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Hyperart Thomasson

by Thomas Bey William Bailey

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My first ever 'epic-length' album (almost a full hour of music), this is my most complete / representative work and will either be my swan song or the herald of something completely new. Special hi-quality .pdf book w/ images and liner notes included.

Hyperart Thomasson is an “art movement” conceptualized by Genpei Akasegawa, and based upon the aestheticization of “useless” man-made structures and landscapes. In Akasegawa’s estimation: “art is actually a utilitarian thing that serves a purpose...Hyperart, on the other hand, doesn’t even serve an artistic purpose. It serves none of the myriad purposes that a thing can serve in life.”

Thomasson was in fact the surname of an American baseball player brought to the Japanese major leagues as a ‘designated hitter’: while highly touted in the beginning, his subpar output eventually led to his being shipped back home after a single season, and his earning derisive nicknames like “the electric fan” for his propensity to swing at the air.

Parallels could of course be drawn between the failure of a baseball player’s career and the failure of architectural features to rise to any kind of utility: the more notable examples of “Thomasson” (alternately Tomason or トーマソン) include staircases leading up to solid
walls, so-called “pure tunnels” no greater in length than a single car on a passenger train, and other humorous forms that seem to have arisen of their own free will rather than as the result of any considered “urban planning”. Another interesting fact arose from Akasegawa’s
observation and cataloging of these “hyper-objects”: in spite of their uselessness, most or all of these seemed to be “beautifully preserved.”

I’ve taken the liberty of fusing my own given name with the name of this movement, as I feel that the study of - and paradoxical valuation of - uselessness has been one of the main planks of my creative program over the past two decades. “Uselessness” and the lack of public interest in things designated as such may become, in the present world, the key to much greater personal freedom, particularly as we see the pathologies that result from constant attention and digital monitoring of behavior. It will become more and more imperative to create without expectation of attention and certainly without deliberately courting the same.

NOTE: the intent was always to release this as on a so-called "physical" medium, but...this seems a bad idea in a time of hyperinflation. However; for that anyone who DOES purchase this in "digital" form, your contribution will go towards the pressing of a physical release and I *will* put your name down for a 'promo' copy of whatever eventually manifests. Thank you for your support!

credits

released March 21, 2022

Thomas Bey William Bailey: analog modular synthesis / digital sampling / location recording / other forms of "weird" synthesis / sleep deprivation / booklet layout and design

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Thomas Bey William Bailey South Carolina

Thomas Bey William Bailey is a researcher and author of several books (e.g. "To Hear The World With New Eyes," "Micro Bionic," "Sonic Phantoms") as well as a dedicated sound artist and editor of the Fifteen Minutes of Anonymity label.

His work explores issues of unstable identity, post-industrial technology, and the hidden wonders at the edges of perception.
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