Synthetic Imagination II: Composition

A composer synthesizes. Can a composer be synthetic? or, Does a composer's matter matter?

A wealth of thinkers and poets have defined the imagination, written about it, praised it, critiqued it, and most importantly employed it to astonishing effect. Yet just what it is and how it accomplishes its feats remains unclear. We can recognize the fruits of the imagination, but this does not imply that we can define their origin. William Blake claimed: “The imagination is not a State: it is the Human Existence itself," while Kierkegaard said the imagination is “precisely what the philistine fears,” and called it the "human capacity instar omnium,” being the capacity for all other capacities. Finally, Coleridge called the imagination a “synthetic and magical power” which combines dissimilar elements into an order that exceeds the sum of its parts.

Each year, Synthetic Imagination explores the modes and varieties of human innovation, where imagination and synthesis become almost indistinguishable. Last year we focused our attention on Architecture. This year we will explore Composition, while also probing the other, perhaps more prevailing, meaning of the term synthetic –– that is,  the artificial.

Through a series of panels, presentations, performances, film screenings, art installations and conversation, this program will bring together thinkers, artists, and curators to ask questions about the degree to which a composer’s ontological status matters, whether form and content in a work of art can be distinguished, the future of human composition, means vs. ends, the importance of provenance, and the role of the curational consciousness at work.