Bio-Digital Jazz, Man

I strongly resonate with Kevin Flynn in Tron: Legacy, in however I interpret this multifaceted statement.

There is a sizeable stash of media over which I keep myself ignorant, such that a future self in a better place can enjoy them to greater efficacy. Among these titles is the first Tron movie. This does not compromise the fact that its reboot / sequel Tron: Legacy ranks among my favourite works of media. Perhaps my experiencing of the film without larger context beyond what was on screen adds to it.

“Bio-digital Jazz, Man” was a line by Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), expositing to his son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) about his discovery of isomorphic algorithms, ISOs — (personified) programs that emerged from The Grid that he programmed, demonstrating original thoughts and emergent culture.

As someone who works often alone and grew up to split off a significant proportion of my conscience decoupled from the real, interpersonal, world, I find myself shiver a bit at the utterance of those words at each rewatch. Bio-digital. Emergent life in a virtual world. I dream of creating a good simulated universe yes, maybe one that talks or laughs back — a much coarser grain version is my current job. But the adjectives aren’t what I want to talk about tonight. It is about the noun in the phrase. Jazz.

A large but unacknowledged change to this site since I moved to Germany is the addition of the colourful “date me” buttons to most pages. The curious reader might click on it and realise it leads to a page comprising a few bad jokes and an even worse ARG. They are indeed intended as innocent jokes, but a less than charitable (FW Favourite™) read of my state of mind says they highlight a significant degree of self-indulgence to the rightfully deserved neglect of the 8 billion others I share my time and plane of existence with.

With the way I have been approaching how connections are made, I don’t think it’s a hard fact to internalise that I have no one — and haven’t had one — to share the jokes with.

Back to Jazz for a moment.

I hardly listen to Jazz specifically, but do have experiences about in it often in more spontaneous settings. A friendly flatmate in a Jazz band, old-timey performance samples, a control theory lecture on how different section players play off one another on stage, et cetera.

To me, Jazz is a genre of music that most saliently contrasts with what I am currently capable of producing as Iridium Point — my synths are pre-programmed, robotic, rigid, steady. I am working quite hard to remove such feel from my work, though so far only via unilateral trans-temporal collaboration with myself. So again, no proper feedback mechanisms that inform the entire piece, no evolving dynamics.

This is also exactly the point I find most limiting about moving alone to a new part of the world. Be it explicitly about two-body romantic relations or efforts to fit into a friends networks in general.

I buzz alone, sometimes steadily and reliably, but deep down yearning for something better than just a soulless echo, yearning for something that hears me, respond to me, play off me, and in turn influence me, to Jazz with me, to elevate this piece called life beyond what any single one mind can contain and envision at any moment.

I am back to my run-on comma-separated sentences again. Probably it’s a good time to say good night and have a good tomorrow. Maybe, one day, Iridium Point, and my other existential departments too, gets to experience Jazz.