Cut-Ups / Appropriation / Mashup / Remix

1) Audio Mashups

* Gnarls Barkley, "Crazy": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w
* The Raconteurs, "Steady As She Goes": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkD-xIUYPq8
* Grand Master Flash & The Furious Five, "The Message": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYMkEMCHtJ4
* The Legion of Doom, "Crazy As She Goes": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LCCW9dafQk

* Danger Mouse, The Grey Album (Beatles White Album; Jay-Z's Black Album)
* http://archive.org/details/DjDangerMouse-TheGreyAlbum
* https://soundcloud.com/the-high-society-llc/the-grey-album-remastered
* online commercial release in 2004
* Beatles copyright holder, EMI, sued to stop distribution
* Jay-Z album released in a cappella form to encourage mashups and remixes
* mass protest called "Grey Day" duplicated links for 24 hrs

* mash-up in pop culture:
- Paul McCartney & Jay-Z at 2006 Grammy's: http://jakes-take.com/2013/02/the-25-essential-grammy-moments-day-two/
- Star Wars / Adidas Superbowl commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhYlzlycjQ

* Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis): http://illegal-art.net/girltalk/
* "All Day": 372 samples in 71 minutes
* CNN interview: http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/23/getting-to-know-girl-talk/

2) Plunderphonics
* John Oswald
- Pfony Plunderphonics Site: http://www.pfony.com/
- Plunderphonics YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdruEukaQRvqSjkaS9hhnWQ?feature=watch
- Dolly Parton's "Jolene" (played at two speeds): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZCE-r8y6S4
- Dolly Parton's "The Great Pretender" / John Oswald's "Pretender":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siITwIQ38TE

* Christian Marclay:
- Audio: "Jukebox Capriccio": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-1_50MdimU
- "Record Player: Christian Marclay" documentary:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62EbjlGU5Os
- Record Cover Collages: http://yagosweb.blogspot.com/2009/11/christian-marclay-body-mix-record-cover.html
- Video: "Telephones" (1995): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH5HTPjPvyE
- Installation: "The Clock" (2010):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp4EUryS6ac
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8svkK7d7sY

Situationist Détournement and Its Offspring

Here are the materials I referenced in class today:

1) Guy Debord & Gil Wolman, "A User's Guide to Détournement" (May 1956)
http://www.bopsecrets.org/SI/detourn.htm

2) SI 1959, "Détournement as Negation and Prelude"
http://library.nothingness.org/articles/SI/en/display/315

3) Situationist Comics
* http://www.bopsecrets.org/comics/index.htm
* http://10067035productionproject.wordpress.com/home/the-situationist-international/
* http://madamepickwickartblog.com/2011/05/detournement-part-1-chaos-of-the-situation/

4) Adbusters
http://www.twcdc.com/410/2007/10/appropriation_and_culture_jamm.html 

5) Remixed cartoons: (BSFS = Barely Safe For School)
* Family Circus: The Dysfunctional Family Circus: http://dfc.furr.org/
* New Yorker, re-captioning: http://boingboing.net/2010/03/30/recaptioning-new-yor.html
* Works everytime: http://www.robertsinclair.net/comic/asshole.html

6) Guy Debord, "Society of the Spectacle" film (1973)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g34XVscFkIs (start at 2:20)

7) DJ Rabbi, "SOS" (2004): http://www.djrabbi.com/

Surrealist Games / Collage Novels / Found Novel

Here are the resources referenced in class today:

1) MoMA on Surrealism
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/surrealism 

2) Exquisite Corpses
http://www.artesmagazine.com/2010/06/surrealist-art-form-exquisite-corpse-still-fascinates-artists-and-collectors/

3) Max Ernst, collage novels: Une Semaine de Bonté: A Surrealistic Novel in Collage (1932)
http://books.google.com/books/about/Une_Semaine_de_Bont%C3%A9.html?id=ZO_8Q8ctozEC

4) Tom Philips, A Humument: A Treated Victorian Novel (1975)

* http://zorosko.blogspot.com/2012/01/tom-phillips-human-document-i-plundered.html

* http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/humument

* https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/a-humument-app/id402755491?mt=8

Videos from Mike Wesch & Students

Before class on Thursday, March 27, please view these videos by cultural anthropology professor Mike Wesch and students of the Digital Ethnography program at KSU.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

"An anthropological introduction to YouTube"

"a few ideas ..." (Visions of Students Today)

Welcome to "Cultures of EDP," Spring 2014

Welcome to our class blog!  I'm posting some material here that I refer to in our class introduction.  Please feel free to comment or ask questions in the space provided.

 

 "Spongebob Squarepants 300"

 

Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer

Grumpy Cat & President Obama Memes

Here is the link to the class website with calendar, assignments, and links to other resources:

http://mysite.du.edu/~treddell/courses-2200.htm

 

Stranger Visions: Portraits of the Anonymous

As the technological and scientific world have been rapidly developing and the tools and technologies that are now available to us have immense capabilities, the mediums and possibilities for artists are practically limitless. We live in an age where the art world is not bound to the classical mediums of the past and can be seen utilizing the many technologies available in the modern world. Heather Dewey-Hagborg project Stranger Visions is an outstanding example of this.

