Immersion Composition Society

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A major contributor to this article appears to have a conflict of interest with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (August 2008)

This article may not meet the notability guidelines for companies and organizations. Please help to establish notability by adding reliable, secondary sources about the topic. If notability cannot be established, the article is likely to be merged or deleted. (July 2008)

This article needs references that appear in reliable third-party publications. Primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject are generally not sufficient for a Wikipedia article. Please add more appropriate citations from reliable sources. (July 2008)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (July 2008)

The Immersion Composition Society (ICS) is a network of speed-composers, organized into independent groups, called lodges.^[1]

Contents 1 History 2 Songwriter lodge 3 Game rules 4 Regional rules and special games 5 Books 6 Lodge list 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

The ICS was started in Oakland, California by a pair of obsessive and frenetic songwriters named Nicholas Dobson and Michael Mellender. They had noticed that they were spending an inordinate amount of time thinking about music, and waiting for inspiration to write music, instead of actually writing the music. This led to an interchange of emails trading ideas for a new songwriting method that involved as little thinking as possible.^[2]

In early 2001, Dobson proposed a recipe for a songwriting "game" that took place over the course of a single day. They both began to play it compulsively. Within a year, Mellender and Dobson had formed a society of songwriters, and this game - which came to be called the "20-Song Game", was its central activity.^[3]

[edit] Songwriter lodge

The ICS is made up of local chapters, called "lodges". An ICS lodge is not unlike a small, local secret society of songwriters. The lodge exists as a way for all of the members to force themselves to write as much music as possible. The privacy and secrecy of a lodge are there to create a "safe" environment for musical experimentation, free of criticism and negative social pressure. The members of an ICS lodge have sworn to support each other completely, and each member is encouraged to indulge any musical whim or subject matter - no matter how ridiculous or questionable it may seem to the songwriter at the time.^[4] Each lodge has a "lodge head", and any number of members, up to 12 or so.

[edit] Game rules

The 20-Song Game works like this:^[5]

1. The members start the day split up, working in their separate homes or studios. Each member of the lodge member then attempts to conceive, write and record as many new songs as possible before the day is over.
2. In theory; they are all aiming for twenty new songs. In practice; chaos generally ensues. Naturally, getting twenty is not the real point. The game is more about breaking free of inhibitions, playing and exploring, and entering a state a complete creative frenzy. The members do not use previously written material in their session.
3. In the evening there is a lodge meeting, where the lodge members get together (having first stopped by a store to purchase treats) and everyone takes turns playing the CD or cassette that they made that day for their gathered lodge, and swapping session stories.
4. This game can also be played alone. A common method for solo players is to keep an online journal of one's sessions, or to interact with other users on an internet forum. The ICS Forum was created for this purpose.

[edit] Regional rules and special games

As more lodges were formed, ICS members from all over began to create regional rules and variations, as well as new games. These new games had names like "Hat-Lib", "Spooling", and "Composer Tennis".^[5] It was also becoming a common practice for Society members to personalize the 20-Song Game over time, cycling through periods with higher and lower volume goals. This was the point when ICS methodology started to evolve into a larger system for songwriters that could be used to tackle more or less any goal that the user wanted, including low-volume goals such as developing production, arrangement and craft.

[edit] Books

The overall ICS method is detailed in a book called "The Frustrated Songwriter's Handbook" (ISBN 0-87930-879-6), written by Nicholas Dobson and Karl Koryat and published by Backbeat Books. The book refers to the ICS system as "Immersion Music Method".

[edit] Lodge list

As of July 2008, there are approaching 30 active lodges worldwide (not all are not listed here):^[6]

Lodge	Location	Date Started	Site
Origin Lodge	Oakland, California	2001
Wig Lodge	Oakland, California	2001	Site
New Lodge	Oakland, California	November 2001
Neptune Lodge	Vancouver, Canada	December 2001
Bullet Lodge	Minneapolis, Minnesota	October 2002	Site
X-ray Lodge	Santa Cruz, California	2002	Site
Thelemic Lodge	Washington DC	2002
Capsicum Lodge	Oakland California	2003	Site
Urchin Lodge	Reno, Nevada	2003
Red Curtain Lodge	Denver, Colorado	2003
Limestone Lodge	Bloomington, Indiana	2003
The Black Lodge	Austin, Texas	2003
Kraken Lodge	Milwaukee/Waukesha, Wisconsin	2003
Veronica Lodge	Portland, Oregon	2004
Zero Lodge	Dallas, Texas	2004
Glamour Lodge	Hollywood, California	2004
IncreduLodge	Seattle, Washington	2006
Loge Cromorne 13	Paris, France	2007
Lazarus Lodge	unknown, France	2007
Burning Lodge	London, UK	2007	Site
Eastside Lodge	Manhattan, New York	2007
Heater Lodge	The North, UK	2007	Site
Limey Lodge	London, UK	2007
Clutter Lodge	Gorinchem, Netherlands	2007
Sardonic Lodge	Seattle, Washington	2007	Site
Geniuscar	Grand Rapids, Michigan	2008	Site
Keinotodellinen Saunaloossi	Finland	2008
Roger Lodge	Houston, Texas	2008
Cull Lodge	Boston, MA	2009
Mulch Lodge	Sudbury, MA	2009	[1]
Red Rug Lodge	Toronto, Canada	November 2008

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• http://www.eastbayexpress.com/news/writers__unblocked/Content?oid=803416
• http://www.ics-hub.org/
• http://www.eastbayexpress.com/music/american_idles/Content?oid=284098