RE: Please lets all sit together now and define what we do!

["omjn" <eightohm@iinet.net.au>]

off the cuff definition:

looping: the conscious and controlled application of difference and
repetition to information and/or data.



brief I know, but its all I have to say on the subject dammit! no seriously
matthias, I would certainly agree it is a cultural practice, but I wouldn't
say that it belongs to any particular community, and certainly not a core
set of indivuals.  After all, the 'What is art?' debate rages eternally -
who needs another?

or to put it another way, by defining what 'looping' is, what we are
actually doing is assimilating a pre-exisitng word for which I am sure 
there
are many uses already in the wider community.  So, to aid in all this,
perhaps there needs to be some sort of narrowing of the question, like 
'what
is audio-looping?'.  I guess that gets to my long standing niggle with the
concept of looping a specifc or defined type of practice.  To demonstrate,
take any verb, say eating.  It automatically suggests the object - food.
With looping, the object of the loop isn't defined in the verb as strictly,
so to take 'looping' as a concept and then apply that to what most of us on
this list do for instance somewhat ignores the fact that many things loop
and they don't have to have much to do with audio.  you may as well call us
all cyclists.

or to put it yet another way, looping means so many things to so many 
people
I don't see how you can apply a definition to it in any generalised,
marketable fashion without compromising alot of peoples opinions.  boy, 
what
a big poo poo that sounds.

i think i'll bugger off now

-omjn