Alright, so I'm starting this blog with the intention of examining aesthetic issues, specifically as applied to contemporary music and film. One of the most important issues right now, I think, is the question of elitism in music: that is, to what extent do the intellectual pretensions of artists prevent them from communicating to an audience (or expressing themselves if the idea of communication in art isn't to your taste)? What would a progressive artwork that still manages to be politically relevent look like? And how, in all of our sophistication, do we manage to still say something?
This is something of the tone this blog will take. I'll probably start by looking at a couple of Michael Hanecke's more recent films and will probably come to the music of James Tenney, which I've just gotten interested in, in the coming days. And there's always phenomenology, as the title of this blog might suggest to some of you.
Until then.