. book+cdcurated by Andrew Hugill
'Pataphysics
<book+cd> Sonic Arts Network
The 'pataphysics (the initial apostrophe indicates recursively the lack of a pataphysical prefix) is the next evolution after physic and metaphysic and is defined as the "science of imaginary solutions". It is (together with the psychogeography) one of the conceptual art movements that even if cleaved to underground practices has ideally shaken the pyramid of cultural power's foundations, through the frightful vibrations of irony. The certainty of the scientific processes and their 'truth' status, universally accepted, is irresistibly permeated by an irreverent formal manipulation through theories and experiments. In this precious music oriented collection, a continuos conceptual provocation is brought to the musical use certainties. Examples range from the 'Marche funèbre compos´e pour les fun&avute;railles d'un grand homme sourd' (composed in 1884, making what pataphysicist define as 'plagiarism by anticipation' against John Cage) to the linguistic pirouettes of palindromes re-listened on a tape in the two directions, or the removal of notes 'corresponding' to the artist's name letters in a piece. The 'pataphysics conflicting and revealing articulations free the anarchic potential of transformation of the real through the spiral (and so ambiguous) lenses of the mind's eye.