When thinking about my topic for ‘Contemporary issues in sound arts’, I was thinking a lot about peoples perception of rhythms and the change of perception that comes with understanding, but also the difference in perception based on the mind frame that the piece is heard with. Milford Graves is someone who always pushed for an open minded reading of music (rhythm especially). He once said ‘Look at the room downstairs, look at the garden outside, don’t try to analyse it, just take it in’. The way that someone like Milford Graves would hear music of different rhythms and styles would be very different to how somebody inexperienced with rhythms outside of the common 4/4 regular timing. This is because of both his open mind and also his exposure to rhythms and timings from all different parts of the world.
Similarly, somebody who has been exposed to many different cultures and ways of life (who has some understanding of these various ways of life he has been exposed to) would perceive cultures outside of his own in a very different way to how somebody who never left their hometown might perceive these cultures.