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Nick Hallett sent this email message about a video show he's curating this weekend, which includes my "Guitar Solo" piece:
this sunday, swing on by GALAPAGOS for my first entry into fall's culture calendar, a screening of art rock videos i've curated for OCULARIS called 23 REASONS TO SPARE NEW YORK. i've been combing the city in search of connections between our ultra-vivid experimental music scene and video art/underground cinema. what you'll experience is a wild collection of psychedelic images and sounds derived from subversive media of all sorts.
flavorpill says, "Like a mini-RESFEST for the art rock set, this program explores the re-emergence of psychedelia through music videos and documentary bits on bands including Oneida, Regina Spektor, Karen O, Black Dice, Antony and the Johnsons, and Ted Leo."
expect music by bands that push the audio-culture envelope, lots of dayglo colors, electronic sounds, strobe effects, animations of the "stop" and "flash" varieties, documents of realness, and a few "commercial" music videos as well.
23 REASONS TO SPARE NEW YORK: MUSIC VIDEOS FROM THE ART ROCK SCENE
Sunday, October 2, 7 pm.
Ocularis at Galapagos Art Space
70 N 6th street @ Wythe
$6 (+$1 or more for Katrina relief effort Food Not Bombs, optional)
1. The Biggest Night in Music, dir. Kent Lambert, 2004, 2 minutes
2. Liars: There's Always Room on the Broom, dir. Cody Critcheloe, 2004, 3 minutes
3. Foetus: Blessed Evening, dir. Karen O, 2005, 4 minutes (plus Spike Jonze--view here)
4. Black Dice: Smiling Off, dir. Danny Perez, 2005, 4 minutes
5. Kim Gordon (from Studio:...Shareholders), dir. Tony Oursler, 2005, 1 minute
6. Ex Models: That's Funny, I Don't Feel Like a Shithead, dir. Mighty Robot, 2005, 4 minutes
7. Out Hud: It's For You, dir. The Wilderness, 2005, 4 minutes (view here)
8. Mixel Pixel: Telltale Drum Machine, dir. Noah Lyon/Retard Riot, 2005, 2 minutes
9. My Robot Friend with Bingo Gazingo: Kenny G., dir. My Robot Friend, 2005, 5 minutes (view here--and what does WFMU Station Manager Ken mean about "releasing Bingo Gazingo from his contract"? Did he misbehave on the air?)
10. Fat Bobby of Oneida (from Up With People), dir. Ethan Holda/Plutino Films, 2005, 1 minute
11. Jason Forrest: Steppin' Off, dir. Jon Watts/Waverly Films, 2004, 4 minutes (viewable here)
12. Ted Leo, dir. Pancake Mountain, 2005, 1 minute 13. Vaz with Katie Eastburn: Swishy Swashy (from LaundrOdyssey), dir. Dana Edell/Starter Set, 2005, 2 minutes
14. Disbelief Street: Unabated Fever, dir. Andrew Deutsch, 2005, 3 minutes
15. Guitar Solo, dir. Tom Moody, 2004, 1 minute
16. The Mitgang Audio: Soldato (soundtrack to The Sea Calls Us Home), dir. Annie Simpson and Seth Kirby, 2005, 2 minutes
17. Antony and the Johnsons: Hope There's Someone, dir. Glen Fogel, 2005, 5 minutes
18. Heavy Metal Baghdad, dir. Big Noise Films, 2005, 2 minutes
19. Roentgen: Cat Loop, dir. Devin Flynn, 2005, 4 minutes
20. Animal Collective: Infant Dressing Table (soundtrack to Magic Number), dir. Andrew Kuo, 2004, 8 minutes
21. Regina Spektor: The Flowers (from The Survival Guide to Soviet Kitsch), dir. Adria Petty, 2004, 2 minutes
22. Devendra Banhart: A Ribbon, dir. Laura Faggioni/Michel Gondry, 2004, 3 minutes
23. Japanther: i-10 (from Punkcast #400), dir. Joly MacFie, 2004, 5 minutes
Looking forward to the event. "Guitar Solo" (linked from the lower left hand column of this page) is actually dated 2005, but it seems like an eternity ago. I burned a professional-but-still-lo-res DVD of it--thanks, MG--but Nick will be projecting the 4.5 MB file in all its pixelated glory. I hope he'll crank the sound. UPDATE: the sound was perfect--clear and loud, the ideal contrast to the deteriorated video
Just received my second "Why Texas Didn't Have Looters" email forward from the Lone Star State! The first came with an appalled and disgusted note but I suspect this one was sent with tacit approval. Again, it should be obvious Texas didn't have looters because it had Rita and not Katrina, but these folks certainly have a right to pose with their firearms. By the way, guys, the U.S. Army would like you to report for duty soon.
Tonight, Thursday, September 29, is the exhibition preview of original works created for Dieu Donné Papermill's 6th Annual Benefit. The artwork I made using their paper (uncharacteristically nice material for me, but I tore it up quite a bit in the printer) is depicted below, as well as a detail. The piece can also be viewed in a thumbnail index along with other donated works.
More info:
This year's benefit auction, entitled Shangri-La, brings together over 120 artists who have generously donated original works created on Dieu Donné Paper.
AUCTION PREVIEW NIGHT
Thursday, September 29, 2005, 5:30-7:30pm
The Gallery at Dieu Donné Papermill
433 Broome Street, New York City
DIEU DONNÉ PAPERMILL’S ANNUAL BENEFIT: SHANGRI-LA
Thursday, October 20, 2005, 6-11pm
Live & Silent Auctions, Cocktails, Dim Sum
The Grand Harmony Restaurant
98 Mott Street, New York City
(between Hester Street & Canal Street)
VIEW LIVE & SILENT AUCTION ARTWORK
September 15-October 14, 2005
The Gallery at Dieu Donné Papermill
433 Broome Street, New York City
"Be Three Dub" [mp3 removed]. Van Der Graaf Generator meets the Bee Gees.
Changing the subject slightly, there's a soundware package I've been eyeing called "Cult Sampler." That's really perverse--16-bit, 44.1 KHz recordings of old 8-bit material from the early '80s, played on sampling synths like the Fairlight, Synclavier, and Emu II. I'd be more interested in those sounds because they seemed unfamiliar and gritty in today's smoothed-over softsynth environment than for the hit of recognition associated with some '80s pop song. (Whoops, on second thought these ultra-nerdy reviews find Cult Sampler wanting--too stingy on the weird synth sounds in favor of bland orchestral samples, so I'll probably pass.)
