Flowers copy seeds in memory of the world. Archives stop with us.
Sometimes we read a book at just the right time in our lives. Yesterday was one of those days. I read Duchamp is my Lawyer: The Polemics, Pragmatics, and Poetics by Kenneth Goldsmith.
The book is the history of UbuWeb (ubu.com), the underground avant-garde library of sorts. It is a shadow library and a place where art is in the full sun. It is home to the Tellus Cassettes archives, which was the inspiration around bitpunk.fm. In the author’s own words, “by the letter of the law, the site is illegal; we openly violate copyright norms and almost never ask for permission. Most everything on the site is pilfered, ripped, and swiped from other places, then reposted.”
It has super charged some ideas I have for bitpunk.fm and the path I’m on. UbuWeb has collection of videos, sounds, and text that simply can’t be found anywhere else. Like this video that pairs the Sound of Music to Apocalypse Now.
In the spirt of trying to be more experimental. I recorded myself flipping through this book calling out passages that resonated with me. It is very lightly edited and almost stream-of-conscious like but I wanted to capture the excitement of this book while it was still burning.
Oh sweet! This is awesome! I will give this a listen! I need to read KG's book too...but I'll start here with the reading you gave. The video you linked to is by Vicki Bennett, one of the great living sound collage artists. Her radio show Do or DIY on WFMU is one of my all time favorite radio shows. I absolutely adore her work. Vicki Bennett should be a household name... and she is a great contributor to and advocate of Ubu. (My review of her last album Copia is here: https://igloomag.com/reviews/people-like-us-copia ) Definitely one of the best sites on the internet ... so much culture to copy / copia.
Outstanding! I knew virtually nothing about this and really appreciate the introduction. I also know exactly what you're talking about when it comes to timing. I love when the book finds me at the perfect time.