* obscurity and motivation (6/29/2005)

The Residents began their notable career in sonic arts with a few
ground rules developed in cooperation with the mysterious N. Senada.
One of these rules, perhaps the most influential, was the "Principle
of Obscurity".  A common dynamic associated with artistic creation is
the glorification of the artist, and The Residents surmised that this
was a bad thing.  To keep the focus on their results, they had to make
certain moves to keep the focus off of themselves.  Hence, they
adopted the "Principle of Obscurity."  Nobody really knows who The
Residents are, even to this day.  They wear masks, gloves, and
costumes that completely obscure their bodies.  The connections to
masks in early theater are obvious.  The Residents creations are
certainly not limited to the domain of sound, and are more often than
not theater, performance art, and film.  Even the name of their band,
"The Residents" was generated under this principle; it was chosen
after a letter was sent to their studio addressed to "CURRENT
RESIDENT".  Although various mythologies have sprung up surrounding
these masked forms (they are aliens visiting earth, they are secretly
members of popular bands, they are four hideously malformed imperfect
clones of Frank Zappa, etc.), a single widely accepted truth of the
matter remains out of reach.

If you can truly eliminate your own fat ego from the loop, what
motivation remains for making music?  The Residents, although
operating under obscurity, clearly were somehow "pleasing themselves"
by making sound.  In fact, their album "Not Available", was a set of
recordings made under the assumption that nobody else but the
residents themselves would listen to them.  The legend goes that when
their producer got impatient waiting for the recordings for a
different album, "Eskimo", to appear, he went and raided the tape
vaults and found "Not Available", releasing it to generate interim
revenue.  Furthermore, The Residents did not mind that "Not Available"
was made available, as if it had somehow served its purpose
regardless.

But then what is the purpose?  We can try to make sound that has
definite results, for example, inspiring nationalism in its listeners,
or "pleasing" its players.  But clearly not everything fits into this
mold. To address the issue of purpose, we must turn to Sun Ra.

A lot of people had a hard time listening to certain Sun Ra
recordings.  They seemed noisy and unstructured, difficult to listen
to, and were impossible to understand, at least in any previously
known context.  Yet Sun Ra and his Arkestra are some of the most
disciplined musicians in existence.  They practice constantly.  So
Mister Ra was asked, why do you make this crazy music?  Why don't you
make stuff we understand?  In other words, what is the purpose of the
pieces that seem to us to be purposeless?  Mister Re answered that he
makes music for the same reason that the Birds Sing.  There's no
purpose to it, it is just what they do.  Nobody ever complains about
birdsong.