Sisters with Transistors

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sisters-with-transistors-movie-review-2021

by zeristor • 5 years ago

152 64 5 years ago

I think that Delia Derbyshire has been discussed here previously.

But women have played a huge role in all types of tech, since the early days (can you say "Grace Hopper"? I knew you could!). In the old days of "big iron," the people that actually touched the computers tended to be women. The men did their work with pads of paper. I started programming in the waning days of "big iron," and the roles had started changing. I think that a majority of the staff at Bletchley Park were women.

jpm_sd• 5 years ago

Looks like it's streamable online with a $5/mo membership. Special Q&A with the director tonight (4/24)

https://metrograph.com/live-screenings/sisters-with-transist...

brylie• 5 years ago

Unfortunately, only in the U.S.

duquedeturing• 5 years ago

Found it (for rent) on Vimeo for other countries.

stonesweep• 5 years ago

It seems like this website is trying to convert to local timezone in browser, the ICS places it at 8pm on 4/24 New York time:

    DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20210424T200000
    DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20210424T212400

If you're a frontend developer on HN reading this, please don't do what this website does - please list an absolute date/time stamp of your event in plain text on the page(s) in question. Thanks in advance.

grenoire• 5 years ago

Slightly off-topic; I can't read this article without scrambling my brain. Whatever review is hidden inside here is behind a wall of obscure references that only the niche target audience can understand, and as I try to navigate around all of these, I'm able to find a couple sentences which actually convey what's going on in the documentary and what the author thinks about it. Please don't write like this, you're only entertaining yourself [, the author].

codeulike• 5 years ago

Just seems like a normal film review to me. What bits are you struggling with?

tclancy• 5 years ago

Huh? The subjects are relatively obscure and most of the movies in question are from a long time ago. Finally, the film is specifically about people who did not get the recognition they deserve. And journals about a specific topic tend to talk about/ focus on things the author considers hidden gems. Stuff like this is why I appreciate HN. No one bats an eye at yet another article on an esolanguage no one will ever use in production yet you want to complain you have not heard of these women?

NikolaNovak• 5 years ago

Hmm - based on the comment I thought I would find an article full off synth terms like LFO or subtractive synthesis or low pass 12db filter or whatever,but it reads like a regular movie review, focused entirely on people and their plight...

mark-r• 5 years ago

It is absolutely a regular movie review. I had no idea Roger Ebert's name was still being used after his death, but he was one of the most highly regarded movie critics ever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Ebert

KineticLensman• 5 years ago

a wall of obscure references that only the niche target audience can understand

The first para contains references to

> Beethoven and Mozart, even Elvis and John Lennon

The next para lists the 'sisters' themselves. I hadn't heard of them but then that is the whole point of the film under review

I'm able to find a couple sentences which actually convey what's going on in the documentary and what the author thinks about it

I think the following para is quite explicit about what is going on.

> The narrative, which is wonderfully told through a kind of archival collage that, along with the futuristic soundtrack of the profiled composers, makes it feel like an avant-garde art film. It explores its stars chronologically and tells of how they evolved the musical culture in terms of not only language but also technology, which itself opened up an array of new avenues without needing the approval of others, again, mostly men. What's interesting is that many of the women profiled were from classical backgrounds. Oram is a prime example, having turned down a spot at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Music so she could work at the legendary BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and eventually building a proto-synthesizer that used a bespoke notation system called "Oramics."

We then have several additional para that goes into more detail.

jxramos2• 5 years ago

I like to think we'd all be better off operating "without needing the approval of others" be them male or female. In the end it's the open market of ideas and services that will judge you in your contemporaneous settings, but who knows maybe future generations will dig someone's particular works. Or maybe they can just do the work because they enjoy it themselves. Just to it.

wpietri7• 5 years ago

This is a mistake I think of as "universalizing my preferences". Yes, it doesn't work for you. So one of two things is true: 1) a professional writer and a popular, long-running publication's professional editors have totally failed to do their jobs, or b) you're not the target audience.