Changing subjects again, I've been listening to demos of some of the software instruments I've been using and boy do they suck. No one makes anything weird, it all sounds like Tangerine Dream, played entirely on one synth. TD actually got better in the '90s, continuing to digress here, with Edgar Froese's son adding some clubland oomph to their sound. I was really surprised how good some of it was.
Can you believe it--our House Majority Leader for all these years has just been indicted! The former Houston bug exterminator Tom Delay, angered by the "gummint red tape" that hampered his business, rose to unbelievable heights of power in Washington as a Congressman. It has always amazed me how deferential the moneyed elite has been to this sick cracker. It's McCarthyism all over again--a bully everyone fears (the other is Bush). Here's hoping the slush-funds and redistricting scams Delay instigated will all come to light and the Thousand Year Republican Reich he, Norquist, Abramoff, and Bush were building will all start to come apart. Criminal scum--I mean, alleged criminal scum.
Jimmy Carter Did Not Wear a Sweater Because of Energy
"Dick Cheney carpooling downtown with Brownie? Rummy Rollerblading down the bike path to the Pentagon? Condi huddling by a Watergate fireplace in a gray cardigan?" That's catty Maureen Dowd on Bush's recent call for energy conservation. All fine, all fair, except for the reference to Jimmy Carter's cardigan. The following was posted here three years ago, and will continue to be reposted periodically until people stop repeating the myth that Carter wore a sweater because of energy:
One issue that came up [in an an earlier thread] is the popular myth that back in 1979, Jimmy Carter urged Americans to wear sweaters and turn down the thermostat to 68 degrees, an image trotted out by right-wing commentators to show the impotence and nerdiness of energy conservation (as opposed to the Cheney approach, which is to secure foreign oil supplies by force). The only problem with the Carter story is it isn't exactly true. In the "crisis of confidence speech," given at a time of gas lines and rationing, Carter urged Americans to turn down thermostats--perfectly sensible advice--but didn't bore us with a precise setting. He also didn't say anything about sweaters. Yes, he was wearing a sweater, as he had been doing since his Inauguration in '77. Admittedly dorky, the cardigan was meant to be a symbol of his laid-back Populism, after the Imperial excesses of the Nixon years. It had nothing to do with energy--that's pure Republican disinfo. Unfortunately it's become tenacious urban folklore, as a Google search of "carter sweater thermostat" shows.
A disgusted loved one in Texas sent this, which is making the rounds of email forwards down South with the caption "Why Texas Had Few Looters." Uh, I think Texas had few looters because it had Rita and not Katrina. These suburban wankers would last about two minutes in a real gunfight.
Nancy Smith has posted a selection of her photos of the Art@!)Work show on her site artloversnewyork. That's the group-show-in-a-cube-farm where I kept "office hours" over several weeks in May. The top shot is me drawing and "drinking the Koolaid" at the opening, looking happier than any man in a cubicle has a right to be. Several people pointed out that my Wacom tablet--discreetly in shadow in the photo--wasn't "period" if I was truly trying to channel my art-at-work life circa 1995. I know, I know. But there were other discrepancies, the main one being I never tacked up anything visual in the cube in '95. It was all hidden.
Cindy Sheehan--destined to be Time's Person of the Year, or to borrow Lincoln's pre-women's rights phrase, the Little Woman Who Ended the Big War--just got arrested outside the White House. The opposed forces are becoming pretty clear: a huge corporate-based megastructure including everything from defense contractors to the news media, which backs Bush because he's "good for business" even though in the long run his foreign policy blunders are going to set everybody back, versus most Americans, who are finally seeing this meat grinder for what it is.
The current death rate of our troops in Iraq is entirely Bush's fault. His decision to flatten Fallujah after the 2004 election, out of spite, because of some dead mercenaries who aren't even American troops, began turning the whole of Iraq against us, starting with the disenfranchised Sunni Arabs who stepped up the insurgency attacks. There is no hope there now of "winning" and ordinary folks realize this.
The media doesn't seem capable of changing its script that Bush is a popular, tough-minded President and the only people opposed to his war are hippies. More arrests and marches will slowly alter it--Sheehan and everyone who marched this past weekend are heroes in my book--but I fear the only things that will stop the slaughter are a spectacular, strategically significant attack by insurgents or that the erratic, feeble minded Bush, rumored to be back on the bottle, will finally crack, as in a complete on-camera meltdown. Actually I don't fear the latter except it means the second incompetent in command, Dick "I'll have some more fries" Cheney, would become President.
UPDATE: Paul Craig Roberts, who served in the Reagan administration but has opposed Bush's war from the outset, describes what's wrong with laser-like clarity. He makes the excellent point that outsourcing and "global labor arbitrage" are greater dangers to US stability than terrorism. Also good: "With the exceptions of Reps. Cynthia McKinney and John Conyers, Democrats fled the scene of the Sept. 24 antiwar rally in Washington DC. The cynical Democrats are apparently owned by the same interest groups that own the Republicans and are refusing the mantle of majority party that the electorate is offering to the party that will end the war."
UPDATE 2: For the record. it wasn't just Sheehan; from the WaPo: "About 370 antiwar demonstrators were arrested yesterday after planting themselves on the sidewalk in front of the White House, a protest that stretched out for nearly five hours as police removed them in stages to avoid a backlog at a processing center." Yes!
The items in brackets were added to clarify this government propaganda masquerading as an AP news story that ran earlier today:
[Dwindling] Iraq Supporters to Rebut [Huge] Anti-War Rallies
By The Associated Press
September 25, 2005 | WASHINGTON --Military families and other defenders of the war in Iraq [, at least a few of them,] were claiming their turn to demonstrate, responding to a huge war protest with a [sparsely attended] rally of their own on the National Mall. [Which wouldn't be newsworthy but for our need to give false balance to a story that embarrasses the government.]
Organizers hoped to draw several thousand people to their noontime event near the National Air and Space Museum. They acknowledged the rally would be much smaller than Saturday's anti-war protest in Washington but said their message would not be overshadowed. [How many actually showed we're not saying.]
"People have been fired up over the past month, especially military family members, and they want to be heard," said Kristinn Taylor, a leader of FreeRepublic.com [a right wing website that regularly gives vent to extremist and racist views], one of the sponsors of Sunday's event.
