On tonight's A Different Nature, Dr. Zomb and Rich L. take a look back on multimedia ensemble Negativland, in anticipation on their live performance at The Crystal Ballroom on the 29th.
Since 1980, the 4 or 5 or 6 Floptops known as Negativland have been creating records, CDs, video, fine art, books, radio and live performance using appropriated sounds, images, objects, and text. Mixing original materials and original music with things taken from corporately owned mass culture and the world around them, Negativland re-arranges these found bits and pieces to make them say and suggest things that they never intended to. In doing this kind of cultural archaeology and "culture jamming" (a term they coined way back in 1984), Negativland have been sued twice for copyright infringement.
Over the years Negativland's "illegal" collage and appropriation based audio and visual works have touched on many things - pranks, media hoaxes, advertising, media literacy, religion, the evolving art of collage, the bizarre banality of suburban existence, creative anti-corporate activism in a media saturated multi-national world, file sharing, intellectual property issues, wacky surrealism, evolving notions of art and ownership and law in a digital age, and artistic and humorous observations of mass media and mass culture.
We also plan on having a phone conversation with founder Mark Hosler, circumstances permitting (he's on the other side of the continent, making his way towards Portlandia).
A Different Nature: Negativland (Music) with Rich L. 08/25/2014 08:00PM to 10:00PM
08:01PM Negativland "Announcement" from "Escape from Noise" (1987) on SST
08:00PM Negativland "#1" from "Negativland" (Album, 1980) on Seeland
08:01PM Negativland "#11" from "Negativland" (Album, 1980) on Seeland
08:03PM The 180-Gs "Intro (Everything's Going Fine)" from "180 D'Gs to the Future!"
08:07PM Negativland "Clutch Cargo '81" from "Points" (1981) on Seeland
08:10PM Negativland "Bee Fly" from "Points" (1981) on Seeland
08:11PM Negativland "A Big 10-8 Place, Part One [Radio edit]" from "A Big 10-8 Place" (1983) on Seeland
08:25PM Negativland "Clowns And Ballerinas" from "Toywar Lullabyes" on Etoy
08:29PM Set break
08:29PM Negativland "The Answer Is" from "Points" (1981) on Seeland
08:33PM Negativland "An Actual Attack" from "Ikebana: Merzbow's Amlux Rebuilt, Reused and Recycled"
08:38PM Negativland "Our National Anthem" from "Free" on Seeland
08:43PM Set break — Music behind interview: Negativland: Death Sentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak
08:43PM Mark Hosler "Interview" from "8/25/14"
09:36PM Negativland "Arbory Hill" from "Death Sentences of the Polished and Structurally Weak"
09:39PM Negativland "Free TV or Pay TV" from "Live at Hampshire College 1989"
09:41PM Negativland "I Want A Piece Of Meat/Michael Jackson" from "Live at Hampshire College 1989"
09:47PM Negativland "Aluminum or Glass: The Memo" from "DisPepsi" (1997) on Seeland
09:51PM Negativland "Sycamore" from "Escape from Noise" (1987) on SST
09:53PM Negativland "General Cavendish" from "Samizdat Trade Journal #4"
09:56PM Negativland "Play It Again" from "Unsound Cassette Comp."
