What people respond to when they see art is a struggle between the artist and the constraints."Saul Steinberg (Austin Cleon. The Classroom of Creativity. Translated by Chiba Toshio, Jissankyo Shuppan Co.)
I came into contact with the above words after I started creating art, and they became very clear to me. It applies to painting, music, and many other forms of art, but when I appreciate a work of art, I am more interested in it if I know the background of the artist, such as the circumstances in which he or she was living and thinking.
When creating a work of art, the creator is subject to certain restrictions, whether he or she is aware of them or not. It may be a method, manpower, time, or funds, but no one could possibly do it without any restrictions. In this sense, when viewing a work of art, the viewer is looking at the creator's ingenuity and ingenuity within the constraints placed upon him or her.
When you look at Youtube videos as individual works of art, it becomes more interesting to think about the limitations placed on the creator. I like hardware, so I often watch videos of people performing electronic music by making full use of them, but in the age when we can create anything with a DAW, creating with hardware itself imposes certain restrictions on oneself. We all share a common understanding of these restrictions, and that is why we watch these videos.
After watching a variety of videos, I have come to realize that there are certain trends in the videos that I personally prefer. I find it interesting to watch videos that have high quality music and video, and also those that use only one or two pieces of equipment to create the work.
The act of focusing on a small number of pieces of equipment to create a work of art presents the viewer with constraints in a more easily understood way, which I think makes it easier for the viewer to understand the creator's ingenuity and aesthetic sense. Another reason for the interest may be that the works themselves are often sharp.
It is true in different circles that the more restrictions there are, the greater the percentage of effort the creator has to put into finishing the work, and the sharper the result. The more spices (cumin, cardamom, etc.) that are used in a curry, the more the sharpness of each spice is reduced, resulting in a more palatable (and more widely accepted) flavor. And the fewer the spices used, the more sharp the taste (more distinctive and memorable, though not to everyone's liking).
If we apply this to the aforementioned video, it would be a style of playing a "desktop orchestra" with many pieces of equipment lined up on a desk, or a solo style where one piece of equipment is focused on a single piece of equipment. In this case, too, I feel that many of the sharpest pieces are in the latter.
Here is the video I was inspired by
Of course, individuality is not determined by equipment alone, but when I think of examples of artists I like who have narrowed down the spices (tools) they use, I first think of Rei Harakami, who has formed a distinctive individuality as a result. When I listen to his works, I am immersed in the aesthetic sense that he has created with his ingenuity within the clear limitations of the Roland SOUND Canvas Sc-88Pro sound source module and EZ VISION sequencer.
When I read the book of Ray Harakami's tribute project, I was asked why he insists on using those equipments.
I know how to produce the sound I want to produce," and "I'd rather spend my time creating art than learning how to use new equipment.
He answered, "I am not sure. (Yura Yasuto. Rei Harakami, a professional amateur. Eureka. Seidosha, 2021, 245-251)
Whether one's own unique expression is the result of daring to narrow down the tools, or whether one's pursuit of one's own expression results in narrowing down to a limited number of tools, is a matter for each individual, but in the end, I reaffirmed that an important factor in reaching one's own expression is to know one's tools deeply and try to extract as much as possible from them.
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