In this case, it's definitely the latter. This is writing meant to be read linearly from beginning to end. The purpose of the early bits are to create interest and intrigue. To open questions in your mind that will be answered later. To activate concepts and feelings that are important to the mental experience the writer is trying to create.

The short version is that this was written for print, not the web: "Print is linear, author-driven storytelling. The web is nonlinear, reader-driven, ruthless pursuit of actionable content." -- https://www.nngroup.com/articles/writing-style-for-print-vs-...

Eventually, the print-vs-web distinction will die out, but I don't think the print style will die. Instead, we'll rename it something like "long read". Because the info-foraging approach one use on the web has its limits. Sometimes I want to be taken on a journey by the author. As much as I love foraging, there are some experiences and insights that I don't get when I'm dashing around like a ferret who got into the adderall. For me that definitely includes movie reviews. If I want a quick summary, I look at Rotten Tomatoes or Google's infobox. If I want to understand the experience, I'm going to sit still for as many as four minutes and let a professional reviewer give me an experience.

nerdponx2• 5 years ago

"Long read" or "long form" is already a term for these articles, and I usually can't stand them in print either.

Fine, some people like when their information is presented in the form of literature. I don't mind it myself once in a while, but usually I find myself wishing they'd get to the point, and I feel no wiser for having taken so long when (and if) they do ever get there.

If nothing else, I really wish -- if only for the purpose of accessibility and inclusion!! -- that these longform articles would also include an abstract or summary stating the main points.

jasperry• 5 years ago

I was so thrilled when I discovered Laurie Spiegel and wondered why she wasn't more famous. I feel like "The Expanding Universe" should be in the collection of everyone with even a casual interest in electronic music. Her website is also a trove of fascinating notes about early electronic music tech.

Looking forward to finding about some of the other artists mentioned here.

ninkendo• 5 years ago

+1 for The Expanding Universe! East River Dawn from that album is one of my favorite pieces of music. Something about it is just so calming and serene for me.

norswap• 5 years ago

I wish we could appreciate women's talents without feeling forced to prefix the whole thing with a blob about restoring them to their righteous place on the pantheon of whatever.

Fellshard• 5 years ago

Moralized language makes it significantly more difficult to criticize, as doing so makes you immoral by implication, so any actual argument can be slapped down and ignored.

fao_• 5 years ago

Would you mind explaining what argument you are referring to? You seem to have some context that I (and presumably other people) don't.

nerdponx2• 5 years ago

Unless you can go back in time and put them in the pantheon back then, I don't see much of an alternative.

incanus77• 5 years ago

I wish we could appreciate women's talents

Yeah, so do women of the last few centuries! (and more)

deeblering4• 5 years ago

Women have been oppressed for centuries, and in the grand scheme we are only just beginning to emerge from that (in america).

Today it is absolutely necessary to “prefix the thing” and there is still a long road ahead of damage to undo.

After equality has been the norm for several generations (it is still not the norm today), maybe then we’ll be ready to talk about removing the prefix.

allturtles4• 5 years ago

I particularly don't get the "dead" part about complaining about "dead white men." We all end up dead, one way or another. It will happen to the sisters with transistors, too.

fuzzfactor2• 5 years ago

I think part of the situation is that almost no one gets widespread recognition until after they are dead to begin with, if that.

Not even those with a massive PR campaign, plus many experimentalists do not want to divert that kind of effort away from technical progress.

So this is expressing a lagging indicator of a lingering statistic.

Well, electronics itself is only about a hundred years old and it started out completely male dominated and decades of development continued from that point.

Mainly development of technology not diversity, and that was truly challenging.

And even though male dominated from the start, it was still out of reach to almost all men too, more so for those few oportunities mostly to undertake experimental efforts.

So statistically at the beginning, electronics was virtually inaccessbile for almost all men & women to a somewhat equal degree.

