. When mixing, start with speakers.

    Same can be said about any other form acting whether art or form design.

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  • Emotional Thinking

    Why do people support charismatic but misguided leaders today? Why is there a rise in populism in politics? The post-modern era has led most people to think and choose based on emotions, not rationality, similar to advertising techniques that focus on stimulation rather than conscious thought. This leads to various problems.

    Emotional thinking isn’t inherently wrong. Sometimes, it’s necessary, especially in personal situations where we need to drive a movement, with a framework of rational thought around it. However, for broader societal matters, rational, critical, and slow thinking is essential.

    We should never blindly trust the words of politicians or celebrities. Always ask questions, check facts, and remember that their statements might be primarily motivated by profit. But ultimately, we must seek the truth, because, in the long run, truth is the only genuine profit.

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  • Xiph Icecast Directory

    http://dir.xiph.org – “a directory of internet radio stations and other live streams using the Icecast Streaming Server”

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  • Open source and proprietary software: when is each appropriate and a little about the excess of money

    On one hand, open source is always better; you know what the program is doing and can improve it… But on the other hand, developers need to earn a living. Indeed, it’s ridiculous to work for free, as one can easily die of hunger, and motivation… Programming can bring pleasure in itself, but it’s certainly not as fan as music or sport.
    I see the situation this way. Logically, the very first question arises, the first claim against proprietary code, “better knowing what the program does,” but this mainly concerns privacy.
    If there’s absolutely no internet access, a completely offline box for strictly practical purposes, like audio or video creation, databases, local systems… it can be proprietary because it doesn’t matter what’s inside the fridge or synthesizer as long as it doesn’t connect to the internet or camera, personal data, or spy.
    But if there are components that directly or indirectly involve personal data, areas that can be abused, with direct access to a user’s personal life or the internet in general, access to microphones or cameras… these things must be open, documented, with open source, etc… How developers can make money from such – there are options… additional features, selling hardware, extended support, merchandise, and subscriptions. Think of more. I’m bad at marketing, alas.
    If you just make code, for example for yourself or out of interest, that’s also great and noble. Overall, chasing excessive profit is vulgar. Why do you need so much money, for luxury, for nonsense? An excess of funds is not exactly a good thing; it’s clearly imbalanced, though here one could argue. In general, excess spoils average people. A rare intelligent and self-controlled person – most likely, will do charity, but the average person, more likely than not, will become worse.
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  • New album by swhq

    I made new album, all tracks were made in October 2023. It’s a collection of dance electronic tracks, piano house grooves, strange electronic experiments, classic swhq style.

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  • Thoughts on Justice, Luck, the Meaning of Life, and System Efficiency

    Fact: The primary and irreducible source of mutations, including both cancerous and genius ones, is the natural process of cellular division. Genetic mutations involve randomness by their very nature. Therefore, by the way, among other things, one cannot judge people by their origin… a genetic mutation makes everyone different. No matter what family or homeland a person has – he is a unique individual.

    In other words, the world isn’t divided into justice and injustice; this binary perspective is primitive. It’s more about luck and misfortune.

    Some get lucky, some don’t – that’s life. Why worry then? Take what life gives you. Of course, do honestly what you can, do good. You influence about 50 percent, sometimes even more. Always strive for the best quality, but not of consumption, rather of creation and freedom. But no more than that. Don’t overexert yourself. And there’s no need for fairy tales about justice.

    There’s no justice in the world, there’s the efficiency of competing systems. Create justice yourself – step up to fight against the unjust.

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  • Neural Knots

    Psychological dead ends such as addictions or narcissism/resentment and the like can arise when a person’s neurons literally clump and knot together, hindering the flow of essence, resulting in an imbalance including biochemistry. The solution is quite straightforward: one needs to deliberate deeply, requiring a calm environment to thoughtfully confront the truth without fear… and to solidify the conceived ideas. Then the neurons connections can straighten out, and one can continue living. The brain is flexible; it can be worked with, remembering that any habit or program, including thought patterns, can be changed, but it requires time and a comfortable environment, will (understanding) of the good quality life.

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  • Consciousness: Diversity, Quality, Pleasure

    What might the following words signify, or more precisely, what do they represent in our consciousness: diversity, quality, pleasure? These three terms denote characteristics of flow, emerging from the fundamental toolkit of the mind – that is, our conceptual foundation, similar to concepts like number or word.

    We derive these concepts from experience (flow), followed by conceptual distribution, sorting, and checking for correspondence. All three are foundational, indisputable: diversity as the basis of experience (a monotonous experience, at the very least devoid of a history of diversity, would be impossible—imagine a person entirely devoid of senses, spending their life staring at a blank wall), the flow of identical potential is potent for existence but discrete. The notion of quality also stands at the intersection of flow and perception, forming a point of interaction between the external and internal. Pleasure is a characteristic of the flow.

    In exploring these concepts, we delve into the nature of our reality and perception. Diversity not only enriches our experiences but also challenges us to find patterns and meaning. Quality, an elusive yet essential aspect, demands a keen perception to discern the inherent value in our experiences. Pleasure, often sought and deeply cherished, emerges as a natural response to the flow of experiences that resonate with our innermost desires and values.

    Thus, in our pursuit of understanding and making sense of our world, these concepts – diversity, quality, and pleasure – serve as guiding lights, shaping our experiences and our responses to the ever-flowing stream of life.

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