Re: [microsound] fountain cd

[ndk <ndkent@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> It will make me
> reconsider what I thought I knew about Dada, as a rejection of instead of
> an expansion of the aesthetic.

> Dada was (in my opinion) a rejection of "art", of aesthetics, of ideas=20=

I would consider Dada a playing with these notions. Look at the origins
of the name, it need not be either expanding or rejecting.

Off memory, didn't that that urinal episode involve a call for entries
at a local arts club? For a small fee you could get your work in a
judged exhibit? So besides the overal issue of (non)aesthetics you
certainly also have an issue of the process of entering an object
somehow sanctions it regardless.

> > "This Neo-Dada, which they call New Realism, Pop Art, Assemblage, etc., is
> > an easy way out, and lives on what Dada did.  When I discovered ready-mades
> > I thought to discourage aesthetics.... I threw the bottle-rack and the
> > urinal into their faces as a challenge and now they admire them for their
> > aesthetic beauty."--Marcel Duchamp

When it comes to works of others with some sort of Duchampian
connection, so much refrencing as justification and reminding occurs,
you know, claims of setting something or other on end, being 'in the
tradition of Duchamp', updating, reversing Duchamp, whatever. What
strikes me far more than the content is that most of this material tends
to make a better case that much of what Duchamp did only works well
once. Far more a working notion than whatever it's claimed aesthetic
commentary was intended to be. In my mind the original actions were
genuinely profound then, fairly profound the first time you learn of
them and then not profound at all in rerun.

As for the droplifting, I appreciated the detail discussing CD-Rs with
uncleared samples, that makes sense as a justification - as an outlet
for content that can't be sold for some reason. I think the content of
what's being placed has a big bearing on what exactly is going on. Also
does the perp want to be found or not. Some random comments I can think
of - 

Is it an act of art or frustration or both? 

I only know Ameoba by reputation, but don't they carry a lot of
independent product? If so what exactly is being said.  Maybe I'm too
unskilled of to market this and I'd rather just trick someone into
discovering this music? The first person who did it surely demonstrates
an original concept but what does doing it repeatedly say?

Unless it's someone elses art that being foisted what does it actually
say about the content of the work on the CD (as a separate issue from
the drop-lifting act)?

Wouldn't the sale of such an object be seen by a shop owner as most
likely to be by someone in on the whole game. Of course might add extra
satisfaction somehow where someone unsuspected is treated with tentitive
suspicion by the sales staff. On the other hand, unless the person
droplifting has an accoplice on the store staff, the final outcome is
probably pure fantasy. How is the person doing it going to find out the
details of any outcome? 

Someone was talking about adding stickers hyping a released CD relating
to multiple and wrong genres. If someone bought it on the basis of
believing the sticker how would it differ from false advertising...
except in a sense that anyone who believes hyperbole beyond a certain
point deserves to be potentially ripped off... 

nicholas d. kent

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