Research and Artistic Statement
Scott William Perry

	My research and artistic interests stem from a personal and long standing interest in ego dissolution.  Early in my childhood, I had dreams and other experiences which  I would later come to understand as common to the sensation of non-self. I have continued to occasionally have these types of phenomenon happen to me throughout the rest of my life. I have come to understand these non-self experiences as being connected to at least two things, Buddhist philosophy and all sorts of music.	
	I tend to see Buddhist philosophy as a secondary concern to music. While it is my chosen path, I can see how the religious trappings of it might get in the way of the message of non-self. Non-self can and often does take place spontaneously. In fact, it has probably happened for me most often through listening to or playing music. While non-self is ultimately an ineffable state, there is cognition afterword that is quite beneficial to the individual and society.  Ego dissolution, by definition, promotes communication and connection.  People who have this type of phenomenon happen to them are (anecdotally speaking, though research has been done) more likely to behave with a socially positive mindset. The larger portion of my work, both in research and in composition, aims to create and/or understand connection and communication. 
	My research focuses on two areas of interest. Tibetan Buddhist Ritual Music and the music theories of Cowell, Stockhausen, and others who have worked at a unified theory of music (unified in the sense of all parameters being in continuity). The first interest has a more obvious reason behind it, Tibetan Buddhist Ritual Music has the effect of ego dissolution on me and many others and is overtly connected to my chosen philosophical outlook. As for the second, the composers/musical theorists mentioned have made a metaphor with their compositions and prose for the interconnected, interdependent nature of reality. 
	My own musical compositions do not necessarily take a direct tact towards my aesthetic aims. The reason for this relates to a generally searching attitude. This search is for a musical experience of connection and this is often unbound by stylistic and specific cultural adherences because they are often a matter of self-consciously fitting in. When I work, I do my best to be free of the problems of second-guessing. Second-guessing is most often a problem of self-concern.  As a result, I find my work taking a lot of fecund and unexpected paths. 
	While I have a fairly lofty aim in my work, ultimately I am not the arbiter of its success in these specific terms. Ego dissolution is an oddly personal thing. This is another reason for the prolific amount of work I have done. I am agnostic about its quality for other people. I also recognize that there are other types of aesthetic realizations. No one can know the infinitesimal differences in experience that make up our individual subjective reality, and likewise, ultimate reality is inexpressible but we can cast a kind of world in sound for others to connect with.