It was just not one of the things you could certainly do no matter how much you really wanted to, you had to basically get lucky in addition to your ambition.

wpietri7• 5 years ago

I think his point is pretty clear in that paragraph: "Music is haunted by the specters of Beethoven and Mozart, even Elvis and John Lennon, with the canon being built around these names that we are told deserve not just celebrating but worshipping. These old, dead white men." The problem is the dead overshadowing the living.

gumby3• 5 years ago

I wish that too, and eventually we will get there. But there is a lot of progress and catching up before we get there.

Nowadays when I watch films or read books from the 50s, 60s, and 70s the depth of casual sexism is quite shocking. So that shows some progress. But still there’s a tremendous amount of inequality to be overcome.

walshemj3• 5 years ago

The Star Treck pilot is an example.

meowkit• 5 years ago

I agree with the sentiment, but what I never see discussed is what the benchmarks are for reaching the proclaimed “equality”.

Often times it seems we are overshooting with attempts to create better societies - or worse shooting off in the wrong direction.

kleer001• 5 years ago

Like how we appreciate people with blue eyes talents or tall people or left handed people without mentioning it?

Thing is those people aren't born in different bell curves with different expectations, considerations, cultural histories, and preferences.

Additionally this isn't just about talents, this is about being talented in a seemingly traditionally male arena, engineering. Women in engineering will always be of note since most women do not choose to be there.

mcwone• 5 years ago

Too bad the article does not mention Constance Demby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ire8pSPvX1o

creamynebula• 5 years ago

Thank you for mentioning her, I'm listening to Novus Magnificat and it is lovely!

alamortsubite• 5 years ago

The highly-entertaining 1993 documentary "Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey" [1] devotes much attention to Clara Rockmore [2], an incredible figure I'm glad to see is a subject of this new film. I think it's fair to say Leon Theremin wouldn't have made it far without her.

1: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108323

2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Rockmore

fuzzfactor2• 5 years ago

On Youtube there is Sue Bob Jackson at 1:49:40 live on her theremin in 2001 where she brings on a guest artist and becomes a Viking for a bit:

https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=nd517b80srQ

layoutIfNeeded3• 5 years ago

“Music is haunted by the specters of Beethoven and Mozart, even Elvis and John Lennon, with the canon being built around these names that we are told deserve not just celebrating but worshipping. These old, dead white men.”

What a distasteful opening of an otherwise interesting article.

As if some patriarchal conspiracy was forcing classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven down people’s throats... No, most simply listen to their work being enamored by the virtuosity and talent of these people who lived centuries ago. Framing their work in the context of contemporary American identity politics is very cheap journalism, and distasteful.

And let’s not conflate classical music with postmodern experimental electronic music either. They don’t belong to the same league. I do appreciate both genres, and while we can argue about the subjectivity of art all day long, there’s a reason why the former enjoyed wide acclaim throughout the eras, while the latter remained an obscure academic interest.

DavidVoid• 5 years ago

As if some patriarchal conspiracy was forcing classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven down people’s throats...

No, but patriarchal and racial structures in society have historically suppressed artists who weren't white and male.

Adam Neely has a good video on how the term "music theory" here in the West is essentially just "the harmonic style of 18th century European musicians" [1]. It's worth a watch if you're interested in music.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kr3quGh7pJA

layoutIfNeeded3• 5 years ago

patriarchal and racial structures in society have historically suppressed artists who weren't white and male

This is plain false. Those non-white and non-male artists who have reached sophistication and virtuosity comparable to Mozart and Beethoven were and are still acclaimed. Don't try to shove a narrative where there isn't one.

Also, this doesn't add anything to the discussion about why audiences prefer dead (!) white (!!) male (!!!) composers like Mozart and Beethoven over the works of early experimental electronic composers. The answer is simply because most people don't like listening weird noise.

gary_0• 5 years ago

like Mozart

I am reminded of Maria Anna Mozart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Anna_Mozart

Before she approached "marriageable age" and was forbidden from performing, she was an equal musical talent to her brother, and sometimes received top billing.

