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| Vargr, 2001 |
| The Industrial Aesthetic: |
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"The industrial aesthetic has a complex relationship with digital technology...
it celebrates the darkness of abandoned factories, the extreme circumstances of
squatting and rioting, the material aspect of redundant, metal objects." --Mark Dery |
| To me, there's more to being 'Industrial' than aggressive music with technological references in its lyrics. It's hard to decide exactly what to include in the definition. Some have argued that there is no such thing as Industrial culture. I however think that there is. To me, it's an aesthetic and an attitude. It's stark. It's Black, glass, chrome, rust. It's noisy. It's the worlds envisioned by Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. It's the invasion of the mechanical into the biological. It's the dystopian future. It's all of the elements of Postmodernism. The 'future' is here, and the world is still ugly, mean, and arbitrary. We alternately embrace and revile the concept of the fusion of man and machine, similarly, we alternately love and hate the machines themselves. For every movement which states that technology will be our salvation, there is an opposite movement which is convinced that it will be our destruction. We are witnessing an incredible accelleration in the rate of technological advancement. The technological capability of mankind is now growing faster than the social responsibility to address the implications of the growth. Not convinced? Think about the furor that has arisen from our proven ability to clone a complex organism. We can do sheep, how about humans? Should we? Could we ethically clone a person, and use the clone for organ harvesting? We had better be ready as a species to answer these questions. Some critics have opined that Industrial culture is fading, or is, in fact, already dead. One only has to look at the popularity of robotic combat as a televised spectator sport to dismiss such a notion. |
| Popular Culture: |
| This aesthetic has been infiltrating mainstream culture for the greater part of the past decade. It's not just industrial, but more of an overall slick and futuristic attitude. Marquis, an excellent latex fetish magazine from Germany, has a regular feature which documents the widespread use of fetish imagery in the media around the world. This is only a part of it. If The Matrix had been released ten years ago, I'm fairly certain it would not have had the success it did. This indicates the level at which technology is now infused into the collective conciousness of new world nations. Now we're looking to the third world, for the inexorable expansion of this movement. Those who are so quick to embrace this expansion must remember that nothing is without its price. Cultural irrelevancy can easily become the result. "Your culture doesn't support our technology, so if you want it, you'll have to adapt to our way of thinking." Doesn't sound unreasonable if you're living in squalor, and some immaculate faceman is waving a bundle of cash under your nose. |
| This might make it sound like I'm against the technological advancement of other cultures, but this is not the case. I think it's beneficial if it's done carefully. We are all citizens of the world, but we are also guardians of our respective cultures. Many atrocities have been committed in the damnable name of Manifest Destiny. We need to put that way of thinking behind us. |
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Industrial Music:
It is widely held that Genesis P-Orridge coined the Industrial genre in 1975. Gen has stated that it was actually artist Monte Cazzaza that came up with the term itself. Gen thought that the world needed a "new kind of music, because we're in a new kind of society." Throbbing Gristle was the result. Other bands followed, such as Einsterzende Neubaten and Clock DVA. Traditional concepts of what music should sound like, and how it should be constructed were discarded in favor of experimental blends of electronic noise, found-object percussion, and the sampling and layering of recorded sounds. Every sound ever recorded or synthesized becomes a possible source of material for this new music. Over the intervening years, Industrial music has unfortunately become more mainstream and homoginized in many instances. This was inevitable, as it is with any esoteric movement which is to escape extinction. What is important is the influence that Industrial music has had upon pop, metal, and dance music. It has introduced an edge into these, and arguably other, genres. Hyperreality:
"Hyperreality is a consequence of the human nervous system itself; the impulse to
hyperreality is hardwired in our cognitive habits by the genetic code" Jean Baudrillard uses the term hyperreal to describe the condition in which the simulacrum has become more authentic than the original. The map is more important than the territory it depicts. William Gibson's cyberspace is a prime example of hyperreality. Those who ply it are prone to ignoring the real world completely. There is a growing worry in our present day world that this is already beginning to take place among heavy users of the internet. Virtual reality, even in its current infant state can be a trap. If your real life is unfulfilling, why not escape to one where you can re-invent yourself to be whatever personna you wish? The trick of course, is to avoid the trap, and use this alternate reality as a tool for exploration, rather than an end unto itself. If care is not taken, loss of individual identity can occur. Indeed, it seems that some actually seek this effect intentionally. This is antithetical to expansion and exploration of the self. What are our limits? What are our capabilities? These are the questions which should drive our endeavours. |