The pro-military rally was billed by organizers as a time to honor the troops fighting "the war on terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world."
On Saturday, crowds opposed to the war in Iraq surged past the White House in the largest anti-war protest in the nation's capital since the U.S. invasion. The rally stretched through the day and night, a marathon of music, speechmaking and dissent on the National Mall.
Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey, noting that organizers had hoped to draw 100,000 people, said, "I think they probably hit that." [In other words, police confirm turnout figures organizers estimate to be even higher. The Washington Post quotes Ramsay as saying "that's as good a guess as any" to a 150,000 estimate. He's just a ball of ambivalence, isn't he?]
In the crowd were young activists, nuns whose anti-war activism dates to Vietnam, parents mourning their children in uniform lost in Iraq, and uncountable families motivated for the first time to protest. [Change the order of these examples from descending to ascending based on their proportion in the crowd? Nah.]
From the stage, speakers attacked President Bush's policies head on, but he was not at the White House to hear it -- he was in Colorado and Texas, [ostensibly] monitoring hurricane recovery.
A few hundred people [whose pro-war activism dates to Vietnam] in a counter demonstration in support of Bush's Iraq policy lined the protest route near the FBI building. The two groups shouted, separated by a police line.
War supporters said the scale of the anti-war march didn't take away from their cause.
"It's the silent majority," said 22-year-old Stephanie Grgurich of Leesburg, Va., who has a brother serving in Iraq. [Grgurich's statement is flatly contradicted by most national polls showing war supporters now in the minority.]
UPDATE: Salon's "The Wire," where I found this, currently has three pro-war rally headlines in its top 40 stories. They really want us to know about this non-event! According to the most recent story, only about 400 people showed up to support the war. Another thing about this AP story: it referred to the pro-war rally as "pro-military," thus adopting the implied spin that the much larger peace march was attended by people who hate the troops. I felt like I already had too many bracketed corrections to note that above.
Huge crowd in DC today to protest Bush's war folly. Reuters says over 100,000; the organizers say 300,000; the DC police declined to count, which means big. My bro Stephen was there and took some photos:
The pictures remind me so much of my shots from the rallies in NY, early in the war. People didn't want it then and don't want it now, except for a few testosterone crazed losers, and yet no serious Democratic candidate for office will be seen at these events. Being antiwar is a mainstream position now, you milksops!
Matt Harle's new work, seen and photographed in his Navy Yard work space. This is great stuff, roughly made but sophisticated sculptures in which a mylar scrim hides some mysterious inner structure made of paint and cut wood. Mysterious, but as Harle says, not obfuscating, since it is possible to puzzle out exactly what's inside the scrim by looking through angular holes and vertical slits on the sides.
Harle describes these screens, which slow down and confound vision, as creating a twilight-like condition of uncertainty, even under the bright lights of the gallery. Multiple associations are not just possible but inevitable--ship sails, tree branches, cellular organisms, totemic objects. Yet everything about them is considered, from a materials standpoint. This is better work than so much of what was on view in PS1's "Greater New York 2005." What's wrong with the gatekeepers? Where are they?
"Posse on Greenwich" [mp3 removed]. If drum and bass were played on a rhythm box with a "clap channel." I would have added a bass line but my CPU was maxing out. I'm starting to conclude that bass lines bore me, anyway.
Snapshots of a flood in Ohio, looks like from the '50s, (re)posted from Ebay by Bill Schwarz. This apocalyptic shot suggests World War II devastation and/or Max Ernst's Europe After the Rain, with a few unfortunate jpeg artifacts. I tweaked the contrast in the quest for ultimate artiness (and so you can see it better).
"Two Inch Nails" [mp3 removed]. Continuing what seems to be a micro-industrial theme. I had written a controller curve that made the mid-range percussion build and lapse in complexity a couple of times, but the MIDI learn went haywire and those "wah wah" sweeps with the cutoff filter in this version were completely accidental. I didn't notice the difference till after I posted it; I went back to the master file and fiddled with some settings to "fix" it, and now I can't duplicate the wah wah exactly. So this file is unique. Who said machines were about precision?
Just took a scary spill on my bicycle: the bolt holding the seat on snapped in two (see my photo above) throwing me off balance and into a high speed dive to the pavement. One wrist got bruised; I don't think it's too bad but ask me tomorrow. I managed to roll and shift my weight so my butt took most of the impact. The pedestrians across the street on the sidewalk were mightily freaked out seeing this dramatic fall and I had to reassure them. If a car had been behind me, well...
I guess I could threaten the bike company but seeing as it's a nineteen year old machine and I've stood on the pedals putting weight against the seat-sides probably a million times, it's my own f*ing fault for not foreseeing this (the Republican way: blame the victim, blame yourself...) The question now is, what other ticking time bombs await? New bike or new bolt?
From the New York Times:
An antiwar speech by Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, was cut short yesterday after the organizer of the event was arrested and police officers confiscated his audio equipment.From Steve Gillard:
The claps and cheers that had greeted Ms. Sheehan's arrival at the rally in Union Square quickly turned to furious chants of "Let her speak!" as officers ushered away the organizer, Paul Zulkowitz, who the police said lacked audio permits for the event.
This was cleared with City Hall, because no cop is politically ignorant enough to do this on his own. You think Ray Kelly was surprised by this? You think this was done behind Bloomberg's back?UPDATE: An anonymous commenter opines that "they could have just gotten the permits." According to the announcer at the event (and other accounts I've read) the organizers tried repeatedly to get them and were rebuffed by the City. That's how free speech is denied in NYC. It must be nice to live in a bubble and think the loss of our liberties is only a problem for people too dumb to do the paperwork.
Hell no. They have been harassing Critical Mass for two years. They have tried to block protests and shunt them to Randalls Island or the West Side Highway since 2002.
Do you want four more years of this?
Cindy Sheehan was protected by the Crawford sheriff. She was silenced by the NYPD.
That's pretty fucking shameful.
Bloomberg acts like a Democrat when it comes time to placate people. But he's a control freak Republican when it comes to Bush and national policy.
Remember, protecting the grass of the Great Lawn is more important than free speech, unless Disney wants to rent it.
So tell me again how Freddie Ferrer is a party hack. Because I think it is highly unlikely these policies would continue. Bloomberg has fought every protest which would make the GOP look bad.
I guess he wants to protect his $7m investment. The question is do you?
