Digital Mantras: The Languages of Abstract and Virtual Words

Detailing the potential for expression in music, art, philosophy, and more with the aid of computer technology, an exploration of digitally enhanced language, compositions, and creations discusses their implications and aesthetics

Computer scientist and composer Holtzman offers a readable and winning introduction to the theoretical and aesthetic principles that will (he claims) inform artistic expression in new media such as virtual reality. Abstract art, contemporary linguistics, and 20th-century classical music are the art forms that, according to Holtzman, link up with these new media. In lucid (if slightly repetitive) chapters, he surveys Saussure's and Chomsky's structuralist approach to language, Kandinsky's evolution toward purely abstract painting, and the efforts of modern composers such as Schoenberg and Boulez to break away from traditional musical systems with 12- tone serial composition techniques. He argues that these disparate intellectual movements share a basis in abstraction: They all concentrate on developing formal ``grammars'' to describe the functioning of their ``languages,'' be they visual or musical or linguistic. Holtzman follows this with an acute sketch of the development of computers and the search for artificial intelligence, emphasizing the basic similarity between computational theory and the formal grammars of linguistics, art, and music. He's at his best discussing various ways in which artists and composers have tried to incorporate the computer into their creative processes and where such ``collaborative'' efforts may lead; unfortunately, his discussion of virtual reality and its possibilities is much shallower, frequently falling back on the tiresome hype of the hacker world. In his later chapters Holtzman argues for what he calls a ``digital aesthetic,'' but his ideas remain vague, as do the quasi-mystical links he tries to draw between structuralist theories and Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Holtzman preaches the virtues of structuralist aesthetics and computerized art with the fervor--and occasionally the didacticism- -of a prophet; in the end, he provides one of the most insightful considerations of the aesthetics of digital culture to date. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Holtzman, who holds a doctorate in computer science, provides a highly stimulating discussion of the integration of music, art, and language with recent trends in computer technology. He traces the evolution of formal abstract structures as they exist in the music of Schoenberg and Boulez, the art of Kandinsky, and the language grammars of Chomsky. Since computers have the capability to manipulate structures, the author contends that we have reached new frontiers of unexplored artistic creativity; he foresees new worlds of creative expression-that is, "virtual worlds." This text wisely addresses the issues of dissonance in electronic music and human emotion and understanding in the creative process. Holtzman's journey into "virtual reality," sprinkled with a touch of Indian mysticism, is a totally intelligible, enjoyable venture. Recommended.
Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A spiritual, and at times eerie, look at what, if the author is right, computers may become in our creative lives. Of course, a large part of Holtzman's argument is that we should not be afraid of computers or their capabilities. They are the "enabling technology for exploring new domains," and artists of the future will "conceive of their work with the computer as an essential part of the creative process." The author begins with an inquiry into ancient languages and the structures scholars have found therein, and does the same with music and the visual arts. These structures have a mathematical representation, if not equivalence, and as such are abstract structures that can be manipulated and understood best by the manipulator of abstract structures, the computer. Interesting, though not for the scientifically weak of heart. Brian McCombie