A true Rock’n’Roller doesn’t need bells and whistles! And do you?
“We all like a bit of the good life – some the money, some the drugs, other the sex game, the glamour, or the fame. But a Rock’n’Roller, oh, he’s different. Why? Because a real Rock’n’Roller wants it all at once.” Guy Ritchie
If you have ever watched the PinkFloyd concert called “Pulse” on YouTube recorded in 1994 then you must have seen that Gilmour works wonders on his guitar. The rest of the musicians don’t seem to interfere. On the stage you can see an impressive-sized “video-circle”where lots of interesting things are shown. And everything is literally bathed in artificial neon light. Beautiful!
And what a program with “TheWall” they had when it dealt with Waters!… (But we are not talking about the great British now although they deserve it for all kind of reasons)
Would have we perceived the concert in a different way if the musicians had removed all the light music and all the neon shimmers? More accurate to say, if they had left the music (surely!) but had removed the strobe lights and the impressive-sized circle.
Then we would be looking at a “bare” stage and static musicians for two hours and a half and simply listening to the music that, by the way, we can find in a studio quality (and run it in our smartphones at the same time doing other things and look around at running lines as well as advertising installations).
That’s exactly what we are talking about. About the Rock’n’Roller who wants it all at once. And about technologies that change our perception – about optical illusions.
The internet is full of this kind of technology up to our throats. Just look at some websites headings given by Google:
- 11 amazing optical illusions that can drive you crazy”
- 50 optical illusions that will blow your mind!”
- 30 cool optical illusions: astonishing”
But some time ago people used to live absolutely calmly without any kind of special effects. The brightest example is the 19th century theater. Chamber theater, words, the old acting school. And nothing superfluous. But the audience used to leave the auditorium in tears, “plowed” up and down.
And how interesting the optical illusions in architecture are! All those “floating” floors and walls. A very cool example is the customs building in Melbourne. The little rectangles are indeed equal, and the lines are really parallel.
Everything is different today. An important part of the absolute majority of posters is “the coolest concert” but “A SHOW”. The art of playing with rainbow colours. A projection of the Rorschach test of the size of a multi-storey building.
But if we think, what does it mean for us? Do we leave these shows even in a bit better mood than we did in the past?
We wouldn’t like to move into the field of psychology but what if various VR-gadgets are popular not due to human interest or curiosity but because of an ordinary desire to escape from the surrounding reality? At least for an hour or two.
On the one hand, it looks like a window of opportunities as technologies generated other words for us long ago. Why not try to put them in the service of people! But on the other hand, such hype may mean our unwillingness to solve current problems around us. Or to cause such reluctance. Why fight or search for something if you can put on something. And to watch by pressing some buttons.
But these are just some reflections…
You can simply chill listening to psychedelic music staring at a giant hologram of Buddha on a stage. It won’t do any harm, most likely it will pacify you instead. Which is useful for everyone living on Earth in the 21st century.
In short, we do not dream of returning the surrounding space to the Procrustean bed of the 21st century.
But don’t we have too much of this “VR” in our lives? Don’t we try to belittle the progress to churning out colourful and empty reality simulators?
There’s more there than that, my friend.. Rock’n’Roll and Rock’n’Rollers who want it all at once!
