Press Play Pause is a documentary about the democratization of creative production through technology. For the most part it focuses on music, delving into film a bit as well. Ideas are conveyed through brief interviews with artists, producers, and writers- some you may have heard of, others who operate more behind the curtains.
Throughout the movie there are brief clips following Olafur Arnalds as he prepares and delivers a performance in Machester. Having discovered his work a month or so ago, this was pretty exciting to see.
For the most part I find the documentary exhilarating. I’ve been playing around with sounds for about a decade now, and have felt the advances in technology- here I could relive some of the excitement an emotions with producers and musicians who began long before I did- the feeling of tools that encourage and expand the creative process.
The documentary presents some conflicting viewpoints as well. Initially I was irked, but figured it was a good thing. Mostly around 30 minutes in, there is a discussion of the effect of it being so easy to make films and music- that we are inundated with noise, that everyone wants to be the next big thing.
It doesn’t surprise me that these ideas were conveyed- look at who is describing them: music producers, or musicians who are in some part made, even someone from pitchfork. Their power comes from my faith in them to tell me what is good art and bad art. There is a deeper ecology in creativity. Maybe with the first band I was in during high school I wanted to be big, but after that I realized it was something more personally meaningful for me, that if I could play for friends and people I care for, or in a basement around town- that would be enough. I’ve met tons of artists and musicians who feel the same way.
I’m excited about how easy it is to make music and put it online. I can meet someone and they will send me a link to their music, hosted for free somewhere on the web. I’ll send them a link to mine, not because I want to get big and have a review, but just because I think they may like it, and we can connect on it.
The whole ‘there is too much noise and we’ll get overwhelmed’, well come on, I don’t know how to put it better than, that helpless mindset is so yesterday. Tools are being developed. One of the things I’ve recently discovered is that people are not only empowered to be creators, but also curators- I’ve gotten onto tumblr and I’m impressed at the ease in which one can curate art and become an online dj. I can follow people who have similar tastes and make my way through the ‘noise’.
Arguments encouraging only formalized curation and artistic elitism follow from some old school institution of critics, and are better to kill ideas and enforce a stale hierarchy than to cultivate beautiful work. A diversity of interpretation and a plethora of curators is much more conducive to grow a creative vocabulary than a single source of ‘official’ critique.
If you haven’t already, go watch the documentary here.