The online forum Wired New York has found my 2003 post on Lord Norman Foster's "finished" Hearst Tower design. That sucker is almost complete now, standing proud and ludicrous among the parapets of the lower Columbus Circle area. Much as I like the top, "modern" part of the project, it looks as incongruous in real life sitting on that Deco pedestal as it did in the plans--exemplifying what Herbert Muschamp called "parabuildings" and Bill Schwarz more accurately calls "spaceships on rooftops."
John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness was on the Sci Fi channel in the wee hours last night. Carpenter is one my favorite movie directors but not without flaws. Found this commentary on IMDb and present it intact:
You gotta love liquid Satan!, 11 June 2005
Author: greg Humphrey (greg(at)gbhumphrey(dot)com) from United States
OK what's more scary, liquid Satan or 1987 fashion? Jameson Parker's mustache is impossible to tear your eyes away from- YES!! And the form fitting Izod! Oh my god! John Carpenter's production values have a definite sameness between his films. If you aren't paying attention you wouldn't know if you were watching "Assualt on Precint 13", "The Thing" or "Halloween". The look, the music, the acting... not much range. However it's a comfortable spot. You don't have to think or be involved too much, Carpenter is taking care of the action. The characters are not too deep, the Chinese teacher spends the first 5 minutes of the movie reciting fortune cookie philosophy, for example. Donald Pleaseeance is a scary guy... period! Alice Cooper ( welcome to MY nightmare) even with his pancake makeup isn't as scary as Pleaseance. The cast of students are typical. Geek, Jock, Brainy chick, Vulnerable chick, but no super hot chick. Interesting, I guess the studio left him alone on this one. The tension is a slow build, way too slow for today's audience. I mean, it's a BOTTLE OF LIQUID Satan! He's probably going to get out and break things! We know that! Get on with it!
"Riveter" [mp3 removed].
This piece is constructed from overlayed (licensed) midi demos from a couple of different genres; the samples are from an 80s style drum machine but the most interesting, sculpted notes come from Native Instruments' "Machine Kit," sound design by Smyglyssna.* Layering rhythmically incompatible midi files together initially sounds confusing and not too enjoyable, so the "art" is separating the files by pitch and spreading them around over several minutes' playing time in a proportioned Steve Reichian sort of way, giving each sound the maximum space and "surprise value" as it is introduced.
This is part art, part (hackless) game modding, but also a kind of reporting: many of the licensed sounds used are state of the art electronic noises, elaborately manufactured and processed as described in the NI product notes and meant to be used in every kind of music production from TV soundtracks to basement-made dance music. They aren't that interesting when you just hit "note on," though--someone has to write tunes for them, or put the art frame around them so you can hear them with greater delectation.
*According to his notes, he made the Machine Kit excusively with the sounds of the Elektron MachineDrum: "some of them have been re-sampled after being treated with BATTERY, others have been pampered with external filters, distortion and EQ."
Belatedly came across an on-again, off-again feature on Slate called "Mixing Desk"--the latest installment is a tribute to the wacky Moog synthesizer. Mingled in with critical writing you find little clickable speaker icons that say, for example, "Listen to Stereolab's 'Eternal Life of the Proletariat.'" You think, "Hmmm, Slate's getting on the mp3 blog bandwagon, well, cool, at least the music's getting out there."
What a bunch of crap, though. When it says "listen to..." it means "listen to a 29 second excerpt in Windows streaming format." They're so beholden to commercial interests they can't even give you one song to connect the criticism to--just a little taste so you'll go buy the goddam thing. Wondering how electronic dance music critic Philip Sherburne, who did an earlier installment on German techno, agreed to participate in this garbage. He has a blog, for cryin' out loud.
"Gridbug Variation" [mp3 removed]. Minimal dub techno. All beats. Kind of warm and fuzzy for the genre, and not totally humorless. A volume bump or pair of headphones is recommended--to keep the echo-spikes from clipping I had to lower the overall decibels, and that was with compression. I need a professional to mix these things now. Update: Forget what I said about the volume. It's fine--it would help if I remembered to turn up the bass on my mixer.
I haven't seen Negativland's NY show. Their work was perhaps better before they got radicalized by their U2 lawsuit--when sampling was the tool rather than the content. I listened to a couple of recent pieces which were all about stealing and the reaction was "enough already." Partly touched off by their coming to NY, a few of us had a rough and tumble discussion a couple of posts back about sampling and copyright. G.K. Wicker, a great musician and no fan of sampling, takes the position that musicians should be compensated for their efforts, recommending that we sampling proponents first master an instrument to understand its value: "after many years of frustration and endless boring practice of scales and etudes, you'll start to understand just how priceless those juicy little phrases everyone's so eager to load into their samplers really are." On the flip side, he says, as long as you don't try to sell what you sample, you don't run afoul of copyright law. He has more to say and I'm grossly paraphrasing here, so please follow the link and read it. But since it's my bully pulpit, let me be a bastard and quote some of my own responses here, edited for continuity and syntax with a couple of new points thrown in:
1. It's not true that corporations leave you alone as long as you don't sell. An example from the video front: Eric Fensler's hilarious remixes of old GI Joe public service announcements, totally free downloads enjoyed by many on the Net, led to a cease and desist letter from Hasbro's lawyers. Fensler had to move them off his own site, presumably to a server that could take the heat from the Man. Copyright is becoming an egregiously overused weapon to stifle anything a company doesn't like.
2. I wouldn't use the word stealing in relation to samples. The Beasties' Paul's Boutique is a great album, especially the first ten minutes or so. It's a completely new creation, relying on quick hits of recognition of others' work meshed with new content. Is it stealing when a live drummer throws in a couple of bars of Gene Krupa? Usually audiences are delighted by that kind of quotation. That's all it is, quotation--record company lawyers and the word "stealing" brought an end to a beautiful, creative period in music
3. Courts don't know squat about music and don't--won't--discriminate, use-of-sampling wise, between the hook in Ice Ice Baby and two seconds of an unidentifiable Chuck Mangione lick in some chillout track. To the company lawyers it's all stealing, and thus we have bad, un-nuanced precedents in the law books.
4. Just because the legal issue has been decided--in favor of the folks with cash, what a surprise--doesn't mean it's been decided morally. I try to look at it not just as a "collage artist" but as a maker of whole-cloth works who frankly wouldn't mind seeing or hearing a chunk of them here or there in another context. Fragmentation and recontextualization changes the art--the amount of sweat you put into a piece only means something in the context of that piece. The chunk sampled could be great because you worked or great because of some studio accident that had nothing to do with how hard you worked. As for the relative offensiveness or inoffensiveness of the size and usage of the sampled "chunk," that should be a matter of degree and intent, but that's not the law, thanks to the Turtles, U2, et al.