None of her compositions have survived.

antonvs2• 5 years ago

there’s a reason why the former enjoyed wide acclaim throughout the eras

That reason is in no small part the propagation of taste via culture.

As if some patriarchal conspiracy was forcing classical composers like Mozart and Beethoven down people’s throats...

An unsubtle description perhaps, but it does get at the idea of how cultures promote certain work at the expense of others. Yes, there's certainly "forcing down the throat" that occurs, via peer pressure, education, public promotion, and so on, but there's also the suppression of contributions that don't fit the society's constraints.

Name some of the great female composers of Beethoven and Mozart's era. I'll wait.

You now either have to take the position that "women just aren't that good at music," or you have to acknowledge that something was going on at that time - something that still happens today. That something is strongly hinted at by the comment someone else posted about Maria Anna Mozart, who was "forbidden from performing once she reached marriageable age."

In that context, your denial of obvious facts starts to seem monstrous.

Framing their work in the context of contemporary American identity politics is very cheap journalism, and distasteful.

The US didn't invent the patriarchy, it inherited it directly from the European societies that settled the US, and Beethoven and Mozart's society was a big part of that. Beethoven was born 6 years before the Declaration of Independence; Mozart 20 years before; and Germans were one of the biggest groups to settle the US.

Your adulation of those musicians is a direct consequence of your embedding in a cultural context that you seem blissfully unaware of. The reason you like them is because you are directly descended, a mere 10 generations back, from peers of those musicians. You were brought up in a culture that privileged their work, and have absorbed that indoctrination uncritically.

One of the other pieces of indoctrination you've absorbed is apparently that the culture didn't, in fact, systematically and unfairly suppress the voices and capabilities of women, which is why you haven't replied to the comment about Maria Anna - you can't afford to acknowledge it, since you can't refute it, and it eats at the foundation of your indoctrinated beliefs.

Attitudes like yours hold back the development of a more equitable society. You should rethink them.

layoutIfNeeded3• 5 years ago

Your adulation of those musicians is a direct consequence of your embedding in a cultural context that you seem blissfully unaware of.

As someone whose musical taste spans from classical composers to jazz pioneers, from early Chicago house to ceremonial flute music from Indonesia, I can only smirk at your comment.

Mozart's sister's talent may have been suppressed, or she might have been content with her life, we will never know. By judging the actions of 18th century Germans, it is in fact you who seem to be unaware of the modern cultural context that you're embedded into. Modern American morals are neither universal, nor ultimate. Thinking that they are in fact is the colonialist attitude. You should rethink that!

Attitudes like yours hold back the development of a more equitable society. You should rethink them.

Sweetie, don't try to shove a narrative where there's none, this isn't Twitter. Noone argued against your "equitable" society or whatever. I've just pointed out a fallacy in the distasteful opening of the original article, namely, that early electronic musicians (some of whom happened to be women), weren't sidelined in favor of Mozart, Beethoven or Elvis. Rather, people simply preferred those kinds of music over their experimental bleep bloops.

And don't try to derail the conversation with deconstructionist "arguments", such that people's preference for 19th century classical composers, or rock music over early experimental electronics stems from some internalized colonialist heteronormative bias, because that's bollocks. Sure, art is subjective, and if someone was raised by a pack of wolves then they would likely prefer the sound of howling over Beethoven's 9th symphony, yet I seriously doubt that early electronic musicians (yes, some of whom happened to be women) would have reached wider audiences even if women weren't historically disadvantaged. This is simply not a question of gender.

khazhoux• 5 years ago

Referenced in article, Suzanne Ciani on the early (daytime) Letterman show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZscRHkLMt0

It's funny because here Dave is just learning about synths, and it predates Paul Schaffer joining him with his own wall of synths.

xbar• 5 years ago

I'm looking forward to watching the film and I'm glad it was reviewed. Thank you sharing this one.

Sisters with Transistors

Related Stories