the musical barriers and try something new. Today everything is already there. I find it more interesting simulating a work environment down to the last control field – like the one I worked with in 1994 – and experimenting with only that, instead of always having the latest techniques. «Oval Process» should create new criteria and expand on the existing criteria. But it shouldn’t expand on the field of music theory under any circumstances, certainly never write history, and certainly be quickly forgotten. All of this was understood and went without saying for me – how to position myself in the situation, what to use when entering the discourse. In my opinion, «Oval Process» is much closer to Tetris than it is to music. Interactive media and video games are important to me as background material.

Audience: And the future of Oval? What themes will matter in the future?

MP: «Oval Process» completes Oval, and that puts the software entirely in the public domain. Oval exists as a model for music, but there’s also a theoretical model, one without music. What’s finished, though, is the generative principle that replaced terms like

creativity over the years. All that I need to do now is drag both huge crates out of my basement in Berlin, and «Oval Process» is over. You have to know when it’s time to stop.

DD: How will the software be publicized? Through the «Oval Process» CD? MP: That’s not completed yet – it’s just on hold. The software might be put on an audio CD. Audio CDs can present material in stages, and they’re always built differently. You’ll hear the music played on the objects at that moment. The CD for the software alone is separate. DD: In the statements that I read, the cultural economic conditions were also criticized for a moment. Are there any differences in the economic pressures in the areas of art and music, meaning for someone who makes objects for museums and produces audio CDs? Are the expectations and limitations one faces any different?

MP: That’s hard to say. For a long time I hoped that SEGA would buy me out. Then I would still make small sounds for video games, and spend a long time developing each one. The possibilities are all there, and if you hurry, maybe you really can live from doing that. But that’s not the point anymore. The point is