5. The sampling suits aren't silly [compared to other forms of corporate malfeasance], especially not to anyone who's on the receiving end of them. Litigation drains you emotionally and financially.
6. Lots of people who look in on this page have mastered a craft--whether it be playing an instrument, painting a photorealistic picture, or inventing an art form that hasn't even been recognized yet. For everyone who thinks he's entitled to every nickel he can wring out of the expertise, there are others who know it can never be copped or diminished by sampling; that imitation is flattery whether or not it puts money in the cash drawer--that they are The Maestro.
7. I'm not too persuaded by cults of expertise. Segovia mastered his craft but we still value the Troggs (at least some of us do). As for somebody who mashes up Segovia and the Troggs...well, that's doomed to be an underground phenomenon and we'll never know its wider value, thanks to the courts and the inflexibility of the "get paid for everything" viewpoint.
Good Village Voice article about the various protests staged around New York on 9/11. The one at the World Trade Center--vocally endorsing the "Controlled Demolition" theory, which says that the towers shouldn't have pancaked the way they did just from burning jet fuel--pissed a lot of Ground Zero visitors off, who are still in the Al Qaeda Worked Alone and Bush Is Our Savior mode, including some firemen, who yelled back at the protesters. I happened to be walking by the site and saw the protesters in their black T shirts before they assembled with signs, etc,. and knew something was up. Really wanted to stop and talk with them, ask a few questions, but had to go to work. The 9/11 commission report sits in my throat like a half-digested wad of gristle--of course it's a whitewash, there are too many unexplained mysteries about that day, like where were the damned fighter planes? and why did Tower 7 fall, where no plane hit? At the very least 9/11 represented massive government negligence, just as we saw with Katrina, and yet Bush fired no one. A guy named George left a comment here once saying "There will always be conspiracy theories." Yeah, well, whatever helps you sleep at night.
Richard Roeper's list of pull quotes from the Katrina humanitarian disaster is here; definitely worth a read. I see from my pro-Bush Comcast mail page that the President is taking responsibility again. Didn't he do that once before, take full responsibility, and then not do anything?
Better pictures of Stefan Eberstadt's Rucksack Haus (backpack house), discussed previously here. Thanks to Chihcheng Peng at Eyebeam for reBlogging the post, and Regine at We Make Money Not Art for re-reBlogging it, with additional details and commentary. (Update: my original post now has more pics, as well as an eyewitness report).
Burgertime 3 made this comment in response to the previous post about iTunes:
I like how the "artists' computer company" doesn't offer an mp3 player that's capable of recording at decent quality. The ipod linux project revealed that the hardware can actually record at better quality, it's only limited to a low bitrate because the ipod firmware is crippleware. can't help but think it's because they're in bed with the RIAA.Many hippie communes failed because capitalism provided what was for most people a better life, due to economies of scale, distributed workloads, etc. Communalism in the digital arena, in the form of open source principals, file sharing, and so forth, actually produces a viable alternative to capitalism. Products such as Firefox, Thunderbird, and LAME for mp3-ripping are just as good or better than the commercial alternatives. As I told a friend who is working with Linux, it's important even for those of us who don't use it to have some kind of ideal standard in mind--to know it exists and that it functions in a superior way. Something like the voluntary licensing scheme for online music sales Downhill Battle proposes would work, just like Firefox works, and culture would be richer for it. iTunes, on the other hand, is a compromise scheme; it is a shame that people are embracing it, and that it seems to be on the way to becoming the standard, the way Windows is the standard, just because the record companies are so litigious and have attempted to shut down everything else that threatens their "old" (entrenched, top heavy, corrrupt) way of doing things.
I've been avoiding iTunes as a consumer and a producer with only the vaguest thought for why it rubbed me the wrong way, other than (i) the evil record companies haven't shut it down so it must be bad, (ii) $1.00 a song seems way too high for a compressed file when more good ones than you could ever listen to can be found free on the web, (iii) fads suck and Apple, after being the cool company for so many years, is starting to suck, and (iv) headphones for recreational listening are bad for your long-term hearing.
Thanks to Francis Hwang for linking to the musicians' rights organization Downhill Battle, which has this page up explaining exactly what's wrong with iTunes and proposing a much more wholesome scheme called "voluntary collective licensing." One good reason for avoiding the iTunes empire is
Despite huge new efficiencies created by internet distribution--no CDs to make, no distributors to store and ship them, no CD stores to build and run--artists receive the same pathetic cut [as they do from their exploitative record contracts]. That is the disaster of iTunes. Instead of using this new medium to empower musicians and their fans, it helps the record industry cartel perpetuate the exploitation. Apple might say it's not their fault: after all, they didn't write the unfair record contracts. But when Apple supports and profits from an obviously unfair system, while telling customers that it's "fair to the artists," they are just as guilty. [Per Downhill Battle, Apple recently removed the claim that iTunes is "fair to the artists" from their website.]Hwang recently had a run-in with the not-so-benevolent Apple when he put a parody iPod up for sale on eBay. Referencing the infamous early copyright debacle where rich rockers U2 went after indies Negativland and bled them dry from legal fees for no apparent reason other than because they could, Hwang sold an actual, functioning, repackaged-but-not-otherwise-altered iPod loaded with eight Negativland albums, "to get you started in your subversive listening habits." This was clearly an art project, prank, legitimate act of protest, or what have you; proceeds were to go the the aforementioned Downhill Battle.
The humorless Apple predictably stopped the eBay sale. Hwang received an email from the online auctioneer telling him "We would like to let you know that we removed your listing: 2290680118 Unauthorized iPod U2 vs. Negativland Special Edition because an intellectual property rights owner notified us, under penalty of perjury, that your listing infringes the rights owner's copyright, trademark, or other rights." (Perjury means lying under oath. I assume this means Apple had to swear the infringement claim was valid. It could be clearer.)
Hwang's project is further explained in Rhizome's Net Art News, which perhaps goes a tad light on the heavies ("Apple contributed to the poetry of the object" by stopping the sale?), and on this page of Hwang's. His first iPod is no longer for sale, but a second version is included in Negativland's current show, which I haven't seen, at Gigantic Art Space in NYC.
