hellos; loop and improv. theory

[Michael Preston <michpres@erols.com>]

Hi! Uh, all you loopers are an interesting and informative, and 
collegial bunch. I'm very happy to have stumbled into this site. I love 
to make musical loops, or engage in any other kind of recursive musical 
activity. 
        I can't remember who it was, but someone in your archive of 
letters put 
out a discussion-widening call for some general/philosophical loop 
theory references. Here are a couple that I think are interesting: 
"Circles" by Ralph Waldo Emerson ( I think its in a book called 
something like "The collected Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Volume 2"); 
"The Creative Circle: Sketches on the Natural History of Circularity," 
by Francisco Varela, in a book edited by Paul Watzlawick called "The 
Invented Reality: Contributions to Constructivism." Varela is 
co-inventor, with Humberto Maturana, of a big idea called autopoiesis. 
Maturana and Varela are some of the philosophical founders of an 
interesting field called enactive cognitive science. I have found the 
work of Martin Heidegger relevant to expanding my understanding of any 
improvisational activity. See his "Being and Time," especially the 
passages on "thrownness." There is a great book by Hubert Dreyfus which 
clearly comments on Heidegger's Being and Time, called 
"Being-in-the-World." Dreyfus' book helps cut through some of the 
opacity of Heidegger's. Another good book on improvisation is guitarist 
Derek Humphrey's "On Improvisation" (I think that's what it is called.) 
        All these references are sent in the spirit of sharing in this 
loopy 
community process. Thanks for all of your teachings. Michael Preston