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Re: Plunderphonic (was "disrespecting softwares")
Title: Re: Plunderphonic (was "disrespecting
softwares")
At 12:50 PM -0700 5/2/01, rich wrote:
the last time around we did this, i
got a link to a disc which i've enjoyed, and now i get to check out
John Oswald. any links to his stuff?
Actually, you've already provided the URL to order the new
Plunderphonic set !
http://www.negativland.com/nmol/seeland.html
You can download the entire orginal Plunderphonic CD as mp3
files from
http://www.amanitarecords.com/plunderphonics/plunmp3.htm
or at
http://www.detritus.net/archive/plunderphonic/
or as WAV or mp3 files from the official Plunderphonics
site
http://www.plunderphonics.com/
in this day of incredibly easy
digital repurposing (sp?), the whole 'collage' thing, to me, has less
sting... would a Raushenburg or a Jasper Johns have the same
impact if they were done post-Photoshop? the sheer amount of time and
dedication to obtain and repurpose those images was part of what that
art was.
A very good point. Even in the late 1970s, when Laurie
Anderson was bringing performance collage to the masses, it was still
a pretty exciting and somewhat mysterious thing.
Perhaps a central issue is the importance of novelty in
creating artistic impact. Some "effects" make a strong
impression primarily because they are unexpected or
unexplainable. They don't even have to all that well done if they
haven't previously been done at all (cf. Georges Méliès's 1902
film, "A Trip to the Moon").
Someone pioneers an effect and it creates a sensation.
Then others figure out how to do it and to improve upon it and it
becomes a fad. Finally it becomes so pervasive that it becomes part of
the common practice. It may even create a backlash and go out of
fashion, though in the best of cases it will be taken up by the truly
creative and refined as a subtle and sophisticated gesture.
Take morphing for example. As far as I know the first
use of a visual morph effect in a major film was in the Ron Howard
film "Willow" (1988), where it was used for one brief
transformation sequence. The technique was further developed at ILM to
portray the essential shapeshifting power of the bad Terminator in
"Terminator 2" and it was used as a snappy effect in Michael
Jackson's "Black or White" video. After that it ran rampant.
However, there was one cinematic morph that impressed me in "What
Lies Beneath," where Michele Pfeiffer is undergoing spiritual
possession by the ghost of her husband's ex-lover and for just a
moment her face transforms into that of the other woman. Wham!
Blink and you'll miss it, but that one instant made it worth sitting
through the rest of the film.
So I'd say the same thing goes for musical collage. It may
have lost its ability to shock, but if it's done well it still has
power.
Eno and Byrne's "my life in the
bush of ghosts" feels the same way.
An excellent example. From what I hear they pinched the idea
from Jon Hassell.
--
______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com
http://www.cybmotion.com/aliaszone
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