Creepy as he is, Karl Rove is politically gifted. WIthin days of the White House's media black eye in New Orleans he was circulating two memes--"blame game" and "we had to deliberate carefully on sending US troops in because of the Posse Comitatus laws." Both utter bullshit, but they sound plausible and the media is biting.
Today in the New York area it's just as beautiful outside as it was September 11 four years ago, which should give us a worried feeling. It's especially troublesome that the people who were in power on that horrible, sad day are still in power, thanks to 59 million incredibly stupid American voters. Thanks, guys!
Added to the links at left: Thorrific. When I lived in Dallas I used to say the city was "a great source of negative inspiration, ha ha" while slowly rotting inside. Eventually fled screaming ten years ago but Thorrific (aka Thor Johnson) stays there and makes good art, music and video, while also documenting with his camera what former prisoner Randall Adams, framed by the Dallas DA's office and freed in the '80s by Errol Morris, called the "hell on earth that is Dallas County." Recommended is the animated vid "Adventures of the Christian Pirate Pussies," based on the beliefs of certain idiot wackos in freeway churches and, sadly, at the highest levels of the US government, that a "red heifer" must be born and sacrificed in Jerusalem before Jay-sus can come again. In the video, the eponymous vaginas transport such a beast, genetically engineered in a lab in Texas, to the holy land by pirate ship, while a talking, flying bible explains the superstitious beliefs surrounding it. Thorrific's photographs likewise excel; think William Eggleston not just as a chronicler of the quirky beauty of the South but someone burning up with hatred for the epidemic obesity and preacher-promulgated ignorance so abundant in that part of the world. (Start with the Texas State Fair photos, but they're all pretty powerful.) Lastly, check out the site's streaming files of spacy, dubbed-out atmospheric tunes, layering Thorrific's guttural didgeridoo-playing with jangly, ominous electronics. A web-place well worth your time: oppositional culture at its finest.
Chris Ashley presents greatest hits from two years of posting daily html drawings. Not to take away from any others, but this one's a beaut, fusing golden section neoplatonism, designer paint swatches, and what I can only see as a pictogram of a hand (Four, July 28, 2005, HTML, 404 x 344 pixels).
The participation of Chris, jimpunk, Linkoln, and me in the empyre listserv forum in June, as "artists who blog," seems to have thrown a spanner in everyone's works. As explained here earlier, it went badly, with the moderators allowing a bunch of faux-academic boors to bash blogs and bloggers. I bailed after two weeks and still wake up in a cold sweat. Shortly thereafter, Ashley went on hiatus from daily html drawing posting (since resumed with added photo-imagery), jimpunk disappeared from Screenfull, followed by Linkoln, after posting a "searching for jimpunk" drawing. Maybe "artists blogging" is a fragile thing, even if the artists aren't fragile people, a pursuit to be cherished and supported as opposed to acting all threatened about.
Steve Gilliard on Republican racial "inclusiveness" post-Katrina:
The unhappiest man with a home today is Ken Mehlman, [Republican National Comittee] chair. All his dreams of cutting into the Democratic base went up in smoke as the [National Review Online] lit their verbal cross and Bush failed like he has always failed. Bush could charm himself into a job, but once he did, the shitty decisions started and kept on coming. Mehlman would be laughed out of the room if he said the GOP was a party of inclusion. Please. You had the President's mother speaking like a Kenyan colonist in a village.If you're feeling glum, the video of the guy (off camera) saying "Go Fuck Yourself, Mr. Cheney" will really lift your spirits. I watched it with a group and we all laughed really hard. Cheney is giving a serious speech--being his usual Mr. In-Control self, even though he failed in Iraq and the only thing he's good at is lining his pockets--and the heckler (a doctor, apparently), who has a very clear voice and sounds like he's about 10 feet away from the VP--completely breaks the flow. He says "Go Fuck Yourself, Mr. Cheney" twice! The reporter comments on it and Cheney attempts to make a lame joke. Cheney likes to pretend he's the only adult in the room, but if you'll you'll recall, "Go fuck yourself" is what he snarled at Patrick Leahy on the Senate floor. It's great to see that when he goes out in public he's not so insulated as to escape hearing that people out there are mad and specifically hate him--him, personally--as the architect of a failed war and failed economic policies.
Congratulations to Stefan Eberstadt, whose sculpture Rucksack Haus adorns the cover of Dwell magazine this month. In the US we'd say "backpack house." I called it sculpture but it's also fully functional architecture; the box, perforated with wraparound windows, skylights, and "floor-windows" hangs suspended by cables from a larger building. The piece has received much attention in Germany and it's great to see it getting ink in the States. It occurs to me that housing such as this might be very useful in a certain flooded city we know. Not being flip here--the city should encourage provisional structures such as this parabuilding, rather than just letting the fat cats raze and redevelop to make New Orleans safe for their ilk.
I was in Munich last month attending the wedding of Stefan to Courtenay Smith, a friend and colleague from my Texas years and who is now curator of Lothringer Dreizehn, an art space located at Lothringer Strasse 13 in Munich. I had a great time; best wishes to both.
"The Belgians" [mp3 removed]. Often I start with scraps of found (or licensed) MIDI and tweak away, snipping out parts I don't like, mating it with instruments it wasn't written for, and otherwise layering it so it sounds like a different animal. This piece I did from scratch, building it up note for note, so I guess it's more "me." Or at least the cyborg me. The drumming is all Linplug's RMIV, which is a cool instrument because it is a rhythm synthesizer as well as a sample-player. [Rant about midi files removed because the company very nicely helped me solve my problems with them.]
Tim at Travelers Diagram takes you on a virtual Met tour (permalink busted). This is refreshing, just when you're starting to think no one cares about visual culture anymore (like--only 8 drawings in James Wagner's PS1 gallery: "It hurts my feet to walk there and it hurts to lift a pen, and besides, I'm too special"--but I digress). One quarrel: it's great that the Met lets you take pictures, unlike PS1, which imposes a Stalinesque ban on all photography, but what's the point of being all open source and shit if flickr won't let viewers save images to their drives? I had to screen-capture and process this (extremely weird) one for uploading. Could it be because of that little Yahoo! logo on the flickr page? I knew there was some reason I wasn't interested in flickr. Anyway, Tim:
Last week I spent three full days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday) from opening to closing (9:30AM - 5:15PM) inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the intention of seeing everything inside. My mission was successful, with the exception of seeing the Cloisters, which would have required another day. It was also possible because several large areas -- including the Roman Court, the Lehman Wing, Islamic Art, Chinese Art, and parts of Renaissance Art -- were closed for renovation. It was a thrilling experience, I recommend it to everyone, and I fully intend to repeat it someday.