It all began with a random hair stuck in the wall that provoked the artist to wonder whom the face behind the hair was. With no prior experience with biology or genetics Dewey-Hagborg got inventive and came up with a proposal, which she presented to various residency and grant programs, eventually landing her a gig with Eyebeam. She didn’t end up finishing the project with Eyebeam, however they gave Heather all the necessary training to start the project she had long envisioned.

The project was made possible by 3d modeling software. The software, later created out of the bio lab Genspace, was based off the facial recognition algorithms Heather Dewey-Hagborg and others came up with from Eyebeam. The software analyzes sequences DNA and further breaks down the DNA to find areas responsible for specific traits. Isolating these areas and recreating them, Dewey-Hagborg is able to create hypothetical reconstructions of the original proprietors of the DNA she collects.

So whom does Heather exactly decide to create? Besides all the technical and scientific aspects of the project, the creative element is really tied in with who Heather Dewey-Hagborg decided to recreate, strangers; hence the project’s name Stranger Visions. By turning to public places such as bus stops, restrooms, therapist’s office, etc., the identity of some of the collected DNA remains entirely unknown. However she did recreate herself. The results ended up being remarkably spot on.

Although the Stranger Visions project started as a clever idea, the possibilities opened from this project and from the 3D modeling software that Dewey-Hagborg and the biologists at Genspace, open up immense possibilities. Imagine how such a technology would benefit the world of criminal justice, or the benefits this technology would present to historians and so on. Softwares with these capabilities mark a tremendous accomplishment in the modern world.

The problem arises culturally when we have to decide how much credit to give to this technology. For example when does the technology become more trusted upon than the person? We tend to over credit artificial intelligence when there are faults and choices made by the artists and forensic biologist when shaping the models. I believe as this technology further develops, diplomatic problems will arise on the accreditation of artificial intelligence in our society.

Stranger Visions started as a clever idea, and was executed as a successful art project. The project stirs the viewer’s curiosity of the faces behind the DNA strangers leave behind in our public spaces during their daily routines. The project marks a contemporary development landmark with the software development and algorithms that Heather Dewey- Hagborg created during the project. Time will tell how this technology develops in the future.

http://thecreatorsproject.com/blog/artist-collects-and-analyzes-dna-samples-to-create-3d-portraits-in-stranger-visions

The Sounds of Mission Control

The International Space Orchestra is a part of a project called “Ground Control” started by French artist Nelly Ben Hayoun.  According to the article published on the Creators Project website Ben Hayoun is known as an experience designer. She is very much so equally enthusiastic about sound and outer space and decided it was time to merge the two together in an authentic way.  Now based in Silicon Valley, CA, home of the NASA Ames Research Center, she approached several members of NASA about grabbing a noisemaker and re-creating the sounds heard in mission control during various space missions.  This collective of scientists and NASA personnel, now turned “kling-klangers”, have formed together as the International Space Orchestra with a mission of playing purely for that which dwells in the cosmos. 

            The notion of playing purely “for space” and not for humans has been going on strongly before the International Space Orchestra.  In the world of popular culture, experimental music innovator Sun Ra had been doing this since he first let the hammer down on a piano string.  Although there is no doubt that Sun Ra and his Arkestra were truly beaming sonic madness off of this planet, from a scientific and physical perspective their message hadn’t truly gone into orbit just yet.  The original idea for the ISO was to merge science and sound together to produce something incredibly original.  Therefore, it made perfect sense to grab individuals who had a few tales involving dealing with the outside world.  In addition to the NASA crew, Ben Hayoun snatched some unbelievably creative, and cool musicians such as Damon Albarn from the British group Blur, and more recently known as the mastermind behind the one-man project known as the Gorillaz.  Albarn definitely seemed qualified, and someone who worked in a frame of mind perfectly paralleling Ben Hayoun’s space crusade.  The group recorded a performance at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch in September and plan on having that recording translated into an Arecibo message and sent to a satellite to tickle the aural senses of the vast, dark universe. 

            The International Space Orchestra Nelly Ben Hayoun has put together is strikingly penetrative both technically and culturally.  It is interesting to put an outlet such as sound generation into the hands of the scientifically savvy folks over at NASA and incomprehensible to think about where they could send those sound waves.  There are many distinct and wonderful sounds planet earth has to offer that could quite convincingly make a perfect marriage with whatever sonic attributes the universe has to offer.  Sound is the perfect medium to use as a test subject for wide-bandwidth communication between humans and the mysterious beings to the left, right, below and above us.  There must be great level of enthusiasm not only from Ben Hayoun, but also from anyone who is interested in sound, music, extraterrestrial messages, and the cosmos.  Many times those interests occupy the same individual and there is no doubt that the International Space Orchestra is a giant step towards the primal goal of one day exhibiting and discovering rock n’ roll in outer space.

http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/blog/the-first-ever-international-space-orchestra-broadcasts-music-to-space