VARIATIONS #8
The Relationship
Curated by Jon Leidecker
When music can be confused for an object, a recording replacing the action it describes, we are simultaneously promised total control while confronted with music that challenges the idea of the individual author (or the pleasure of music as a thing that can be owned). Despite, or due to this tension, as illegal art of collage goes mainstream, we find ownership of all personal expression more concentrated and removed from those who produce it than ever before.
The convergence of mainstream and social media platforms sidelines traditional record labels and sparks new sub-genres from mashups to vaporwave, but also reinforces the perception of music as consumable entertainment. How are we being retrained to our new environment by an aesthetic that has become so pervasive as to turn itself nearly invisible? Never conclude a historical narrative in present time.
By Jon Leidecker
"Radio Music" connects three examples from the history of the potential of the radio receiver as musical instrument.
By Chris Cutler
Chris Cutler investigates how the fact and the practice of sound recording have transformed every aspect of production and reception in the field of organised sound, creating wholly new genres and understandings.
Transcript
Transcript of VARIATIONS #7. The Composer, curated by Jon Leidecker.
The Composer
If sampling had seemed an inherently revolutionary practice in the eighties that called into question the definition and the authority of the composer, the proliferation of artists in the decade that followed reasserted that authority. Mainstream audiences finally recognized appropriation as a legitimate form of creativity once artists became comfortable practicing it as a form of self-expression.
The Discipline
As art and industrial practitioners formally map out the discipline, hip-hop's discovery of digital sampling technology in the mid-80's provided a reintroduction to its original roots in block party DJ collage.
John Oswald
John Oswald, one of the leading exponents of sound appropriationism, talks about his work.