My vague plan, which I violated several times, was to proceed chronologically from ancients to modern. I began with Ancient Near East and proceeded to Egyptian and Asian. That was my first day. My second day began with the Greeks, followed by the Romans, followed by African & Latin American Art, followed by Byzantine art and the Middle Ages, then Baroque and Rococco interiors and sculpture, and 19th Century painting. Melissa joined me for all of day three, which began in the music collection and proceeded to the roof garden for the Sol Lewitt exhibit, then European painting (Renaissance-18th Century Modern), followed by the American Wing, the Matisse show, and, finally, Modern Art and photography.
[...]
Have a look at my photos, ordered roughly as I saw them: Day 1 (68 photos), Day 2 (71 photos), and Day 3 (67 photos).
"Micrometallic" [mp3 removed]
"Dearth of the Cool (Reaktor)" [mp3 removed].
The song I posted previously, played with Reaktor instruments Carbon2, Titan, and Oki Computer 2 instead of the pianos and organs.
"Dearth of the Cool (B4)" [mp3 removed].
The original tune played live in my studio using Gretsch drums, a Steinway, and Hammond B3. Not really, but it does have a more naturalistic sound. I think I prefer the Cubase and Reaktor versions, but included this as matter of purist curiosity. Update: it's growing on me. If I was JP Morgan I'd hire musicians as a vanity project to play this live. In fact I'd like to hear my entire catalog live. I would also have to hire an audience. Seriously, though, the downloading is greatly appreciated!
"Dearth of the Cool" [mp3 removed]. Gradually reloading all the programs I lost in the recent hard drive mishap. Am burning incense, sacrificing tofu chickens and saying prayers to all the Gods before I try to reinstall the Native Instruments virtual instruments, after reading all the squawking on the chatboards about software keys not working, etc. In the meantime, wrote this pseudo-jazz song in Cubase using just the factory VSTs--piano, organ, and a traditional drumkit. Looking forward to hearing it with all the great licensed soft-gear I theoretically still own. Yeah, baby, I'm hep.
Update: Everything is back up and running, so any badmouthing of NI real or implied is hereby retracted.
From a Stratfor report circulating around the internet, on the geopolitical significance of the Bush/Katrina disaster:
The displacement of population is the crisis that New Orleans faces. It is also a national crisis, because the largest port in the United States cannot function without a city around it. The physical and business processes of a port cannot occur in a ghost town, and right now, that is what New Orleans is. It is not about the facilities, and it is not about the oil. It is about the loss of a city's population and the paralysis of the largest port in the United States.
Let's go back to the beginning. The United States historically has depended on the Mississippi and its tributaries for transport. Barges navigate the river. Ships go on the ocean. The barges must offload to the ships and vice versa. There must be a facility to empower this exchange. It is also the facility where goods are stored in transit. Without this port, the river can't be used. Protecting that port has been, from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, a fundamental national security issue for the United States.
Katrina [and the negligent governance of the Bush Administration --tm] has taken out the port -- not by destroying the facilities, but by rendering the area uninhabited and potentially uninhabitable. That means that even if the Mississippi remains navigable, the absence of a port near the mouth of the river makes the Mississippi enormously less useful than it was. For these reasons, the United States has lost not only its biggest port complex, but also the utility of its river transport system -- the foundation of the entire American transport system. There are some substitutes, but none with sufficient capacity to solve the problem.
It follows from this that the port will have to be revived and, one would assume, the city as well. The ports around New Orleans are located as far north as they can be and still be accessed by ocean-going vessels. The need for ships to be able to pass each other in the waterways, which narrow to the north, adds to the problem. Besides, the Highway 190 bridge in Baton Rouge blocks the river going north. New Orleans is where it is for a reason: The United States needs a city right there.
New Orleans is not optional for the United States' commercial infrastructure. It is a terrible place for a city to be located, but exactly the place where a city must exist. With that as a given, a city will return there because the alternatives are too devastating. The harvest is coming, and that means that the port will have to be opened soon. As in Iraq, premiums will be paid to people prepared to endure the hardships of working in New Orleans. But in the end, the city will return because it has to.
Geopolitics is the stuff of permanent geographical realities and the way they interact with political life. Geopolitics created New Orleans. Geopolitics caused American presidents to obsess over its safety. And geopolitics will force the city's resurrection, even if it is in the worst imaginable place.
From the WFMU message board, via bill s:
bill kelly: How about this. Instead of proselytizing and politicizing, we all write a check for an amount of money we can afford and send it to a legitiimate organization equipped to offer some relief for those in need?
fatherflot: Bill,
I love you buddy. I'd take a bullet for you, if it would give you a chance to play one more Chesterfield Kings or Shadows of the Knight 45. And I back you up 100% in your call for people to donate. I did it this morning and I hope every American does the same.
But don't tell me not to "politicize" this. Everything is "political" when it affects the polity. If you have any opinion whatsoever about thousands---maybe tens of thousands---of your fellow citizens dying like pigs in the middle of a major American city while Nero, Jr. dithers and spins and poses for photo-ops and waxes eloquent about the redevelopment opportunities this temporarily difficult situation presents, that opinion is "political."
Did you complain about Republicans "politicizing" Bill Clinton's blowjobs?? Distracting the President from important business like fighting Al Qaeda with utter bullshit? I don't seem to remember that post.
Since 2000, we have been living with the most blatantly, brazenly, ruthlessly "political" ruling elite this nation has ever seen. They have "politicized" everything, from supposedly non-partisan government documents (like the budget, which contains more ruling-elite propaganda than a North Korean newscast) to the fucking phone messages at the Social Security Administration, to the FCC, to 9-11 (the bullhorn photo op, the "hugging the child" photo op, the entire 2004 RNC), to lies about how Jessica Lynch was captured and released, to lies about how Pat Tillman died, to the despicable "mission accomplished" photo-op, to lies about Kerry's war record, to the Terry Schiavo melodrama, to the "purple fingers in solidarity with the Iraqi people" photo op, etc. etc. fucking etc.
