Performa '09: Noise Panel

Arto Lindsay, Tony Conrad, George Lewis, Brandon Joseph, Mark Beasley discussed noise and its relation to music. I found that my views on music already paralleled theirs, that is, the panel believes music is a subjective term since for some people it includes noises. According to the panel, noise is similar to an assault (noise pollution and prevention) and music is coordinated sounds, intended to be pleasant or rhythmic. However, they bring up examples such as free jazz and punk rock, both which are ingrained in our music lexicon, but utilize noise.
The panel is heavily influenced by John Cage who, although I'm unfamiliar with most of his work, sought to put music in a different light. His famous silent piece is an example of this, in which natural noises of the room and the audience highlight the absence of sound.
One of the panel members played a clip of what seemed to be just a girl screaming, but I think that even noise, whether confused as an assault or music, has some kind of rhythm to it. Human's naturally put things into logical order or invent explanations for things that don't make sense to them, and noise is no different. This doesn't mean that we necessarily like what we're listening to, but it certainly shows that every noise has the potential for music.
Another aspect of noise brought up was the cultural bias for or against music/noise. The panel discussed how some music has historically been interpreted as noise, or assaulting (specifically African-American slave music from the 19th century, and to a lesser extent, jazz music of the 20th century). I definitely agree with this, however, when it comes to noise of the 20th century, I tend to think that the youth's interest in alternative , oppressed and counter-cultures is what allowed noise to be more readily accepted, perhaps the reason why the panel was even discussing the fact that noise oppression is linked to racism.