Friday, September 22, 2006

Negativland - Gimme the Mermaid

From nakedrabbit

This piece was commissioned by the experimental sound collage group Negativland for the video compilation, "Our Favorite Things," soon to be released. The track had been cut by Negativland several years before, an audio document of their problems with copyright/trademark issues concerning their "U2" album. Many years and a painful settlement later, they had successfully transformed their experience into even more art, and a little activism besides. This little piece, made on Disney equipment after hours when no one was looking, remains quite popular. San Francisco experimental filmmaker Craig Baldwin has been kind enough to include it in "culture jamming" programs he has organized throughout the US and Europe. Several times has it been used in conferences and on panels about copyright for the legal profession. And it's fun, to boot. The statute of limitations has apparently run out on this piece, and it is now considered perfectly legal. What a relief!

Negativland is a small collective of artists and activists that create music and videos using extensive sampling and collage techniques. Further documentation can be found at Wikipedia Negativland.

Update: WFMU's Beware of the Blog has a series of MP3s with Negativland's Mark Hosler giving a presentation at NYC's New School - Negativeland: Illegal Art

Monday, September 18, 2006

Let Me Tell You What It's All About


Provided By: Realtablist

"I made a little composition here using ableton live, 3 midi controllers and the Rodec scratchbox. The EFX inserts of the Rodec scratch mixer enables me to use ableton as an efx unit, drum machine and loop station."