Face it: much of the policy of this one-party government has been directed by the "political" calculation of a vicious, soul-dead bastard named Karl Rove who would laugh in your face if you ever suggested there was any such thing as a "non-political" person, place, thing, or event.
No one who voted for or supports this filthy, incompetent batch of robber-baron scumbags can EVER, EVER cry "don't play politics." Nothing is sacred to them---not God, not country, not the flag, not the Constitution, not life, death, war, freedom, liberty, Nothing. It's all fair game for "political" calculation. And you goddamn well know it.
Karma's a bitch: Live by the sword, DIE by the fucking sword.
Steve Gilliard reposted this CNN article contrasting rosy assessments from FEMA and Fatherland Security about New Orleans with statements from people on the ground there. A commenter on Gilliard's blog pointed out that this is not like Iraq with controlled, embedded media--reporters are actually reporting. Part of the reason for this sudden attack of integrity on the part of the coiffed, high paid talking heads is that they feel they can go after local politicians in a way they can't go after the more powerful, vindictive Bush--e.g., Anderson Cooper grilling Mary Landrieu. Also, images of violence and mayhem feed the need of the masses for "good TV." Whatever the reason, word finally seems to be getting out after five years that the Bush Administration is incompetent and racist.
This newspaper headline is from March 2004. For the last 18 months or so Digital Media Tree blogger Jim Louis has been compiling a record of the inner-city shootings and mayhem in New Orleans, where he lived for many years. So it came as no surprise to us here at the Tree that this city, which was already a killing field, devolved even further into anarchy when everyone suddenly lost food, shelter, and property. The question is, why didn't the "authorities" know that and prepare for it? Troops and essential supplies should have been available immediately. Instead, all these wingnuts are scratching their heads and saying "I can't believe they're looting!"
Again, this is from before the hurricane:
Thursday, August 11, 2005
• Child, 7, mother gunned down at home
A 7-year-old girl and her mother were killed Wednesday after police said at least one gunman entered their Hollygrove home and shot them both in the head.
Friday, August 12, 2005
• Violence shows no signs of letup
In one slaying, a 22-year-old New Orleans woman was shot in the back while clutching a 2-year-old boy in her arms in Hollygrove. A few hours later, a 30-year-old man was near death in the 9th Ward after being shot multiple times early Thursday. He died later at Charity Hospital.
Saturday, August 13, 2005
• N.O. teen dies in Algiers shooting
A teenager died Thursday after being shot in Algiers, the Orleans Parish coroner's office said.
• N.O. man shot dead on city street
A man was shot and killed Friday about 1 a.m. in Central City, police said.
• Killers are killed, Orleans police say
For the second time in a week, the New Orleans Police Department has closed a murder case by saying that the suspects became murder victims themselves.
This comment on Sally McKay's page I want to pass along as a reality check to the Republican spin of "New Orleans residents didn't heed warnings and/or they deserve their fate." (The current variation on the sliming of Cindy Sheehan by a right desperate to shore up the fading image of their klutzy poster boy.)
my cousin (who's also an artist who was teaching at loyala university before the hurricane) lives(-s +ed) in new orleans. she evacuated to my uncles house in florida just before the hurricane hit. she has since gone back to the bayou, with a generator and other supplies she bought in texas, and headed to her partners parents house which apparently is still standing about an hour outside new orleans. she was telling my mom that this is the third time in a span of a few months they have been told to evacuate. so thinking that nothing too horrible was going to happen, because she was getting so used to the routine, she didn't pack much stuff and thought of it as a visit to my uncles before the new school year. which i think is an important thing that people are leaving out when they're blaming people for not heeding the warnings about getting out. the desire to heed warnings fades with repetition, and repeated costs of fleeing. she was indeed lucky/privledged, because she had the means to leave, and a place to go. she lost only her house and job. (big onlys but given the horrible stories, it's not that much) when i first started hearing about looting, i thought, that's not looting, that's stock that could be put to good use in this emergency. i read tons of knee jerk posts on craigslist new orleans, where people were getting angry at "looters" and saying crap like "i'll help when they stop looting!!" i'm thinking, what is so hard to comprehend? their immediate world is ending, they have nothing. and some media accounts are acting all righteous like it's a greedy capitalism thing. maybe some of it is but really, who cares. the city's decimated, so's the stock. i mean, so what if people are taking things to make their situation more endurable, to survive, to help people. it's such a dumb thing to focus on. i mean, bush, whatever - like we needed more evidence for his idiocy but he keeps providing it. blah.
--myfanwy
Kodwo Eshun, excerpt of interview from July 2000:
I was really pleased to find an old essay by Sylvere Lothringer which explained how they wanted people to use Semiotexte books for speculative acceleration. Instead, people started using these texts to prove their moral superiority, saying "You are wrong, you have misunderstood Foucault." They used theory for prestige, to block speculation. That is why so many artists used to resent theory. You would get these lame pieces, somebody trying to apply Heidegger to Parliament-Funkadelic because they had seen the word "ontology" on a cover, instead of taking Parliament to read Heidegger. They always did it the other way round. Theory wasn't being used to pluralize, to see that there was theory everywhere you looked, and everywhere you listened.
When painters paint, they are theorizing immanently in the field of paint. Sonically, when you compose, you are theorizing tonally. That was a key breakthrough. When I wrote my book it did not have to be historical. It could be a sonology of history, it did not have to be contextualization of sound. It could be an audio-social analysis of particular vectors. Sound could become the generative principle, could be cosmo-genetic, generate its own life forms, its own worldview, its own world audition. That's still the key break between my book and most cultural studies analyses. They still have not understood that sonology is generative in and of itself. Like every field is. Every material force can generate its own form.
I was really inspired by the Futurists and Marinetti. For ten years I only read critiques of the Futurists, saying they were fascists. In fact, they were the first media theorists of the twentieth century. They were amazed by X-rays, by artificial light and lamps, out in the street, by new camera's and photography. They just wanted to explore how new technologies broke up the solidity of the organism and involved lines of force. Futurism, supremacism and constructivism were the science-fiction of the first machine age. The fantastic adventures of the early modernists, from Tatlin to Malevich. Machines, media and art thinking were one and the same. Some artists are just extremely good theorists. Still hard to find, this material. Go and look for the essays of El Lissitsky. The same counts for the speculative writings of the photographers Robert Smithson and Gordon Matta-Clark. I realized that Barthes never had an academic degree. And why McLuhan used to structure his ideas with number or the alphabet, not be bored to death by the academic obligation to seriousness.