Craig Baldwin Week

From the film that was watched in class on Monday, the subject I chose to write about was Negativland. I found this group to be the most interesting out of all of the artists that were shown. They had a very unique sense of music and were very original when it came to creating new ideas of art. The example that was shown in class was the manipulation of illegal radio waves and also "The letter U and the numeral two. Some may argue that these people weren't artists at all but in the eyes of Negativland they were just creating parodies when they manipulated the art of someone else and changed it to a way they liked. After doing some research on the band's web page and also their Myspace, I was able to get a feel for what Negativland was really about. They are artists who like to work with computers and the electronic media styles like radio and electronic instruments. They have various tutorials on how to set up your own electronic devices. The one I read happened to be about recording a telephone conversation or in their case a concert on the telephone. I also listened to the U2 recording that was banned from store shelves. They have posted it back on their website and now they let viewers listen to it for free. I think it is kind of silly how the management of U2 had to file a law suit against Negativland just for using part of the song in one of their recordings while making a parody of it. In a way they were performing an intervention in sound by taking something they had found and changed it according to their experimental style.But I guess that's what makes Negativland unique. They are known for stretching the boundaries and breaking the rules of copyright laws and that is their intent. At least U2 was still in their top 12 friends list on Myspace. Even after this law suit they have not given up. It looks like the band was able to record after the lawsuit was filed. They made a recording of "My Favorite Things" from the sound of music and manipulated the song by cutting and pasting different words in places that changed the message of the song entirely. I think Craig Baldwin did a great job of creating the documentary we watched in class. The way he used his own footage and mixed it with found media was very unique. The way he followed Negativland around and interviewed them allowing them to show demonstrations of performances and their radio broadcasting really was a great way to allow the two artists, Craig Baldwin and Negativland, perform interventions in both in film and sound.