HiTEC, Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative, is the name of a DIY chamber orchestra founded by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE in Pittsburgh in 2008. It performs a piece called "Systems Management". Systems Management uses a Wheel-of-Fortune to choose numbers that then point to Thought Experiments that the Systems Managers Manage. This lavishly produced hand-crafted book chronicles the history of the 1st year of this project. It includes 13 feet of paper dolls that show the members & their "Personality Types", stills from all 54 of the documentary that cONVENIENCE has made about HiTEC so far, a 'best of' CD culled from 59 sessions, & an elaborately edited DVD from HiTEC's 1st performance at the New Hazlett Theater on January 9, 2009. Holding it together is a belt with a text entitled "Generalizations about the HiTEC Systems Manager Personality Type" that features such data as that seven Systems Managers picked the sentence "Gets very excited about new ideas and projects, but may neglect the routine aspects of life" from Myers-Briggs test to describe themselves.
Thanks to the idiocy of Goodreads policy my books are no longer easily found & do not all appear here. Instead, 5 of them appear under "Tentatively a Convenience": https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... .
My name is "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE". It is NOT "Tentatively, A Convenience". The completely disrespectful push for conformity is on. Such 'normalization' of my spelling, wch I've been using since 1979, is a symptom of what I call "AU", Artificial Unintelligence - both that of algorithms wch can't possibly cope w/ the human imagination & that of robopathic humans - say the type of person who studied creative writing w/ a professor who isn't a creative writer & who isn't published. This type of person then proceeds to learn 'how to be creative' in a completely uncreative way & goes on to not be a creative writer or to be published either but to still be convinced that they're qualified to edit actual published actual creative writers. That's a form of regrettably delusional behavior fostered in them by their inability to educate themselves outside of potty training.
Alas, some GoodReads fiend has removed my date of death! I had it as "September 3, 1953" - before my date of birth so that my death won't happen in my lifetime. Some humorless GR person must want me to die. Foo on them.
Making matters even worse, my bk "footnotes" has been removed from the database here & I'm now listed as the author of "15" bks instead of the correct SIXTEEN. "footnotes" was still for sale online the last time I checked so I highly recommend getting a copy before they disappear altogether.
OTHERWISE, please read this extensive interview w/ me by poet/essayist Alan Davies as part of "Otoliths 27" ( http://the-otolith.blogspot.com.au/20... ). It's a DOOZY, I promise. It'll also hopefully be published as a small & cheap bk by Six Gallery Press in early, 2013 - uh, make that possibly w/in my lifetime - uh, make that NEVER by 6GP.
ALSO, my friend Anthony Levin-Decanini has started an excellent new (as of mid 2013) improvising series called "Crucible Sound" in Pittsburgh at Modernformations Gallery & I was honored by his interviewing me regarding improv for his relevant blog. I quite like the interview & I hope you do too. Here's the link for part 1:
I hope you find it interesting enuf to subscribe to the blog & to check out the other programs. If you're in or nearby Pittsburgh, PLEASE ATTEND THE CRUCIBLE SOUNDS! Things like this don't last forever, but while they do they can be quite lively!!
The photo of me is by my friend Julie Gonzalez. Maybe someday I'll write a bio in here but, in the meantime, I'll just sign w/ some of my email signature:
electronically signed,
He-Who-Has-Written
Amir-ul Kafirs
Some tenuous beginnings of P.N.T. (Perverse Number Theory): (for all x)x = (for all x)x (Anything is Anything) (A Double Negative As Not A Positive) (A finite quantity represented as a set containing an infinite quantity of its subdivisions (such as its subdivision in terms of rational numbers) does not equal the same finite quantity represented as a set containing an infinite quantity OF A DIFFERENT DEGREE of its subdivisions (such as its subdivision in terms of irrational numbers).) m + n does not equal n + m is isomorphic to x the ceiling of x is greater than or equal to the ceiling of the ceiling of x (Enough is Enough) The Formula o
Ok, this is my latest bk, my 12th (the 11th remains to be published), &, uh, YES, I'm going to give it a GREAT REVIEW - after all, if I didn't think it was GREAT, I wdn't've put it together. Just as an object one is very unlikely to find its equal (in terms of specialness of form) for this fabulously low price of $15.
A belt encircles the bk, holding it shut. The belt's removed, the bk opens & a gatefold unfolds from both ends to show a 13 foot wide span of 25 paper dolls of the main Systems Managers who've been involved in this DIY chamber orchestra. Stuck to a tab in the inside front cover there's a CD from HiTEC. Sonically, anyone who appreciates 20th-21st century experimental classical music shd appreciate this (unless their tastes lean entirely toward the stuffy through-notated academic composers). On a tab in the inside back cover, there's a DVD from HiTEC's 1st public performance at Pittsburgh's wonderful New Hazlett Theater. This footage was shot w/ 8 cameras & is edited as only an experimental film & video maker such as myself (w/ 34 yrs experience) can do. When I say METICULOUS & IMAGINATIVE & FAST-MOVING & FULL OF IDEAS I mean it.
The bk's printed in color, has full-color illustrations, & is divided into 6 parts: 3 parts history interspersed w/ 1 part philosophy, a complete explanation of the "Systems Management" piece that HiTEC performs, & a list of 27 of the Systems Managers.
There is NOTHING ELSE OUT THERE LIKE THIS - in just about every respect. Encyclopedia Destructica has done their usual marvelous dedicated job. When I proposed the paper dolls to them, wch have to be hand-cut, I gave them the option of rejecting something so labor-intensive - BUT THEY LIKED THE IDEA & WERE WILLING TO DO THE WORK. My kind of people.
Here's an excerpt:
"HiTEC (Histrionic Thought Experiment Cooperative) is an independent experimental orchestra founded in July of 2008EV by MAD SCIENTIST / BOOED USICIAN / JACK-OFF-OF-ALL-TRADES / HEADITOR & EARCHIVIST / PROPONENT OF CLASSIFICATION-RESISTANT WHAT-HAVE-YOUS / SPLEENIUS: tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE as an attempt to create a Low Classical alternative to those who worship at the temple of the fictitious & propagandistic “Golden Age” that’s often used to justify the “Divine Rights” of cash-flow.
"Somewhat like distant cousins to the lineage of Karlheinz Stockhausen's "Aus den Sieben Tagen" intuitive music compositions, FLUXUS prose scores, & the work in general of composer Franz Kamin, HiTEC currently navigates a CONCEPTUAL OBSTACLE COURSE called "Systems Management". Parts of this have been generated by cONVENIENCE, Opie, Nystrom, Livengood, & Haney - all, of course, fleshed out by the considerable talents & quick-wittedness of all the Systems Managers during our COPIOUS REHEARSALS.
"Unlike most (M)USICAL projects, the playing of this group revolves around THINKING about particular things while playing in a very open-ended way RATHER THAN necessarily playing specified physical actions.
"For example:
"30. "Brain-In-A-Vat" (Descartes / tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE): Decide that you're a brain-in-a-vat instead of a brain-in-a-skull & that yr perceptions of what's happening in the current Systems Management session are programmed perceptions rather than 'real' ones. Adapt yr Management to what you then think is the most likely 'reality'."
A library w/o this bk is incomplete. A music collection w/o this CD is incomplete. A movie collection w/o this DVD is incomplete. A paper doll collection w/o these paper dolls is incomplete. In short, get a copy of this IF IT'S THE LAST THONG YOU EVER UNDO.