Robert van Heumen Composer Improvisor Laptop-Instrumentalist Sound-Designer
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Communication

Borrowed from the <tag> mailing:

"The greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished."
George Bernard Shaw

I feel very connected with this through my work as a mathematican in ancient times, studying the Dutch mathematician LEJ Brouwer and Intuitionism. Brouwer believed that mathematical constructions are impossible to convey through any written or spoken language - they are purely constructions of the mind, and to try to capture those events in any language will never give you any certainty that the person you try to convey this to will build the same constructions in their minds.

From Brouwer's Cambridge Lectures on Intuitionism:

"FIRST ACT OF INTUITIONISM
Completely separating mathematics from mathematical language and hence from the phenomena of language described by theoretical logic, recognising that intuitionistic mathematics is an essentially languageless activity of the mind [..]."

Recently I've found similar ideas in Trevor Wishart's book On sonic art - writing about the dominion of the written word, as being a way to 'objectively' convey ideas. Stating that musical communication is on a whole different level then spoken or written words.
Fascinating.