Avant Garde?

Hi there,

Currently I'm reading "The Ambient Century", it's a look at ambient music throughout the twentieth century and looks at a lot of pioneering composers like Cage, Stockhausen etc…

I wonder, music is so abundant these days. There are so many artists. Where artists used to gather in bars, do they now gather online?

I'm wondering if people have any links to other discussion forums online. Even though Rhizome is apparently a major hub for new media art online, it's discussion forum seems rather crippled (still using the list format, a bit unorganised - if you get what i mean). Music is a strange one.

I have a friend who visits a painting forum which is quite critical, but i guess i wonder who are the avant-garde composers of the modern day? Is there a forum online for the discussion of sonic ideas? What constitutes Avant-garde in general? Is there a space for this online? Are experimental and avant garde interchangeable terms?

What constitutes avant-garde composition in the modern day? Is it code? Things like Max/MSP seem to be the preference of academia and a lot of artists… Where is the edge? The tip of the ice-berg, the pulse?

Maybe some of you can help me tease out what I'm trying to say here. Maybe I'm looking for a purely sonic "rhizome", if that makes sense.

I don;t know if i consider myself a media artist, or a new media artist, a musican, audio-visual artist or what. I'm still studying and working that out I guess.

Anyway, first post.

Happy Trails,

Matt